"great scot!" by IntangibleArts, on Flickr
PS7’s scored quite a coup when it nabbed top mixologist Gina Chersevani as its “head mixtress” back in January. One of my favorite places for drinks, its lounge lined with banquettes and windows is a great happy hour spot on any night.
But tonight is a special one for those of you who love Scotch whisky (is this redundant? I’m sure one of our clever readers can chime in, I can never figure out the whole whiskey/whisky/Scotch distinction) as PS7’s is featuring a scotch tasting for Balvenie, with Ms. Chersevani whipping up the whisky into delectable drinks and Balvenie’s “ambassador” Sam Simmons on hand to teach you all about the liquor the ancient Celts called “uisge beatha” – the water of life…
From 5:30-7:30pm you can sample their 12-Year Doublewood, 15-Year Single Barrel, and 17-Year Rum Cask scotches. Of course there will be noshes. And may I remind you that legally Scotch may not be bottled at under 40% alcoholic volume. So please, indulge in the nibbles while you sample and learn. It is only Tuesday, after all!
As one of the founding editors of We Love DC, Jenn’s passions are theater and cocktails. After two decades in the city, she’s loved every quirky, mundane, elegant, rude minute of her DC life. A proud advocate for DC’s talented drinks scene, she’s judged the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s ARTINI contest, the DC Rickey Month contest, the Jefferson Hotel’s Quill Cocktail competition, and is a founding member of LUPEC DC. A graduate of Catholic University’s drama program, she toured the country as a member of National Players, and has been both an actor and a costume designer before jumping the aisle to theater criticism. Writing for We Love DC restored her happiness after a life-threatening illness, and she’s grateful to you, dear readers. Send your suggestions to jenn (at) welovedc (dot) com and follow her on Twitter.
By coincidence, one of my partners sent this to me yesterday.
“It is hard to imagine a place more suited to producing fine malt whisky. Surrounded by mountains on three sides and volatile open sea on the other, and fed by the pristine waters of a fast-flowing river, it is the stuff of distillers’ dreams.
The Highlands of Scotland, though, lie thousands of miles to the west: the home of the best single malt whisky in the world is Yoichi, until last year a little known town on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. Its rise to the pinnacle of the centuries-old tradition of turning barley into “the water of life” was enough to make any proud Scotsman weep into his tumbler of Glenfiddich.
Not only did Nikka’s Yoichi 1987 vintage beat dozens of other labels to claim the single malt title at last year’s world whisky awards – in Glasgow of all places – its rival distiller, Suntory, won the best blended whisky award with its 30-year-old Hibiki.”
I have not tried either, but I shall.
The author is referred to this Eric Asimov post on the NYT blog “The Pour.” Calling it Scotch whisky is not redundant; ‘Scotch’ should be capitalized. Typically if it’s from Scotland or Canada it’s ‘whisky,’ and if it’s from anywhere else it’s ‘whiskey’ unless the bottlers prefer the other spelling (my bottle of Wasmund’s – a single malt from Virginia – spells it without the ‘e’).
The author thanks the kind commentor for the elucidation. So corrected.
Radman, that’s fascinating about the Japanese whisky, thanks for the timely info.