by Paul Gingrich
There are times in our lives that all the planets seem to line up, making for a perfect moment. I experienced one of those moments this year. The preparation for this perfect moment began in 2002 when, on a trip to Napa Valley, I stopped by Silver Oak Winery in Oakville. I purchased two bottles of the current release, which at the time was the 1997 vintage. 1997 was a monster vintage for Napa Valley Cabernet. It was one of those rare times when the fruit was so spectacular, winemakers prayed that they would get it in the bottle without messing it up. At Silver Oak they got it right in a big way. With every vintage there is a time when a wine reaches its peak and becomes everything the winemaker wanted it to be. What, as a young wine, is unruly, with chewy tannins, and bright tart fruit will ultimately transform into a deep rich wine with velvet tannins, and fruit that seems to go on forever. But you have to be patient. This is a hard thing to do. Bottles of wine like this whisper to you when you walk by the wine closet, like the bottle in Alice in Wonderland that begged “drink me”. By 2007, ten years from the vintage date, the voice gets louder like the Telltale Heart beckoning to you when you come near. I succumb to the call and free a bottle from the cellar only to find that while it has matured, it still has a youthful side that needs more time. Okay, I know I’m being a bit melodramatic, but this is a bottle with amazing potential. The Silver Oak Website indicates that this bottle will drink through 2023. That’s NOT going to happen. Patience will only carry so far.
by Paul Gingrich
-I had the singular pleasure of doing a bareboat vacation in the British Virgin Islands for eight days at the end of May 2010. Judging by the response I got to my Facebook postings, a lot of friends, customers and family (that seems redundant) of Twin Liquors have been there before me. There are so many things to see and so much Rum to drink, that it’s hard to pack it all in. Even an extended week was not enough. The British Virgin Islands are a place that draws people from all over the world. It would be hard to see it all without having the freedom to move about that a sailboat provides. I have been to Grand Cayman and to Hawaii on land based vacations in the past. That works fine for those places. To truly experience the BVI demands that you do it from the deck of a boat. Seven of us were on a forty-one foot Catamaran for eight days. It was a perfect platform with the perfect crew. We went from Virgin Gorda on the eastern extreme to Jost Van Dyke on the western extreme. 
has come a long way baby. Too many to cover in depth in one column. So let’s look at the basics and go from there.
My last article was an introduction to beer and the beers classified as Lagers. This time let's look at Ales. There is room for much more variation of styles of Ales than that of Lagers. There are many, many styles, but we will focus on the basic recognized Ales.
We’ve covered most of the Ale styles in the last installment, there are but a few basic styles left. They are often overlooked and sometimes misidentified as Lagers.
Put simply, all Cognacs are Brandy, but not all Brandys are Cognac. Still a bit confused? That's a sure sign that it's a French thing. In order for a Brandy to be a Cognac it must come from the Cognac region of France. Everything else is Brandy. Brandy and Cognac are made by fermenting and then distilling grape juice. Cognac has very strict production and labelling rules to protect it's quality and reputation. Most Cognacs are not a "vintage" product. They are made up of spirit from many vintages and the class of Cognac is determined by the youngest spirit in the blend. Cognac must be at least two and a half years old starting with the first of October of the year the grapes were produced.
The price of a bottle of Scotch is in mostly a reflection of the cost of producing that bottle. Basics like grain, water, barrels, stills, mash tuns, are all common factors that affect every Scotch produced. If all Scotch were produced the same, they would all be about the same cost. So why is there such a wide variation in price? Let's look at the other factors that affect the price. The amount of Scotch that can be produced affects the price. If base costs are the same and you can produce more Scotch in one Distillery than another, your cost per bottle is less with more production. The decision to use a Sherry Barrel instead of American White Oak has a cost. How old is the Scotch in that bottle? The older the Scotch the more it costs to produce. It has to be stored someplace and you lose two to three percent per year to evaporation (In Scotland this is called the Angel's share). If that Scotch is ten years old then you have given twenty to thirty percent to the angels.
A departure from my usual wine ponderings. It was my pleasure to be part of a group of Twin Liquors Managers traveling to Scotland for a true Scotch education tour in July. We were fortunate to have James McCartney, a Master of Scotch accompany us and were able to spend time with Ian Williams, Manager of Johnnie Walker Brands. I have studied Scotch at length, personally and during my Sommelier training. I thought I knew quite a bit about the regional characteristics of Scotches and would have told you that I could tell what flavors a Scotch contained based on the region that it was produced. With Scotch, I was taught, everything from the grain to the glass leaves it's signature. The air, water, grain and barrel all contribute to give Scotch it's regional signature. While that is basically true, as with most things, it is a simplification of a complex process. Our travels across the highlands from Speyside to Oban taught me that while Scotch has regional characteristics, ultimately the style is specific to the di