Aberlour A’bunadh Batch #32
Aberlour A’bunadh is simply a remarkable whisky, on multiple accounts. On the one hand, it is lip-smackingly good, and is unequivocally one of the finest scotch whiskies available (from any distillery or independent bottler). On the other, not only is it so stunningly good, but it is also a regular bottling from Aberlour, and is very reasonably priced. Taken as a whole, these elements all add up to this being a remarkable, standout whisky.
Aberlour is a Speyside distillery, located – unsurprisingly – in the town of Aberlour. The town, sometimes referred to as “Charlestown of Aberlour” (after its founder, Charles Grant), is also the home of Walker’s Shortbread, a Scottish export likely as famous a Scottish as the product of any distillery. Robin Laing considers this area the “true heart of Speyside whisky country”, as it’s also home to Macallan, Craigellachie, Benrinnes, Glenallachie, and the Speyside Cooperage.
The distillery was originally established in 1826, before being… (read more)
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Since moving to Portland, I’ve become less caught up in the phenomenon of “exciting” beers. New releases of rare, limited-edition beers or special evenings where one-off, hard-to-find beers are being poured just don’t get me as worked up as they used to. Perhaps it’s the ubiquity of really good, and even great, beers here. This definitely wasn’t the case in Boston, which relied on the release of new, exciting beers from out of state to keep the beer scene humming. Here in Portland, your nearby brewpub is as likely to turn out something really exciting as anyone from out of state.
That being said, there are still certain beers that I get downright excited about, and look forward to the chance to track down and try. On a local level, Cascade Brewing’s Vlad The Impaler is one. Founders KBS is perhaps the perfect example (sadly, there are no Founders beers in Oregon), since I’m still hoarding the few bottles… (read more)
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Ahhh summer. It’s arrived in Portland, at last. Being a recent transplant to Portland, I have to admit that I struggled a bit in June. Seeing as how I was used to June being summer that is, and here in Portland June is a continuation of spring, which itself (this year anyhow) was ostensibly a continuation of winter – i.e. cool (50-60) temps and cloudy skies pretty much every day.
But once it’s arrived, summer here is pretty swell. And it really arrived all of a sudden. One day (June 30th) was gray and cool, and the next, July 1st (no kidding, it actually was July 1st) dawned with nary a cloud in the sky and temps in the low 60s. By the end of the day, they’d risen to the high 70s, and we still had no clouds in the sky. The weather then remained just like that for the next week or so. I think we saw… (read more)
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We moved to Portland just over seven months ago. It’s hard to believe. Time has gone by very fast. All in all, it’s been a blur. New jobs. New place to live. Great new friends to get to know. And of course, new gastronomic destinations to check out.
High on the list of things we were looking forward to in Portland was all of the local coffee roasters. Everyone knows about Stumptown, but once you get past them there are several small roasters (sometimes referred to as “micro roasters”) plying their trade here in town, including Cellar Door Coffee, Heart Coffee Roasters, Spella Caffe, Water Avenue, Public Domain, and our favorite of them all Coava Coffee Roasters. Each of these produces good to very-good coffee in a storefront/roasting facility, and the settings are unique to them all.
For instance, Coava is located on Grand Ave. in Southeast Portland,… (read more)
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As you may have heard, it tends to rain a fair amount here in Portland. Particularly in the winter, the weather can be pretty fickle, switching from overcast, to patches of sunshine, to drizzly rain in the space of a few moments. And that covers the pattern of most days. Then occasionally, pretty infrequently, it starts to really come down in buckets.
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