This whiskey is just fun because its Japanese whiskey acting like a Scotch. If you were to close your eyes when drinking this whiskey, images of Scotland would surely work their way into your mind. There is a light air of peat in this whiskey, just a subtle smokiness that I find really enjoyable. Professionals say, whiskey is all about the water, and I think this product shows this to be true. If you really focus when drinking this product you will find amongst all its bold flavors, whispers of this whiskey’s origins. Make a night of it and go out for sushi, have some sake, and finish with a pour of the 12 or 18-year. I think you too will become a fan of this product. This Whiskey is a conversation starter and a crowd pleaser. As a bartender I find people are rather excited to buy it when you tell them where it comes from. We carry the 12 and the 18-year, and I have been very happy with this whiskey. Even though we have over 140 whiskey’s this product still moves off our back bar at a steady pace.
The following review was taken from their website,
“SUNTORY YAMAZAKI 18-YEAR-OLD WHISKY WINS DOUBLE GOLD IN SAN FRANCISCO
First Japanese Whisky Honored at International Spirits Competition
NEW YORK, May 12, 2005 – Suntory Yamazaki has won Double Gold for its 18-year-old single malt whisky at this year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Yamazaki was the first and only Japanese whisky to pick up an award at the competition, beating out a host of other international competitors to claim the gold.
“We are very proud of this recognition by the spirits world,” said Shin Adachi, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Suntory International. Yamazaki 18 impressed an esteemed panel of judges, including F. Paul Pacult, Dale DeGroff and Richard Carleton Hacker, Spirits Editor of the Robb Report. The San Francisco World Spirits Competition is overseen by Anthony Dias Blue.
“We introduced Yamazaki only last July,” added Adachi. “Winning Double Gold affirms our 18-year-old whisky meets the highest international standards for excellence.”
Yamazaki single malt whisky is made from the purest natural ingredients and has a smooth, honeyed taste. Suntory whiskies are handcrafted at Japan’s oldest distillery, built by Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii in 1923. The distillery is situated in the Vale of Yamazaki on the outskirts of Kyoto, an ideal environment for whisky production where the same exceptionally pure waters used in Japan’s most famous tea ceremonies are used to produce Yamazaki whiskies.”
Why do girls travel in packs when it comes to the bar scene? As men, we have all experienced the impossible unforgiving friend, a.k.a. the “gatekeeper”. This is the friend that we all love so well. Where is this over protective and snappy friend at the witching hour?
Why is it that when we close bars all over the world at least once every month or two we find a lone woman, there, passed out in the bathroom? There in all her glory, head leaning against the stall, half way through her first dream, on the toilet! There she is alone, amongst the confetti like paper towels, the empty drinks, and cell phone parts on the floor. Where is the gatekeeper then???
I hope that whoever distracted the gatekeeper from the pack at least made it worth her while. After all, we have to gather up people as witnesses,( a few girls and a door guy or two) and we now have to help this girl off her porcelain throne back to some form of safety. This process is not so simple, usually amongst our repeated attempts to find out what’s going on we hear slurs about, friends, ex-boyfriends, and lost car keys. In this situation a car is never the right choice, however we humor her for a moment, in-order for her to trust us enough to look into her purse for a cell phone, an I.D., anything at this point!
Fast forward 30 minutes and finally she remembers her I.D. was stuffed in her bra and she now recalls something about a late night rendezvous with greasy food of the drive through sort. We finally get her cell phone turned back on, ( which was most likely turned off in order to avoid drunk texting), and now have the task of convincing her that a bar is no place for anyone to be walking without shoes on, especially after closing time. If you have never paid close attention to a bar floor at two in the morning it resembles a war torn country or a C.S.I nightmare!
All of us at this point have had our laugh or two, and now realize that we still have to clean the entire bar and somehow get this girl home safely. Don’t get me wrong, we have all had a moment or two in a similar situation, but when you are quickly approaching three a.m. you over look that aspect of your past. So over a few more repeated conversations you walk the girl slowly to the door, offering taxis or to call a friend. At this point you’re willing to call a limo if only you didn’t have to listen to her same story of her best friend this, and her ex-boyfriend that. Just as the thought comes over you to hit this re-run of The Hills as hard as you can, you hear the one sound that kills all bartenders. There is never an excuse for this sound, and is hated around the world by every kind of bartender and server. It’s the shrill of excitement that comes out only when girls reunite over drinks, after being separated, or just after they black out. After forty minutes of broken record conversation, tears, and drama, we now stand in the presence of utter joy felt by the forgotten drunk girl as she reunites with her equally hammered and screaming “girls Night” friends. We too are overjoyed by this child like reunion and can only think about a cold beer and bed. This Idea of cold refreshment is only intensified when we realize that this friend had been outside the entire time arguing with her ex-boyfriend on her cell phone. Yelling at him for whatever he did or did not do, including the fact that her damn girlfriend had left her alone at the bar!
