After a night at the Hachioji Plaza Hotel, we had a European style breakfast of croissants and coffee in a cafe just up the road before catching the train into the centre of Tokyo.
We wandered around the Ginza area, Jim was wanting to find the technology area which a Dutch professor in our hotel had told him about the previous day. We didn't find it, but the Ginza is full of Rolex, Prada, Tiffany, Armani, etc., all the BIG fashion names. We had a couple of beers and lunch at the Lion Beer Hall in Ginza Street. Then I had to get back because I was being interviewed by Mamoru Tsuchiya for an article in May's edition of "The Whisky World".
Our flight back was fairly uneventful, apart from the problem of buying a couple of coffees in the departure hall. We were 30 odd yen short and I had to run down to an ATM to get more funds. Wonderful thing international banking, I wonder how much Alliance & Leicester will charge me for the privilege of changing currencies?
Stopped off in Amsterdam's Schiphol for 3 hours and had sausages, chips & beans in an Irish pub! A change from all the healthy Japanese food for the previous week.
Arrived home to snow - in the air and on the ground. Drove Jim home to Gourock and myself home to Tullibody, arriving at half past midnight. 25 hours' travelling. Sat down, supped on a whisky for 20 minutes and slept like a log. It's good to get back to your own bed!
Saturday, 6 March 2010
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Japan (2)
On the Monday (22nd Feb), we set off for Chichibu distillery. My friend in Takeshi Mogi in Hachioji had very kindly given me detailed travel instructions with specific trains and timings. His detail was wonderful.
For Chichibu, we had to get on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line and transfer to the Seibu line at Ikebukuro. At Ikebukuro, we hit our first problem, not bad in 10 rail journeys so far. The English translation of the signs ran out when we reached the platform. There was no train at the platform and the train further down had an "Out of Service" sign over it. I wandered down the platform to see if I could learn anything while Jim looked after the luggage. When I returned, he advised me that a woman sitting in a train at an other platform had come over to him and asked if we needed assistance. She pointed out that the train we were looking for was the one which was currently "Out of Service".
This train duly left and, when it reached Hanno, it reversed out of the station along another section of track. Thus, we were now travelling backwards. The guard announced that our seats would turn around and therefore face forward and all we needed to do was press a button and birl the seat round on a pivot. Effective and imaginative!
When we reached Seibu-Chichibu, it was obvious that I was the first person the locals had seen in a kilt! Needless to say, it went down a bomb!
A half hour taxi ride took us to Chichibu distillery, where Ichiro Akuto, the owner was waiting for us. The first stillhouse - in the world! - where you remove your shoes before entering! Everything is spotless. The stillhouse has no mezzanine, so to examine, and clean the washbacks, the staff have to climb a ladder. See my pics at www.flickr.com/photos/whiskytutor/.
I tasted some amazing young spirit, aged in new wood which was astoundingly forward. See my tasting notes at www.johnlamond.com/page9.html.
Back into the city and a meeting with Takeshi Mogi, who has been translating "The Malt Whisky File" into Japanese since 1995. An amazing guy who is fluent in Gaelic, wears the kilt and plays the bagpipes.
Jim had been given a plaque from a Greenock councillor to present to Takeshi. The individual prior to Takeshi who received one of these was the captain of the Queen Mary II when that ship docked in Greenock towards the end of 2009.
We had dinner at Ukai Chikutei, a traditional Japanese restaurant which is spread over a number of cottages. An amazing meal served by a traditionally dressed young waitress.
We spent the night in Hachioji and then caught a Rapide into the city for our last day.
For Chichibu, we had to get on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line and transfer to the Seibu line at Ikebukuro. At Ikebukuro, we hit our first problem, not bad in 10 rail journeys so far. The English translation of the signs ran out when we reached the platform. There was no train at the platform and the train further down had an "Out of Service" sign over it. I wandered down the platform to see if I could learn anything while Jim looked after the luggage. When I returned, he advised me that a woman sitting in a train at an other platform had come over to him and asked if we needed assistance. She pointed out that the train we were looking for was the one which was currently "Out of Service".
