Scotch Night

Nick and Rich and I had another "Scotch Night" last night: We all bring a bottle or two of something interesting, and we set up small tasting glasses of each and have a discussion of each fine spirit, followed by a movie. As before, the quantity is small, the quality is high, and we approach it with a scientific spirit.

Last night we enjoyed some Lagavulin (from Islay), Talisker (from Sky), Oban (West highlands), Scapa (from the north Orkneys), and my new Suntory Hibiki (from, well, JAPAN). What was amazing was that as we went around, we had tasted some of these before, but in comparison and contrast, new flavors were brought out: For instance, while we love the Suntory for it's smoothness, after some Talisker and Lagavulin, it's almost criminally bland... though still respectable.

Our palates are developing as well, and things that just didn't work earlier this year (Lagavulin again) now are tasty and actually preferred.

We agreed that this is absolutely the best way to develop our knowledge, and want to do this monthly... Last night's movie was V for Vendetta, which even on the 4th viewing for me was amazing. Such a powerful movie!

And I discovered anew that Rick and I are kindred spirits in another way: He's a language junkie like me: He currenly has Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish in his repetoire. I have French, German, Spanish, and a little Japanese and Russian... But listening to him speaking Mandarin Chinese really made me realize I NEED to know this language - it's just so cool sounding.

Rich and I have been FRIENDS for just over a year, and acquaintances for over 10 years, and it's so cool to discover new things about people.

In the meantime, Pamela was busy doing completely unique flower arrangements for Jeff and Rita's home tour - They're opening their house to visitors for a designer's showcase (in this case, they're the homeowners AND the designers), and Pamela dressed the place up with some truly artistic arrangements using unique ingredients... Let's just say she bought out Byerly's entire stock of Radishes last night. Yep.

It's a gorgeous day... time to go see what's up out there.