There are two legitimate spellings of whisky. One is ‘whisky’ – as spelled by Scotts and Canadians and the second is ‘whiskey’ – as spelled by the Irish and Americans.
There is a dispute between the Irish and the Scotts, as to who were the first to make whisky.
Scotch and Irish whisky are made the same way, with the exception of malting and distillation process.
There are five basic classifications of whisky – Irish Whisky, Scotch Whisky, Bourbon, Canadian Whisky and American Whisky.
The dark color of whiskey comes from the wooden barrels in which it is aged. The wood expands and contracts with the change in temperature, making the movie in and out of the wood. The compounds from wood give whisky its dark color.
The barrels made from American White Oak have been claimed to produce the tastiest whisky.
Tennessee whiskey gets its distinct flavor and aroma characteristics from a unique process called “mellowing”.
There are more than 5000 types of Single Malt Whisky.
Whisky can be called Whisky only when it matured for a minimum of 3 years in oak casks.
Single Malt Whisky comes from a single distillery and a single grain. However, it is possible that it underwent maturing in multiple casks.
Blended Whisky is called Blended Whisky because of the mixture of Grain Whisky and multiple Single Malt Whiskies.
Around 90 percent of Single Malt Whisky comes from Scotland.
A whisky stops maturing after it is bottled.
A closed bottle of whisky can be kept for more than 100 years and it will still be good to drink. After opening, a half-full bottle of whisky will remain good for five years.
Pure malt whisky is produced only from malted barley.
Basil Hayden’s 8yr Booker’s Bulleit Buffalo Trace Eagle Rare Eagle Rare 17yr Four Roses George T’ Stagg Jim Beam Jim Beam Black Johnny Drum 101pr Knob Creek 9yr Maker’s Mark Michter’s US 1 Noah’s Mill Old Bardstown Estate Pappy Van Winkle 15yr Pappy Van Winkle 20yr Pappy Van Winkle 23yr Pure Kentucky XO Rip Van Winkle 10yr 90pr Rip Van Winkle 12yr 107pr Rowan’s Creek 12yr Wild Turkey 101pr Willett Reserve William Larue Weller Woodford Reserve
Whiskey
Crown Royal Crown Royal Reserve Crown Cask No’ 16 Leopold’s Peach Seagram’s 7
Rye Whiskey
High West Rendezvous High West 16yr High West 21yr Michter’s US 1 Michter’s 10yr Rip Van Winkle 13yr Sazerac 6yr Sazarac Thomas Handy
Irish Whiskey
Bushmills Bushmills Black Bushmills 10yr Bushmills 16yr Bushmills 21yr Connemara Connemara Cask Finian’s Jameson Jameson 12yr Jameson Gold Jameson 18yr Jameson 21yr Jameson Vintage John Powers Kilbeggan Knappogue Castle Michael Collins Michael Collins SM Midleton Rare Red Breast 12yr Slane Castle Tullamore Dew
Tennessee Whiskey
George Dickel Jack Daniel’s Jack Daniel’s SB Gentleman Jack
Congnac
Courvosier VSOP Remy Martin VSOP
Scotch
Islay
Ardbeg 10yr Bowmore 12yr Caol Ila 12yr Lagavulin 15yr DE Lagavulin 16yr Laphroaig 10yr
We are all professionals in the service Industry and pride ourselves in our craft and our level of hospitality. This site is for us to get together through an online forum to share what we are learning, working on, or need help with. We know that we do not know everything but make it our mission to learn as much as we can in order to become the best that we can be. This blog is an online diary of that adventure. In this blog you will find tasting notes, product sharing, how to blogs, comical stories from our nightly adventures, and even a place for us to vent. After all, when you serve a couple hundred people a night and eighty percent of them are intoxicated you too will develop a large library of stories and frustrations.
Bourbon
Bar Bandits 