I’ll drink swill but I don’t want it messed up
I would like to drink the best red wines, but, dang, they’ll cost more than the rest of the meal. Of late, restaurants have started serving red wine chilled. That’s a sign of the end of times. When I restaurant brings me a glass of ice-cold red wine, I tell the waiter or waitress that the menu needs a warning label saying that the red wine’s coming out cold. The biggest argument I got into with a restaurant about chilled red wine happened when they told me the wine keeps longer if they store it in a refrigerator. Nope, that ruins it. They probably didn’t change their ways.
It’s gotten easier to order a dirty martini and have my un-messed-up wine when I get home.
“Swill,” by the way, is a magnum (1.5-liter) bottle of grocery store wine that sells for around ten bucks. I refuse to buy the so-called standard 750ml bottle because it’s a bad value in terms of price. Bring me a bottle of Pinot Noir and I’ll be happy. Sea Smoke Southing Pinot Noir will do nicely because it tastes great and is way outside my budget.
Switching gears, I have a strong aversion to restaurants that want to bring me Scotch whisky on ice. That is a GIANT sacrilege. And forget that one drop of water to “open up the taste.” And the whole “splash of water” you can just not mention it.
My favorite Scotch is single malt Talisker, heavy on the peat and the smoke with a great slogan on their website: “On the shores of the Isle of Skye, where rugged coastlines meet the raging sea, you find adventure in a bottle. Talisker single malt scotch whisky captures the elemental wildness and unadulterated beauty of its birthplace to give you a taste of Skye in every sip.” That’s heaven in a bottle of, say, Talisker Storm.
If you’ve been around a while, you might remember the days when bourbon was pretty much-considered rot gut. It’s improved over time, but I cannot drink it straight. I have to hide it in a cocktail. Or even dump it into a glass of Coke.
My wife once told me that I always head toward the expensive stuff. She’s right. I drink swill wine at home, but it’s far from the best of the best of the best. Needless to say, I seldom buy Talisker and will settle for Famous Grouse. It gets good reviews and doesn’t cost more than my house.