This train duly left and, when it reached Hanno, it reversed out of the station along another section of track. Thus, we were now travelling backwards. The guard announced that our seats would turn around and therefore face forward and all we needed to do was press a button and birl the seat round on a pivot. Effective and imaginative!
When we reached Seibu-Chichibu, it was obvious that I was the first person the locals had seen in a kilt! Needless to say, it went down a bomb!
A half hour taxi ride took us to Chichibu distillery, where Ichiro Akuto, the owner was waiting for us. The first stillhouse - in the world! - where you remove your shoes before entering! Everything is spotless. The stillhouse has no mezzanine, so to examine, and clean the washbacks, the staff have to climb a ladder. See my pics at www.flickr.com/photos/whiskytutor/.
I tasted some amazing young spirit, aged in new wood which was astoundingly forward. See my tasting notes at www.johnlamond.com/page9.html.
Back into the city and a meeting with Takeshi Mogi, who has been translating "The Malt Whisky File" into Japanese since 1995. An amazing guy who is fluent in Gaelic, wears the kilt and plays the bagpipes.
Jim had been given a plaque from a Greenock councillor to present to Takeshi. The individual prior to Takeshi who received one of these was the captain of the Queen Mary II when that ship docked in Greenock towards the end of 2009.
We had dinner at Ukai Chikutei, a traditional Japanese restaurant which is spread over a number of cottages. An amazing meal served by a traditionally dressed young waitress.
We spent the night in Hachioji and then caught a Rapide into the city for our last day.
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Japan was AWESOME!
Just back from a week in Japan. 26 hours' travelling to arrive at my first stop in Arashiyama on the southeast outskirts of Kyoto.
Arashiyama is a world heritage site, with many ancient shrines. It receives many, many tourists in the course of a year and yet, at this time of year, there are no restaurants open in the evening.
I travelled with my buddy, Jim Robertson, the publican of The Kempock Bar in Gourock. Arrived at my hotel Kyoto Ranzan, obviously very tired, and asked at reception if the hotel restaurant was still open (this was 9.15 p.m.). Was informed that there were NO restaurants open in Arashiyama, there was only a convenience store and suggesting that we go there and eat its offerings in our rooms. Naturally, I did not believe this and we went out for a walk.
Everything was shut up for the night and I was beginning to despair of getting anything to eat - we had not eaten anything since around 10 o'clock in the morning - when we saw some lights. The convenience store! We grabbed a couple of bento boxes containing sushi & some fruit and beer and headed back to the hotel.
The next day, we visited Yamazaki distillery and were conducted around by Makoto Sumita, the distillery's Deputy Executive Manager: a very big mash tun and washbacks and a stillhouse containing a dozen stills of various shapes and sizes, permitting them to produce a wide variety of flavours within their whiskies.
I tasted 12 years old Yamazaki matured in American oak, 12 yo Yamazaki matured in a Sherry butt, 12 yo Yamazaki matured in a Mizunara (the Japanese oak, Quercus serrata) cask and 12 yo (the standard offering on the shelves), Yamazaki 18 yo and yamazaki 1984Limited Edition.
The tasting revealed the difference that Mizunara casks make. For tasting notes see that section on my website.
That night, I determined to find an open restaurant! We had seen a great number of restaurants in the area over the course of the afternoon and I could not understand why, when there were obviously a lot of tourists around despite it being early in the season, they all seemed to close at 4.30.
I was successful! I found what must have been the only restuaurant open in the area, a kushi-age restaurant and we were their only customers all night, so we got great service with an explanation of what everything was and how to eat it. Great! Deep fried food! A very Scottish diet!
17 train journeys in 7 days and everyone of them ran precisely to time!
Back over to Tokyo on the bullet train. One of these 1800 seat trains travels down the tracks every 7 minutes and our experience was that they travelled at 60-70% capacity.
