The choice of wine and spirits is often a matter of price. Most often, except for the special ones, wines are less costly than spirits. This price discrepancy often is the reason wine buyers have a bit of wiggle room in their choice. Where spirits are concerned, most stick with the same old, same old rather than investigating unknown brands because of the cost.
Spirits are distilled beverages and the distillation process, as well as the cost of the equipment and starting materials, can be high. All distilled products start off as a beer or a wine that is boiled to remove and capture the alcohol. Doing the math shows you need a heck of a lot of beer at 5 percent alcohol and wine at about 14 percent alcohol to make a bottle of an alcoholic beverage and thus the higher selling price.
Diplomatico Rum ($40)
Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva is a high-quality rum from Venezuela adding dignity to any mixed drink that can work just as well straight. The Reserva Exclusiva is made not only from sugar cane, but also a type of molasses called sugar cane honey, making it a cut above almost all of the others on the market.
This rum also is aged in wooden barrels for a minimum of five years and for as many as 10. The aroma is resplendent with maple syrup, orange peel, apricots and licorice. On the palate, the aroma transmutes to sweet toffee fudge and then on to a honey-ladened finish. The years spent in the barrel have resulted in a smooth and mellow beverage.
Usquaebach 15-year-old Scotch Whisky ($80)
In Usquaebach – pronounced Oos Ka Bah, meaning water of life – we have a rather odd Scotch whisky, a blend of Scottish Highland malts. In almost all Scottish whisky blends, there are a small amount of the more expensive Highland malts that impart the true Scotch flavors. What are called lowland malts are in most cases, just grain spirits.
It’s the drying of the malt grain over fires of local peat that gives the highland malts their individual and very specific flavors. By blending malt whiskeys from different parts of Scotland, the very distinctive “not too much peat and not too little peat” flavor and aroma arises in the Usquaebach 15-year-old Scotch Whisky.
This Scotch whisky is a pleasant step away from the run-of-the-mill blended Scotch and an introduction to the real thing.
Bain’s Cape Mountain South African Whiskey ($40)
South Africa is noted for many things, but there never is a mention of whiskey – until now. So, what you may ask is the difference between South African whiskey and our good old American products. If you read anything about whiskey, you know there always is something special. It could be the water they use, the grain, the aging time or even the shape of the bottle, but there is always something that sets them aside.
What sets Bain’s Cape Mountain South African whiskey apart from the others is the grain used to make the beer, which will be distilled into the final product. The grain is grown on local grain farms blessed with breezes even in temperature and water content originating at the South Pole. The arctic winds are warmed during transit and impart a softness and distinctive flavor to the grains and fruits of South Africa.
The Bain’s Cape Mountain South African whiskey displays a floral aroma balanced by banana honey hazelnuts and toffee and a vanilla and cocoa flavor. This whiskey is a safari into a new and delightful drinking experience.
Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein is a wine columnist and manages ArticlesOnWine.com. He can be reached at ben@articlesonwine.com.
