For Samantha’s birthday party celebration last night, a group of friends met at the rooftop bar of the Library Hotel. I arrived early and before I entered the hotel, I noticed it’s catty-corner from Park Avenue Liquor so I stopped in. Yow! I need to frequent this place.
In addition to a representative bank of liquors for mixed drinks and a robust wine selection, this place has the largest mass of single-malt scotches I’ve seen. A friendly salesperson handed me a brochure the shop produces quarterly, listing all single-malts they carry, and it enumerates 162 distinct varieties from Speyside alone. In addition, representing the highlands, there are 39 varieties from the north, 22 from the south, 19 from the east and four from the west. The lowlands have 20 selections, 59 more are from Islay and more than 50 combined represent a few other smaller regions. Prices range from a piffly $28 for a Glen Moray 12-year-old 80° to a 50-year-old Macallan bottled in a Lalique decanter for $9,000, the availability of which is so exclusive, according to a recent Times article, it’s exceedingly tough to come by, even if you’re a bonus-flush wanker from Goldman Sachs.
I favor the peaty Islay Laphroaig and before I visited home for the holidays, I asked my folks to try and track down the more exclusive 15-year variety but it was not to be found in Cleveland. Happily for me, it was right there on the shelf behind the counter at Park Avenue Liquor, snuggled between the 10-year variety I’ve been drinking and a 30-year-old for a cool $250.
I bought a bottle of the 15-year and can report that it’s lighter in color and cleaner tasting than the 10-year. I also found the finish to be more astringent than the 10-year. The aftertaste was oddly olive-tasting, like that of a dirty vodka martini. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been drinking the 10-year for years that I think it’s better, but I think I’ll stick with it. Or better yet, as Samantha and Iggy mentioned at the party, I need to get in on the free whiskey-tasting events held in the city. One way to get invited is to subscribe to the emailing-lists via the websites of the whiskey producers. Will do!