Tokyo was an experience in itself. Their planning department doesn't seem to be particularly effective, there is no continuity of building style, each house is (often) totally different from its neighbour and they are built cheek by jowl in an almost shanty town style. Such proximity would not be permitted in Britain. Having said that, the streets were very clean, no chewing gum stuck to the pavements, no cigarette ends/polythene bags/crisp packets blowing in the wind.
It was expensive though. The sterling/yen exchange rate didn't help, but I got the impression that the cost of living is expensive in Japan.
We had dinner with Kiyotoshi, Keiko and Takamitsu Shimamura from Scotch Whisky Sales Ltd. and Junichi Fukutani, who translated the last edition of "The Malt Whisky File" into Japanese. Sushi - again. They fed us beer, followed by sake and that was followed by shochu. I got tyhe distinct impression that our hosts were trying to see how much we could drink as they were not either eating as much, or drinking as much as they were. A very enjoyable night nonetheless and Jim & I dropped into an Italian wine bar for a bottle of wine to finish the night with.
Whisky Live Japan was on the Sunday and we jumped onto the Yurikamome line at Shimbashi to the Big Sight exhibition centre. The Yurikamome line is an automated system without a driver, like London's Docklands Light Railway. the view it gives of Tokyo's waterfront area is fabulous. It is a pretty wonderful piece of engineering, especially when one thinks about the now dumped plans for the Glasgow Airport Rail Link and the chaos which has blighted Edinburgh's streets since work started on that city's tram system - and this tram system now looks as if the build will overrun by 2 or 3 years!
Whisky Live was amazing - 5,000 visitors all very serious about whisky. I was walking around the exhibition and people were coming up to me and saying, "Ahh, you are John Lamond!", pulling a copy of "The Malt Whisky File" out of a bag and asking for my autograph or asking to be photographed with me. Felt like stardom! It was reallya buzz.
Went to dinner with Shusaka Osawa and his staff from Liquors Hasegawa - in a Chinese restaurant. Again very different from the UK version of a Chinese retaurant.
For relaxation, after all this excitement, Jim & I split a bottle of wine at a Breton retsaurant just along the street from our hotel in the Ginza district.
Arashiyama is a world heritage site, with many ancient shrines. It receives many, many tourists in the course of a year and yet, at this time of year, there are no restaurants open in the evening.
I travelled with my buddy, Jim Robertson, the publican of The Kempock Bar in Gourock. Arrived at my hotel Kyoto Ranzan, obviously very tired, and asked at reception if the hotel restaurant was still open (this was 9.15 p.m.). Was informed that there were NO restaurants open in Arashiyama, there was only a convenience store and suggesting that we go there and eat its offerings in our rooms. Naturally, I did not believe this and we went out for a walk.
Everything was shut up for the night and I was beginning to despair of getting anything to eat - we had not eaten anything since around 10 o'clock in the morning - when we saw some lights. The convenience store! We grabbed a couple of bento boxes containing sushi & some fruit and beer and headed back to the hotel.
The next day, we visited Yamazaki distillery and were conducted around by Makoto Sumita, the distillery's Deputy Executive Manager: a very big mash tun and washbacks and a stillhouse containing a dozen stills of various shapes and sizes, permitting them to produce a wide variety of flavours within their whiskies.
I tasted 12 years old Yamazaki matured in American oak, 12 yo Yamazaki matured in a Sherry butt, 12 yo Yamazaki matured in a Mizunara (the Japanese oak, Quercus serrata) cask and 12 yo (the standard offering on the shelves), Yamazaki 18 yo and yamazaki 1984Limited Edition.
The tasting revealed the difference that Mizunara casks make. For tasting notes see that section on my website.
That night, I determined to find an open restaurant! We had seen a great number of restaurants in the area over the course of the afternoon and I could not understand why, when there were obviously a lot of tourists around despite it being early in the season, they all seemed to close at 4.30.
I was successful! I found what must have been the only restuaurant open in the area, a kushi-age restaurant and we were their only customers all night, so we got great service with an explanation of what everything was and how to eat it. Great! Deep fried food! A very Scottish diet!
