7/18/07
It was good to see you all at the last meeting. Many thanks to Rob Deutsche for loaning us his sun deck for what turned out to be our longest meeting (as evidenced by my watch and remaining whisky supply). A few new folks had their first experience with quality single-malts and… I think they liked it. I know my wife was happy some ladies showed up to sip wine and talked about unfermented things. The 1981 Talisker is still as popular as ever and I have a few drams left for the next meeting for those who haven’t tried it. We also voted on a new pricing structure: $20 for Paypal, $22 for Paypal using a credit card, and $24 walk-in with cash. It’s still a great deal either way.
5/26/07
Some of us will be travelling this weekend, but I will be having a few (or more) sips of a good scotch, and catching up with some of the club website chores and meeting preparations. As some of you may know, we will have a special visitor at the next meeting… not a kilted bagpiper, but the infamous 1981 Talisker 20. Now some of you will claim to have had a Talisker 20 already. I myself tasted one at a restaurant in Pasadena… but not THIS Talisker 20. This specific 1981 Talisker 20 at 62% is the highest rated Talisker ever, and those in the know are well aware of Talisker’s none-too-shabby reputation. Only 1000 bottles were sent to United States (in 2001) , and despite trying, I could find none of them left. Our bottle is being brought back from London by one of our members (Ben Andrews) and although I haven’t confirmed a successful purchase (he’s still in Europe), I haven’t heard any reason to believe that this malt won’t be on our table come June 7. I chose this malt because it consistently landed near the top of every scotch ranking list I found. (Example: http://www.maltmaniacs.org/a2003.html#Tlsk20S) This club was founded on the idea of exploring new and special malts with like-minded people and this is going to be the scotch you don’t want to miss! (Don’t forget we’ll have more bottles on the table)
Hopefully by the end of this long weekend I will have added a couple of new pages to the site (http://www.lascotchclub.com ). I’ve been promising a page on Scotch with Cigars and another with a pronunciation guide.
The club now has a Paypal account where members will be able to prepay for the meetings. We are considering setting the Paypal prepay price at $18 and setting the door price at $22. I’ll have it operational soon.
I am asking for a moment of silence in memory of my last CelticMalts glass whom oddly met its end before I had a drink rather than after. In my hurry to pour a good dram I bobbled the glass and whisky bottle unwisely held in the same hand. My fingers behaving more intelligently than dexterous chose to save the unopened bottle of Laphroaig and sacrifice my whisky glass to the wooden floor. The glass served me well and will always live on in my heart and to a lesser but more painful extent, in the sole of my left foot (you can never find every little sliver, can you?)
Slainte,
-Andy-
2/12/07
Scotch Listees,
Our next scotch meeting is scheduled for this Thursday, Feb 15, 7:30pm, at Schatzi on Main in Santa Monica. As usual, the cost for the single-malts tasting will be $20, although scotch-drinking friends are welcome to join us without charge. Please let me know if you will be available to come so that we will bring the appropriate amount of bottles and give the restaurant manager an accurate count of how many will be there. We have a new forum at http://forum.lascotchclub.com (or see the link from our website), where I will add and update information.
1/11/07
Hello all,
Last week’s Scotch Club meeting was a great time. We added a Glen Garioch 21
and a Laphroaig Quarter Cask to our selection and confirmed that age and
price doesn’t necessarily mean a better scotch (I’m talking to you, Glen
Garioch). Vince Hudson became the winner of our first “Half Empty Scotch
Auction” which frees space and funds up for new malts and gives members an
opportunity to take home a bottle they may develop a soft spot for. He took
home (presumably) over half a bottle of Signatory Caol Ila for $29. Congrats
Vince. We also voted on our next club purchase which will be a SMWSA
Macallan cask strength 14yr, #24.90.
Aside from the usual conversation and a toast made for Steve Grantowitz’s
new niece/nephew, a few ideas popped up regarding the club and web page:
1. Improving the forum (i.e., have an actual forum).
2. Creating user accounts and allowing members to create personal profiles.
3. Set up a trading place (Whisk-yBay, Glen Marrakesh) where members
can trade scotch (don’t laugh, Scott and I do it all the time)
4. Have a rating system where members can rate scotch they’ve tried.
5. Have members put in an order for glassware (that can be picked up
at the following meeting).
6. Have links to the distilleries.
7. Keep a (better) listing of events.
We may make the next event a patio barbecue just to try something different.
We’ll keep you posted. Don’t forget that January 25th is Robert Burns day
(http://www.robertburns.org), a fantastic reason to have a good dram.
12/05/06
Based on the feedback I've received, the meeting is changed to Wednesday, December 6th. 7:00 pm. See you there.
11/29/06
Drammers,
Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving with good turkey and scotch (especially the latter). I’ve decided that we should (finally) try to meet on Thursday, Dec 7th. I didn’t hear too many complaints about Thursday, but if that is a problem please voice your opinion. We’ll drink even if there’s just 2 of us, but more people = more scotch = more mirth. We’ll probably meet around 7ish for dinner and drinks at Casey’s Irish Bar and Grille (http://www.bigcaseys.com/). Please let me know if you intend to come (or if another time is more suitable) so that I’ll know how much space to reserve and how much “water of life” we’ll need on tap. We’ll start with a few whiskies from different regions as an introduction, but the selection for the next meeting will be open to suggestions. As I said before, bring $20 to cover the drinks and we’ll decide as a group how much we want to spend thereafter. Food is separate. We’ll can order eat when we arrive.
Hope to hear from you soon.
-Andy-
11/15/06
Drammers and Drammerettes,
It’s about time we met for a drink. I have a location that has agreed to host our first meeting… Casey’s Irish Bar and Grille http://www.bigcaseys.com/ because of its central location (downtown), and because I just can’t bear to hold it at a sushi bar. Also, the owner was fairly agreeable. I don’t know where most of you live, so I’ve selected downtown as a starting location. We my relocate if it turns out our center of gravity is elsewhere. All this is assuming that you wouldn’t prefer meeting at a private residence.
Realizing that this was about to come to fruition, Scott and I started thinking, paused for a drink, then thought some more about the mechanics of how this would play out. First of all, how to get a good selection of scotch whisky into your hands with minimal wallet pains. We did some whisky math (best math ever) and calculated that $15 would cover a night’s whisky consumption (just enough to get you home legally) if the average bottle was $60. We decided that perhaps $20 for the first evening would be appropriate to build up a ‘liquid’ war chest. We also agreed that to keep a good rotation of new scotches, we could auction off some partial bottles at the end of the night to make money and room for new malts. All of this will of course be discussed, debated, and wept over at our first meeting.
Still to be decided on is WHEN to meet.
Until then,
-Andy-
11/15/06