Brandy Friday: Germain-Robin Shareholders' Reserve

We are back with our occasional series, Brandy Friday, to try another offering from the Germain-Robin distillery in Northern California.

As you may recall, I loved the Germain-Robin XO and fondly look back at that most excellent though long since emptied bottle. The Shareholders' Reserve was originally produced for the initial investors in the Germain-Robin company. (I wonder if any of them looked like the old 19th century guy on the label?). Since 1991, it has been a regular though limited release.


Tasting

Germain-Robin Alambic Brandy, Shareholders' Reserve, 18th Bottling, 40% alcohol ($65)

The nose is sweet and fruity with raisins. The flavor follows up with the sweet and the fruit as well as dessert wine, pineapple, then some old wood later in the palate giving it a nice finish. This is a sweeter and more straightforward brandy than the XO, less complex but delicious in its own right.

Whiskey Wednesday: Fiddich' Times Three

Last week, I went back to taste the three Glens and reaffirmed my preference for the 12 year old Glenfiddich over Glenlivet 12 and Glenmorangie 10. Based on that experiment, I decided to dig into the 'Fiddich a bit more with a vertical tasting of the 12, 15 and 18 year olds.


Glenfiddich 12 year old ($20-$25).

I retasted the 12 year old as a baseline for this exercise. There it stood, in all its malty glory. The more I taste it, the more I remember the smooth, malty qualities that attracted me to Scotch many years ago. Its flavor is among the most consistent I've had, providing the same experience from nose to finish in a way that very few whiskies can do.


Glenfiddich 15 years old ($30-$40).

The 15 has a fruitier nose than the 12 with a bit more fruit on the palate with hay or straw. It almost reminds me of a good Irish whiskey.


Glenfiddich 18 years old ($60-$70)

A beautiful nose with sweet fruit. The taste starts with fruit and then yields to malt, oak and polished wood. It has a big flavor and the wood of a fine, aged whisky.


These were all good whiskies. I enjoyed the 18 year old the most for its interplay between fruit, malt and wood, then the 12 for its straightforward maltiness. I preferred both to the 15 which, for some reason, struck me as less mature. I tasted these along with a cask strength version of the 15 year old that is only available on the European market. I didn't add the cask strength version to the notes since it isn't available in the US, but it pushed the 15 to a new level, with more complexity and flavor.

For all that people take Glenfiddich for granted, it is definitely a whisky worth returning to.

Soup Got Your Tongue? Hanbat Shul-Lung-Tang

ChowDigest Editor and LA Times contributing food writer Thi Nguyen kindly turned me on to the beauty of Hanbat Shul-Lung-Tang. A small entry tucked into a short block of shops on Fifth Street just west of Western reveals this restaurant serving only shul-long-tang (alt. seolleongtang), a long boiled, beef bone stew.

This soup is one of the great beef broths. Pure and simple, it reminds me of pho in its essential beefiness, though it has that cloudy, slightly viscous quality that comes from bones and melted marrow simmered for hours. Also, like pho, the broth is unseasoned and you are expected to add condiments to your liking, including coarse salt, pepper, Korean chili paste and scallions. I wanted to maintain as much of the beef flavor as possible and not cover it with chili, so I stuck to some salt and scallions, which made for a wonderful broth that I slurped to the bottom of the bowl.

Within the broth are a few cellophane noodles and your choice of meat: brisket, flank steak, assorted innards (tripe, spleen, etc.) and tongue. I avoided the innards since tripe is one of the few things I just don't like, but I tried the others. The flank steak was a bit fatty and the brisket was fine but lacked flavor. The tongue, however, was wonderful. Thin, lean slices perfectly complimented the beefiness of the soup. Tongue can be chewy or tough, but this was as tender as steak and more flavorful than either the brisket or the flank steak.

Hanbat Shul is about beautiful minimalism, about doing one thing well and not letting much (including salt) get in the way of that one thing. The soup is pretty much the only thing on the menu here, though it appears that you can get the meats alone. The panchan consist of two bowls of kimchi, cabbage and daikon (both are very good renditions) and then there is a bowl of rice. You will not be asked if you want a beverage though if you do, you can get some cold Korean tea. And that's it. So go, slurp soup, eat tongue and contemplate the beauty of its simplicity.

