our table. The glasses on the table vibrated, the knives and forks trembled and any creatures I had ever encountered in nightmares now seemed feeble and inept in comparison to this man approaching us. He stopped at the foot of our table and his immensity was impressive and overpowering. He had entire tree trunks for legs and his head was the size of Mount Rushmore. I calculated the distance to the exit and the speed at which I could cross the room, in what I can only describe as the most intense panic attack. I honestly thought the man had the intention of eating us. But as luck would have it, he had already eaten his supper,
and I was informed that he was the inn keeper, or whatever you call a mountain of a man who runs a hotel the size of a country — oh yes! you call him anything he tells you to call him! He turned his attention to me. My dining chums had already guided themselves into the bar before navigating their way to the table. I was slightly late down from my sumptuous room, and being at table sans drink, was a punishable crime in this hotel. “Will ye be having a wee dram?” asked the giant. I seemed to have trouble making my lips move and even more
difficulty activating my tongue. I somehow spluttered the words “whisky” and the giant responded “that’ll be a single malt I presume!” I agreed that it would as it seemed more a command than an inquiry. He brought his entire body alongside my chair so I was now looking up the side of Mount Everest “And will that be with water?” My voice, now at a glass shattering high shrill, responded: “Will it?” He backed away from the table, laughing: “Ay, it will....you don’t ever want to drink a single malt without a wee drop of water my friend, even if you are English”. And that brief exchange of words began my love affair with the Scottish elixir which I drink most evenings before dinner. The specter of my host from that evening is instantly released from memory as the perfume of the whisky fills the room. I have never been able to tolerate blended whisky, due to a
sensitive digestive system. A blend is produced from single malts and grain whisky. But my encounter with a single malt was a friendship to last a lifetime, and one which never generates the discomforts I experience with the blends. Single malt comes from a specific distillery and is made from malted barley. The bottling often includes whisky from different
Single malt comes from a specific distillery and is made from malted barley.
Glenmorangie Lasanta (Sherry Cask)
Whisky Barrels at Distillery in Scotland
Malting barley
njlifestyleonline.com LIFESTYLE | Spring 2012 57
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