17 train journeys in 7 days and everyone of them ran precisely to time!
Back over to Tokyo on the bullet train. One of these 1800 seat trains travels down the tracks every 7 minutes and our experience was that they travelled at 60-70% capacity.
Tokyo was an experience in itself. Their planning department doesn't seem to be particularly effective, there is no continuity of building style, each house is (often) totally different from its neighbour and they are built cheek by jowl in an almost shanty town style. Such proximity would not be permitted in Britain. Having said that, the streets were very clean, no chewing gum stuck to the pavements, no cigarette ends/polythene bags/crisp packets blowing in the wind.
It was expensive though. The sterling/yen exchange rate didn't help, but I got the impression that the cost of living is expensive in Japan.
We had dinner with Kiyotoshi, Keiko and Takamitsu Shimamura from Scotch Whisky Sales Ltd. and Junichi Fukutani, who translated the last edition of "The Malt Whisky File" into Japanese. Sushi - again. They fed us beer, followed by sake and that was followed by shochu. I got tyhe distinct impression that our hosts were trying to see how much we could drink as they were not either eating as much, or drinking as much as they were. A very enjoyable night nonetheless and Jim & I dropped into an Italian wine bar for a bottle of wine to finish the night with.
Whisky Live Japan was on the Sunday and we jumped onto the Yurikamome line at Shimbashi to the Big Sight exhibition centre. The Yurikamome line is an automated system without a driver, like London's Docklands Light Railway. the view it gives of Tokyo's waterfront area is fabulous. It is a pretty wonderful piece of engineering, especially when one thinks about the now dumped plans for the Glasgow Airport Rail Link and the chaos which has blighted Edinburgh's streets since work started on that city's tram system - and this tram system now looks as if the build will overrun by 2 or 3 years!
Whisky Live was amazing - 5,000 visitors all very serious about whisky. I was walking around the exhibition and people were coming up to me and saying, "Ahh, you are John Lamond!", pulling a copy of "The Malt Whisky File" out of a bag and asking for my autograph or asking to be photographed with me. Felt like stardom! It was reallya buzz.
Went to dinner with Shusaka Osawa and his staff from Liquors Hasegawa - in a Chinese restaurant. Again very different from the UK version of a Chinese retaurant.
For relaxation, after all this excitement, Jim & I split a bottle of wine at a Breton retsaurant just along the street from our hotel in the Ginza district.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
The Whisky Courses Continue
Now into the fourth week, last night saw us into history of the industry up to 1850, having already looked at malt and grain production, the blend and maturation. The Scotch Whisky Trail Certificate Course is a good wee group of a dozen bar staff, private consumers, a ship's steward and a whisky writer. One, last week, announced that he had been to many courses over the course of his life and that this was "by far, the best course I have ever been on!" Made me feel good.
The great thing about this course is that the students are coming in with already formed, pre-conceived ideas and the course opens their eyes to how good some brands (especially blends) are which they had previously discounted as poor.
The Advanced Course, running for the first time, is very different and looks at some obscure areas of the industry from obtuse angles. The students taste whiskies blind and are becoming very proficient at identifying regional and local characteristics in the whiskies. They say that they are finding the course difficult which I am pleased about because have I found it dfficult to create the course materials. I certainly wouldn't iike the students to find things easy!
Attached is a picture of the students enjoying themselves on the Whisky Trail Course.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
New whisky course
It has been a long time since my last post - a lot has happened, but we will continue. The world is still turning.
The first running of The Advanced Whisky Trail course occurred last night. Some people missing and others unable to attend the course this year. My students have been badgering me for this course for the past half dozen years or so.
Anyway, the first night saw an examination of the characteristics which arrive through foreshots and/or feints, metallic, sulphury and off-notes, their causes and manifestations. What difference 2/3/4 distillations makes. What makes a good whisky? And "Beyond subjectivity".
Another running of The Scotch Whisky Trail Certificate Course starts tonight. I am not convinced in the effectiveness of the college's administration. Student Services they call it...
