Our good friend Lepe, who you’ll see from time to time here, is passionate to learn more about and share his whiskey. You can usually find him navigating his way through a great whiskey collection.  As Lepe says, we will discuss everything from the distillation process to how to “taste” whiskey.  Please enjoy as he introduces to the Thistle half of The Vine and Thistle, and stay tuned for Lepe’s next post exploring the fundamentals of the whiskey making process. Thanks Lepe… -EZ

Whiskey. The name alone conjures a gallery of images from dangerous outlaws at a saloon before high noon to posh gentry in their libraries. It’s a drink that is as much misunderstood as it is enjoyed the world over. But for however complicated a whiskey’s nose or impression may be, its recipe is remarkably simple.   For the most part, whiskey is made from three basic ingredients: water, some sort of grain (barley, wheat, rye, corn), and time in an oak barrel. What comes out however is a spirit so complex that two different people can taste the same dram yet their palates will paint a much different impression on the canvas of their mind.

To me, whiskey is indulgence and emotion. A swig of Old Overholt still takes me back to the dust and Old West kitsch of the Crystal Palace saloon in Tombstone, Arizona, where the bar promises good whiskeys and tolerable water.   A very generous 40 year-old cask strength dram from an exclusive Member’s Cask at Balvenie put me back in my grandfather’s musty, leather-bound library, as I slowly drank in his memory. A 12-year single malt Old Pulteney took me back to the Samuel Pepys pub in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, where I can still hear the raindrops lightly beating down against the window as I sit comfortably over a rarebit and sirloin burger in my favorite booth.

American poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman writes in A Natural History of Love, that love is like a beam of white light. When split by a prism the colors that are the emotions in the visible spectrum reveal themselves. Learning to appreciate a good whiskey is like splitting visible light. There is complexity, beauty and depth in what others overlook and take for granted.  The quest of finding your own personal whiskey will hopefully stir you to action and set forth unto the world to make new memories, relive old ones, and experience the goodness of life. Yes, it can be that good.

Beware though, like most trips of personal discovery, they can be wrought with some disappointment as is the fate, in my opinion, of a number of blended whiskies that scrape the mind with a rake. Johnnie Walker Black reminds me of every other hotel or airport bar in the Middle East and Africa. Chivas Regal mixed with Coca-Cola was the drink of choice of discerning high school students in Tijuana in the early ‘90s. The thought makes me cringe, and let’s face it, other than Margarita Carmen Cansino and the Caesar Salad, not much else of any enduring value has come from Tijuana. In case you were wondering, Margarita was “discovered” in the early 1930s at the Caliente Club by the head of Fox films and was later to be known as Rita Hayworth: dancer, screen legend, and pin-up icon of WWII…maybe I will give the Walkers and Chivas another shot; who knows what I’ll discover?

I truly enjoy learning, savoring and discovering whiskey, as I am sure you do as well, or at least want to. These posts are for those who live for the adventure of travel, history, good food, great whiskey, and esprit de corps!  So come by often, pour yourself a dram and stay awhile; you will always be welcome at our table.   -Lepe