Loose that chill

On both of my recent trips to London, I've brought home a bottle of non-chill filtered single malt from the smallish duty free that is available at the City Airport - a 10 years old Ardbeg and a 16 years old Glenlivet "Nadurra". This is noteworthy because I think (I hope) it's indicative of a trend: distillers seem to increasingly loose the chill-filtering process. As a veteran member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, I've grown to love their stuff, all of which is cask samples, i.e. not chill filtered and undiluted. To me, chill filtering is nonsensical as it removes not just clouding factor caused by etheric oils, but also a major taste dimension that is fairly easily discernible to the palate. Luckily this realisation seems to be gaining traction. So, next time you are having a Scotch (or two), try the difference. You're not going to want to go back.

Ben's Cookies

My London trips have gained another regular stop: Shortly before departure, I'll go down to Ben's Cookies store at the South Kensington tube station to get a selection of freshly made cookies to take home. Absolutely delicious! I'm glad there's no outlet near where I live ...

Email in Sch�nenbuch

Die Weltwoche ist zwar auch nicht mehr, was sie mal war (daher ist sie jetzt auch abbestellt), aber wenn sie schon die Gastrokritik eines der beiden Restaurants meines Wohnorts bringt, muss sie zitiert werden: "Email hat hier drin noch nichts mit elektronischer Post zu tun, sondern ist ein Schmelz�berzug, mit dem man vor Urzeiten Reklameschilder verzierte". Gute Idee - lies selbst.

The Distillery List

I am a veteran member (#303) of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Swiss Branch, and I enjoy their bottlings a lot, especially from distillery 1. I used to keep the distillery list online myself, but since you only get it when you join, it would be rather dated by now. So here I found a pretty current one - thanks Julian!

Sir Peter's taste for swan

Speaking of Scotland: I came across a reference to Udal law and feudal tenure in Scotland in an article in the University of Edinburgh Journal. This led me to this rather amusing article about Sir Peter's alleged felony to partake of the remains of a deceased swan (Monty Python, anyone?). I guess I'll never know whether Sir Peter actually did time in the Tower, but it certainly was enlightening to read about it.�

Complete satisfaction at Stucki's

It's been almost three years that I've been there last, but apparently I need to go again very soon! Especially now that the best chef that I've ever encountered has received a glowing review in the Financial Times ("faultless"), which alludes to the rumour that the restaurant will soon obtain its second Michelin star. This will invariably hike the price tag, so ...

Quatorze juillet

What better way to while away a sweltering Sunday afternoon than going to the nicely air conditioned Fondation Beyeler to see the special exhibition about Edvard Munch which is on display for just another week? The exhibition assembles a great selection of works spanning all his life. And what an angst-ridden life that must have been - speak about inner demons. I was not aware that love, angst, death can be seen as a unity, but Edvard Munch clearly achieved that.

The previous evening was spent more unequivocally pleasantly. I've had C&R over for a nice barbecue that was started with a beautiful 1990 mill�sime and concluded with a much older Scotch to go with the fireworks to celebrate the French national holiday from the neighbouring French communities. A great evening that we vowed to repeat in following years.

Quirky pleasures

Food posts are anathema to blog critics, but I don't care much about them, so I keep them coming occasionally. Also, there's the food tag introduced with this post. Speaking of tags: you may have noticed those creeping up here lately - the reason for that is that I finally was allowed to switch over to the new version of Blogger. This was a bit of an issue because my blog is not hosted on blogspot, but that works now. Since blogger now offers custom domains, I have another decision to make.

But back to the food post: I've extended my foray into English wines, hence the title. We've tasted the Chapel Down Pinot Noir 2003 in combination with a raclette. To everybody's surprise, it turned out to be a rather pleasant, light wine! Obviously expectations were not exactly excessive, but they were matched. Nonetheless, I don't think I'll go through the pain of buying it at Fortnum & Mason's & bringing it back home again ... it was just a quixotic experiment that earned a few good laughs. There's still another bottle of white Chapel Down in the fridge, waiting for the next occasion. Maybe I'll play this album that I just downloaded from Magnatune.

Oh yes, before I forget: Happy New Year!