Review- Johnnie Walker tasting at DAR

The Johnnie Walker tasting was boozy and had a whole lot of iPads. Can't complain about the full size drinks served at the bar before the tasting started. Choice of an Old Fashioned, a Johnnie Red and Ginger, or a Johnnie Black on the rocks. Gooood.

Since 4 of us had gone to The Macallan tasting last year with the funny Scottish guy leading it, the bar was set pretty high for the old frat boy leading this one. He wasn't bad, but the crowd sucked. COME ON DC! Crack a smile-- you're drinking for free. It's been more than 2 years and DC people still amaze me with the plethora of ways they can be boring between 5-8pm before driving back out to VA. (Sorry J, S, & L).

Anyway-- group consensus after tasting Red Label, Black Label, Gold Label and Blue Label?-- the GOLD!

Shackelton's Scotch

Came across this year-old news story about a South Pole explorer. Crazy 100 year old scotch! Check it out!

Scotch, Short Stories, and Chicken Wings- Feb 2011

This month Grace picked Paris, at Night by Sung J. Woo. What's not to love about robots, memrips and the sadness of wealthy people paying for someone else's memory of love at first sight. Amazing chicken wings accompanied the classy Balvenie DoubleWood 12 year scotch from Speyside. A couple founding members made long-awaited appearances, so it is good to have the crew back together in time to decide our newest members deserve their glasses. Hopefully next week a certain someone won't start their nap at the same time the meeting beings..... until March!

January 2011 wrap up

Caroline picked The Rabbit Hole As Likely Explanation by Ann Beattie. A great pick from the rook. We tried some Irish Whiskey with an "e" and had a grand old time.

January 2011 Meeting

Hope you are all excited for our first meeting of 2011. Josh and Mere are hosting. Caroline is picking out the story, and Grace is bringing the Scotch..... Updates to come.

2010- Year in Review

2010 was a big year for Scotch and Short Stories. Not just for the gallons of Scotch we drank, tons of snacks we shared, or pages and pages of stories we read. We had five members get engaged (2 to each other), one get married, several international trips for both work and pleasure, a Macallan scotch tasting, and our original group of 8 ended the year at 12. Not bad.

Year in Review:
January 2010- The Velt by Ray Bradbury
February 2010- Recitatif by Toni Morrison
March 2010- The Life and Adventures of Shed Number XII by Victor Pelevin
April 2010- The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
May 2010- The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
June 2010- The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
July 2010- (off)
August 2010- But by Anne Donovan
September 2010- A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
October 2010- A White Horse by Thom Jones
November 2010- The Swimmer by John Cheever
December 2010-  The Briefcase by Rebecca Makkai


New Year's Resolution-- keep track of the Scotch better!

Contest- The Glenrothes

Check out The Glenrothes Single Speyside Malt contest. You can win a chance to make whisky in Scotland for a week starting 8 May 2011 (we'll schedule our meeting around your trip if you win). I am still struggling with the 50 word response needed to explain why I would be their ideal candidate for this opportunity, but I think it's worth entering because they are giving away bottles like the Limited Edition John Ramsay -- yes, that is $1,000/ bottle-- The Glenrothes 1988 --the last work of distiller John Ramsay, retiring after 43 years--, Select Reserve, and more.