Exploring the Historical Present: Preamble

Dear Readers,

I just can't keep it to myself any longer. I have been on a serious whisk(e)y* kick for the last year and a half. I've visited 14 distilleries (4 in Scotland), read article after article, blog after blog, book after book, and I am still voraciously - and responsibly - consuming the delicious and fascinating spirit. It's a love affair.

My bar-keep/cocktail mentor once said "I only buy whiskey from companies who have paid their bills." This concentrated and cynical principle sparked a curiosity in me. I started asking the simple questions: which was the first distillery in the USA? ... in the world? Which is the oldest? Which has continue to today? The questions flowed and the answers seemed to be increasingly idiosyncratic and confusing, if not elusive. Like Roger Maris' 61st home-run, most answers to these mundane queries come with glaring caveats.

It's my intention to make several posts under the title Exploring the Historical Present; sharing some thoughts on present-day spirits that have some sort of historical precedent or lineage. I want a literal taste of the past. While we'll probably never really know what these brands tasted like to the people of the day, I want to experience and explore drams that were available to the common person when their founders started distilling. I want to understand if these lasting brands have intrinsic gastronomic value.

I will first focus on those whiskey brands and companies with more-or-less direct historical connection to the 18th and 19th-century distilleries and brands of the United States. I will include some historical information about colonial, revolutionary, and Jeffersonian-era whiskey. I'll move on, based on my taste and whim, weaving through history while exploring international whisky and other boozes. In no particular order will I begin to fold in to the posts brands that have no direct connection but have adopted advertising tactics to entice the consumer.

One major advantage to this particular approach to tasting and exploration is cost-efficiency. It is cost-efficiency that my sardonic mentor was talking about. Decades and century-old brands don't pass the buck and obligate the consumer to spend extra on the product to fund their logos and marketing, as they usually have a solid and reliable customer base. Of course there are premium, super premium, rare bottles, and special releases but those are generally outside the scope of my aim. Because this is a hobby, and I'm no money bags, most of my selections will be under $75.

As for a background of why I care and have any interest see below:

My love affair with the grain-based distillate started the week of Valentine's day 2017. Up until that portentous moment, I had no taste for hard liquor at all. It was 13 years earlier that I had a typically disastrous and embarrassing episode with tequila, and had since never cultivated a taste for it and its spirited cousins. As an 18 year old, I learned to love wine in Italy. As a graduate student transplanted from New York to Georgia I educated myself at fine craft/local breweries. It was then, in my second year as a citizen of Detroit, Michigan, when I made the choice to - once and for all, after years of turning away - give whisk(e)y a fair shot. I declared: I will make every concerted effort to appreciate whisk(e)y and if it doesn't speak to me now, I will give up and resign myself to beer and wine. Dramatic? Sure. Effective? YES!

I set my aim at the fortuitously located, and aptly named, Whiskey Parlor in down town Detroit. I could not have been in better company: my wonderful partner, and my best friend are both time tested whisk(e)y lovers. We were guided by the infamous, and best dressed bartender Joe M. Schubert (yes, that Schubert). I was thus nurtured and, we three, guided into the depth of whiskey knowledge. Prof. Schubert took me from Quiet Man 8 year-old triple distilled Irish single malt, owned by Luxco, to Stranahan's, Larceny, and Lagavulin... come to thing of it... I don't know if I had a classic bourbon or rye that night. He opened my mind to the 5 whiskey regions of Scotland, peat and phenols, the laws that distinguish bourbon from other American and international styles, coopering, and aging. He was able to prompt olfactory and taste receptors through intellectual engagement.

It was learning from whence the the spirit came, its agricultural origins and its processing that really stimulated my mind and palate to the world of whisk(e)y. I was spoiled. I dove nose first into the rabbit hole, and have been falling ever since.

If you've gotten this far then please leave a message, or comment.

I of course recommend and deffer to the vast and impressive professional tasters and historians in the world. If you do not already know, please check out the brilliant and prolific Chuck Cowdery, Holly Seidewand Fred Minnick, Liza Weisstuch Mark Gillespie from the WhiskyCast, Heather M Greene, Lloyd Chistmas Amy Zavatto. Also check out websites and blogs like Whisky Science Breaking Bourbon, Bourbon Banter, Bourbonr, Bourbon Archaeology and of course Whisky Advocate, and Whisky Magazine.

Thanks for reading,
JojoCocco
Notes:
*Whisk(e)y: I am a lover of Scotch, American, and Indian whisk(e)y, and have enjoyed my fair-share of various international brands from Canada, Ireland, Japan et al.. I chose to use this funky spelling so as to be inclusive of all grain spirits of the "whisky" and "whiskey" varieties.