Hanbat Shul-Lung-Tang
4163 W 5th St
Los Angeles, CA 90020
(213) 388-9499

Whiskey Update: Big Peat Comes to LA

The two peatiest Scotch single malt releases are now available in LA, but only in limited supplies. Bruichladdich Octomore is on the shelf at Wine & Liquor Depot in Van Nuys and Ardbeg Supernova is available at Hi Time Wine in Costa Mesa.

The Octomore at Wine & Liquor Depot goes for $163, which is around $20 cheaper than the other local shops that have briefly carried it. The Supernova at Hi Time Wine is $130.

Thirsty Thursday: New Orleans Cocktails

Thirsty Thursday is that place where Whiskey Wednesday and Brandy Friday collide; I am using the moniker to denote cocktails that include both whiskey and brandy. Today we look at two cocktails from one of the cities at the heart of cocktail culture: New Orleans.

Home to the annual Tales of the Cocktail festival, which is going on at this very moment, New Orleans is the home of the Sazerac, but there are other New Orleans cocktails as well. Today we focus on two cocktails which are identified with particular bars: The Vieux Carre from the Carousel Bar and the Cocktail a la Louisiane from the Restaurant de la Louisiane.

You will recognize that these are similar mixtures. Both contain a few drops of New Orleans' own Pechaud's Bitters and a dash of Benedictine. Benedictine is a French, Cognac-based liqueur which is heavy on the aromatics. It's quite sweet and syrupy and tastes of mild anise and cloves with vanilla on the finish.

Both of these are very simple drinks, which involve mixing a bunch of liquors and bitters, stirring them over ice and straining them into a rocks glass with a garnish, very simple stuff on the drink-making scale of difficulty.


Vieux Carre

Ingredients (from Drinkboy):

3/4 ounce rye whiskey
3/4 ounce brandy
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
1/8 ounce Benedictine
1 dash Peychaud's bitters
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Garnish with a lemon twist.

Vieux Carre, or old square, is the French term for the French Quarter. The Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone, where the drink originated, actually revolves in carousel-fashion. I love the Vieux Carre cocktail for its aromatics. The vermouth, bitters and Benedictine combined with the already spicy rye and Cognac make this a flavor explosion. Even with all of these intense flavors, the combination somehow works out to produce a slightly sweet, spicy drink.


Cocktail a la Louisiane

Ingredients (again from Drinkboy):

3/4 ounce rye whiskey
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
3/4 ounce Benedictine
3 dash absinthe
3 dash Peychaud's bitters

Garnish with a cherry.

The Restaurant de la Louisiane where this drink originated is long gone, but the cocktail lives on, at least in New Orleans. Like the Vieux Carre, this is simply a mixture of spirits and bitters, with vermouth and absinthe in place of the Vieux Carre's brandy and Angostura bitters.

The La Louisiane is a bit sweeter than the Vieux Carre due to the larger serving of Benedictine. I have trouble with very sweet drinks, so I didn't favor it, but I appreciated the nice interplay between the anise flavor of Absinthe and Peychaud's and the sweet, spicy anise of the Benedictine. If you take it with only 1/8 of an ounce of Benedictine, it cuts down on the sweetness but maintains the flavor combinations well.


Next time you're feeling festive, pull out the Benedictine and stir up some New Orleans cocktails.

Whiskey Wednesday: Put a Little Glen in Your Glass

Recently, Dominic Roskrow wrote an interesting piece in Whisky Magazine encouraging people to revisit the three Glens: Glenfiddich, Glenlivet and Glenmorangie. The 12 year old versions of Glenfiddich and Glenlivet and the 10 year old Glenmorangie are gateway whiskies, often the first tasted and the ones that open up the world of whisky to the uninitiated. Yet many aficionados turn away from these basic whiskies once they have explored the rich world of Islay Scotches, limited editions and 20 year olds. Roskrow encouraged us to go back to these whiskies::

All three of them are successful for a reason, and if it's been some years since you've tasted them, should they really be dismissed as lightweights and not worthy of consideration by the connoisseur?

He went on to compare his return to the three Glens to falling in love all over again.

Well, I was persuaded, so I picked up mini-bottles of each to revisit the basics, which I haven't tasted in years and haven't ever written up. To eliminate any possible biases, I tasted them blind.


Glenfiddich [pronounced glen-FID-dick], 12 years old, 40% alcohol ($20-$25).

