After finally moving to the Bay Area, CA and being able to attend K&L Wines & Spirits’s Tuesday night tastings, imagine my surprise when I learned that the tastings have been moved to Wednesday nights (5 pm – 6:30 pm), and are now at the shop itself, instead of a local watering hole. Apparently K&L has just secured a new license that allows them host spirits tastings in their tasting room. Luckily for me, as Wednesday night is a more convenient time for me to fight traffic up to Redwood City and back.
The inaugural tasting consisted of three pours of Glenglassaugh: The new-make Clearic, the 1 year-old Fledgling XB (ex-bourbon), and the 26 year-old official bottling from before the distillery’s mothballing in 1986. Follow the links for my tasting notes. I arrived first (First!) to find a small bar with two guys pouring – by law – very small (1/4 oz) pours, which is just barely enough for one swallow. At 3/4 oz total, it’s not a lot of liquor, which is good for someone who has to drive 1.5 hours in rush-hour traffic afterward. 🙂 The guys (salespeople for Glenglassaugh’s distributor?) were nice and had a lot of information. The interesting thing is that with the new license, K&L has several rules they have to follow:
– They cannot use their own booze (they invite a distributor to come and pour liquor).
– They cannot pour the liquor themselves.
– They cannot charge.
– They can pour a maximum of three quarter-ounce pours per person, which must consist of different products (no doubling up on the pours).
Despite the restrictions, it was a pleasant tasting of something I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten a chance to try. With some luck and if the tastings become popular, I can see them attracting larger distributors with even better whisky. I will certainly be back for future Wednesdays! If you’re in the area and are interested in attending, keep an eye on David Driscoll’s blog http://spiritsjournal.klwines.com/ for more information, and very excellent writing about whisky and fine spirits.
