An Oz Wine and a Malt

A new one to me- Islay? Dale

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"Dale Williams" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m14.aol.com...

Yes, a nice specimen of an Islay. Cost was 90$ Can in Norway, btw. My notes: a distinct bouquet of tar and old ropes with a honeyed substrate. Quite raw and spirity for an 18 years old (when drunk cold from cellar), a hint of gasoline - peat kicking in after a while. On warming there is charcoal and sweetish peat. A rather dry, woody finish but an enormous length, still noticeable in the mouth after 10 minutes Anders

Almost certainly -- the name Islay is pronounced eye-lah, accent on the first syllable.

Mark Lipton

Some malt fans swear by that stuff (Caol Ila, "cowl eye-lah" in US phoneticization), especially fans from Britain. Well respected.

There are some distinctive or unusual malts on the market in recent years. One that I find a novelty is Aberlour's "a'bunadh." Came at cask strength and NV or ND (no date). Such a rich spiced-maple aroma and balsam as to remind me of a candied apple, as traditional in US: A tart green apple with a light coat of cinnamon-flavored melted sugar (red). Also in general, some finisher/bottlers have been promoting mutliple-wood specialty versions. Macallan has a dark product recently with a red label (replacing the 15yr, I'm told) with a rich hazelnut nose. None of these is as beneficial for people with iodine deficiencies as something like Caol Ila. (But maybe for people with wood deficiencies. I could go somewhere with that, urged almost hypnotically by the drone of recent spam email, but I won't.)

Your health -- Max

I had some of that at a Signatory tasting of single-barrel bottlings earlier this year. The wee drop of water is important to open up the scotch, the details I can't recall...

Dana