Glenfiddich is a Speyside whisky which is the top selling single malt in the world. Along with it's Speyside sister Glenlivet, it is the most ubiquitous single malt in the US. If an American bar stocks any single malt, it will more than likely be the 'Fiddich or the 'Livet. Glenfiddich is owned by William Grant & Sons.

I have a special affinity for the 'Fiddich as this was my own gateway Scotch. I was mostly a wine and Tequila drinker, but when I sipped my first 'Fiddich those many years ago, I was instantly converted to malt whisky, and for a few years, before I became a malt adventurer, the 'Fiddich was my main drink, unless they didn't have it, in which case I settled for the 'Livet. The 'Fiddich I started on though, may have been the earlier version without an age statement, which is no longer in production.

In any case, I tasted these whiskies blind mostly to cover up any sentimental bias I might have had for the Glenfiddich. The result of the blind tasting was that I preferred one of the three samples far more than the other two, and that turned out to be the 'Fiddich. Where the others emphasized sweetness and fruit, the 'Fiddich emphasized malt. It was the only one that had strong malt on the nose, and this was followed up in the flavor with some sweetness. Since starting with the Glens, I've mostly graduated to the Highland and Islay malts, and the 'Fiddich had the most similarities to those malts which I love. (Even though Glenmorangie is a Highland, it drinks more like a Speyside).


Glenlivet, 12 years old, 40% alcohol ($20-$25).

Glenlivet is the second best selling single malt. Like the 'Fiddich, it is everywhere. The 'Livet is owned by spirits giant Pernod Ricard. In the tasting, the Glenlivet ranked a distant second to the 'Fiddich. It had a heavily fruity nose, with scents of sweet white wine and green grapes. The taste was sweet and had some malt, but lacked any real umph.


Glenmorangie [pronounced glen-mor-AN-jee], 10 years old, 43% alcohol ($35-$40).

Glenmorangie is not as ubiquitous in the US as the other two Glens. In the UK, however, this Highlander is the second biggest seller behind 'Fiddich, far outselling Glenlivet. Worldwide, it is the fourth biggest seller, separated from the other two Glens by Macallan. Glenmorangie gains somewhat more respect in the US than the other two and lately, the distillery has become a real innovator. It was among the first distillers to experiment with cask finishes, in which a whisky aged in used Bourbon casks is transferred to some other cask for its last time in the barrel. Of late, they have been experimenting with barrel wood and the use of darker roasts of barley. Glenmorangie is owned by Moet Hennessy.

In our tasting, I liked Glenmorangie the least. The nose was a bit musty and alcoholic. The taste was exceedingly fruity and sweet, with dried fruit notes (prunes). It was also a bit harsh with alcohol on the palate, even though it was only 3% more alcohol than the others. In some spirits, the alcohol taste simply isn't integrated into the whisky as a whole.

It was fascinating to go back to these power-selling malts after years of drinking them only under the duress of bad selection. Next time I'm in an airport bar, I will take some time to ponder the Glen in my glass.

You Say Oyster: Carlsbad Aquafarms at the Hollywood Farmers' Market

I love raw oysters; I love the salty juice, the briny flavor and the juicy pop when you bite into them. I shudder at those who drown them in red sauce and shoot them; it's like taking shots of a good whiskey. The oyster is meant to be chewed and savored, not to slip down your throat like a ten year old on a Raging Waters ride.

I've always been intrigued by the Carlsbad Aquafarm shellfish stand at the Sunday Hollywood Farmers' Market, with its bags of mussels, clams and of course, oysters. Recently, they've added a little table to eat your fresh, raw oysters, so I finally took the plunge, buying several of each of their raw oysters on the half shell.

The Aquafarm offers three varieties of oysters. My favorites were the Catalinas. These mollusks are large enough to fill your mouth and give you a strong, briny taste, like biting into the ocean.

Next up were the Carlsbad Blondes. They had some brine but also some sweetness. They were a nice middle ground between the fiercely oceany Catalinas and the more subtle Lunas.

The small Luna oysters are a crowd pleaser for their gentle sweetness, but I found them a bit bland, lacking the powerful flavors of the other two varieties.

At $2 per oyster with no minimum, the Carlsbad stand is a great way to taste before you buy or simply have a mid-morning snack, and yes, I was sucking down bivalves before 10 am. I'm just that type of guy.