We'll see how it goes.
The first running of The Advanced Whisky Trail course occurred last night. Some people missing and others unable to attend the course this year. My students have been badgering me for this course for the past half dozen years or so.
Anyway, the first night saw an examination of the characteristics which arrive through foreshots and/or feints, metallic, sulphury and off-notes, their causes and manifestations. What difference 2/3/4 distillations makes. What makes a good whisky? And "Beyond subjectivity".
Another running of The Scotch Whisky Trail Certificate Course starts tonight. I am not convinced in the effectiveness of the college's administration. Student Services they call it...
We'll see how it goes.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Premium bottlings
Following my post of yesterday, I have had a long intercourse with a couple of my students about whether or not a bottling such as Glengoyne 40 Years Old is at £3,750.00 per bottle value for money. One argued that the value of the liquid wasn't in question, but that most whisky drinkers would prefer to buy the whisky in an ordinary bottle, then they would be able to drink it. To buy a bottling in an expensive decanter with its wooden box and associated add ons just gives items which the drinker doesn't need - or want, he argued.
The other side was also put, by me, that the bottlers are making a statement in wrapping their superlative product in crystal and adding on extras, such as a booklet detailing what was happening in the world on the day that the whisky was distilled. And then cocooning it in a highly polished container.
The bottle which started all this is in the attached image.
Monday, 5 October 2009
Wigtown Book Festival
Just back from Wigtown and the Wigtown Book Festival, http://www.wigtownbookfestival.com/index and, more specifically, Whisky & Words, a festival within a festival.
I was doing a tasting at midnight on 1st October and launching Bladnoch 8 years old, the oldest bottling produced by the distillery's current management and a pretty wonderful glassful, see my tasting notes.
The midnight tasting was titled "Flavours of Whisky" and is the content of a project I am currently working on. Being midnight, there was not a great turnout, but they were very receptive and some had not experienced such an event before.
As it was the first time I had delivered this presentation, I wasn't sure how it would work out, but it went very well indeed. Tying the various whiskies in with the characters of flavour which I find in them. The revelation for me was the marriage of Caol Ila 12 yo with freshly sliced oranges. It was magnificent.
The event was also attended by Gavin Smith, Hans & Becky Offringa (the Whisky Couple), Charlie Maclean, Neil Wilson, Ian Buxton, Richard Paterson, David Wishart, Helen Arthur and Tom Morton. We had a great time. It was the first time that the whisky festival side of it had run, although the book festival is now into its tenth year and it may be run again in 2011, setting a timetable as a biannual event. There was not a high attendance for some of the events, but the calibre of those who attended was high. Word will spread!
Tasted Dutch Whisky for the first time thanks to Hans, from Zuidam Distillers in Baarle Nassau - again see my tasting notes.
I was doing a tasting at midnight on 1st October and launching Bladnoch 8 years old, the oldest bottling produced by the distillery's current management and a pretty wonderful glassful, see my tasting notes.
The midnight tasting was titled "Flavours of Whisky" and is the content of a project I am currently working on. Being midnight, there was not a great turnout, but they were very receptive and some had not experienced such an event before.
As it was the first time I had delivered this presentation, I wasn't sure how it would work out, but it went very well indeed. Tying the various whiskies in with the characters of flavour which I find in them. The revelation for me was the marriage of Caol Ila 12 yo with freshly sliced oranges. It was magnificent.
The event was also attended by Gavin Smith, Hans & Becky Offringa (the Whisky Couple), Charlie Maclean, Neil Wilson, Ian Buxton, Richard Paterson, David Wishart, Helen Arthur and Tom Morton. We had a great time. It was the first time that the whisky festival side of it had run, although the book festival is now into its tenth year and it may be run again in 2011, setting a timetable as a biannual event. There was not a high attendance for some of the events, but the calibre of those who attended was high. Word will spread!
Tasted Dutch Whisky for the first time thanks to Hans, from Zuidam Distillers in Baarle Nassau - again see my tasting notes.
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