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Water of Life

Buffalo Trace Distillery: Neat – screening and tasting

Golden Age Cinema and Bar

Sydney, Australia

September 24, 2018

We have covered quite a few whiskey-centric events within the confines of the Water of Life series, yet every now and then there is one that stands out. Whiskey Hunt Australia the screening of David Altrogge’s NEAT: The Story of Bourbon, a feature length documentary that dives into the rich and storied world of bourbon.

After being proffered an excellently mixed cocktail on arrival in the Golden Age Cinema Bar, we were ushered into what previously was used as an intimate, private screening room for Paramount Pictures.

NEAT: The Story of Bourbon is in essence a classy, crafted and thoroughly engaging story about not only bourbon, but the people behind the liquid emissions, specifically characters like Castle and Key Master Distiller Marianne Barnes and third generation Buffalo Trace employee Freddie Johnson.

Following the chronological timeline of America’s native spirit, from the distillation of whiskey by early pioneers to the current thriving bourbon environment, distillers from the major American bourbon distilleries move the history along, preaching their love of the spirit along the way, only interjected by actor Steve Zahn’s quips, presenting educational Bourbon fun facts. 

Not that much cinematographic animation was needed to get your humble narrator into the mood for a Bourbon tasting, but the beautifully shot documentary certainly set the tone for the classy evening that was to ensue and enhanced the appreciation for the history and process of Bourbon making.

What followed was a Buffalo Trace Distillery masterclass, MC’ed by whisky-phile par excellence Gee David from Southtrade, who took us through some of the Bourbon’s discussed that were discussed in the film, which served as a seamless extension.

Proceedings were kicked off with an interesting taste of Buffalo Trace White Dog, with the name being a telling one as it was given to a whiskey of the unaged variant. What normally would prove to be a great cocktail ingredient, set the foundation of the expressions that were to follow.

Buffalo Trace itself is a reliable bourbon but things were taken up a few notches with Blantons Gold. Delicioso: A refined Bourbon with predominant vanilla, dried fruits, raisings and citrus notes rounded out with a bit of peppery spice and a full bodied nose.

Named after the maverick who gave birth to Buffalo Trace Distillery’s single barrel offerings, i.e. Elmer T Lee, the next expression was a rich and perfectly balanced exercise in what a great Bourbon should taste like. A thing of beauty.

E.H. Taylor Single Barrel was next – a fulminant melange of spicy notes based on a bed of oak, leaving an aftertaste of plums, fruits and hints of figs after hitting the palate with its buttery texture. The fact that its long finish is veiled in smokiness only adds to the flavour. Dangerously more-ish.

The highlight of the evening was a dram of the incredible Pappy Van Winkle‘s 20 year old. As the tasting was accompanied by cheese and charcuterie boards, the sweetness of the Pappy van Winkle made it a perfect digestif.

Nuts, spices, white chocolate and stewed fruits are only a few of the many nuances that serenade this rich and soft bourbon as it caresses once palate with its silky, borderline Cognac-ey sublime oak and custard flavours. It leaves one with a crescendo of honey, prune and pepper . . . and lusting for more.

Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream set a counterpoint to the previous drams, with its cholocate-y, vanilla-ey character that culminated with a kick of cinnamon.

An evening that was a masterfully executed ode to everything Bourbon, tackling all senses in equal measures.

Read more Water of Life entries here.

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Neat graphic courtesy of Whiskey Hunt Australia, event photo by T

Whiskey! The Show

Sir Stamford Plaza

Sydney, Australia

September 21, 2018

If you are not averse to enjoying a good dram, visiting a well-curated whiskey festival is a delight as a potpourri of open bottles with the old faithful present themselves with new expressions one has not had the opportunity to sample before.

On terra australis, the ever evolving Alchemist Events’ Liquor Shows under the benign guidance of maestro and whisky connoisseur par excellence David Ligoff, co-founder of the only specialised whisky shop in Australia, i.e. World of Whisky, have become a veritable  juggernaut, with shows held throughout the year changing the foci from whiskey to gin and delightful quality libations in between.

This time Whiskey! The Show was a celebration of bourbon, rye and American whiskies. Around a dozen of different exhibitors showcased a selection of new releases alongside old favourites and staples known from your liquor cabinet sourced from the USA and Canada, with all whiskey samples being included in the ticket price and a pop-up shop selling whiskies at discounted prices as you exited through the gift shop.

With a focus on bourbons, the list of exhibitors read like a who’s who of the industry. Legendary distillers, blenders and the biggest names in whisky descended on Circular Quay with an array of over fifty different whiskies being proffered for tasting, flanked by Bourbon and Rye cocktails that were specifically created for the event at the Sir Stamford’s Bar.

One of our favourites of the show was a new discovery:

Yellowstone’s Distiller’s Reserve is a smooth, skilfully selected bourbon featuring hand-picked blends of sweet, spicy, and smoky bourbons, each selected to give this golden chestnut coloured whiskey a taste that has nuances of smoked caramel on the nose and finishes in a melange of smoky oak and brown sugar. A delight.

Never not a delight is the classic Jack Daniels range, culminating in the homage to old blue eyes, i.e. the fantastic Sinatra Select: If you read our feature of the Ardbeg Grooves release, you’d be familiar with the casks being used for this one: Deep grooves are cut into the staves of the casks increasing the amount of exposure the whiskey has to the wood. The result is a warm and rich marriage of caramel, hints of smoke and vanilla. Dangerously more-ish and one for special occasions.

The fulminant finish of the event came courtesy of Willet Distillery: Their 3 Year Old Rye is created with stock distilled after their re-opening in 2012. Following a first distillation taking place in their 60-foot tall column still, following by a second distillation in a copper pot still and rounded out with a maturation in white oak barrels with a level 4 char. The result makes one contemplate on finding the right vocabulary to do it justice as it takes you on a journey running the gamut from sweet to savoury, spicy to fruity along with a herbaceous palate and a peppery sweet finish.

Not unlike with previous incarnations, The Whisky Show has once again proven why it has established itself as a go-to event for anyone remotely into the water of life.

Given that David Ligoff and his team like to keep things interesting by curating each event, one cannot wait until the line-up for the next event will be released.

Until then one of Alchemist Events’ cheese and whisky tastings shall tide us over.

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Photos by @k.a.vv

Big Poppa’s Cheese Club

September 23, 2018

Sydney, Australia

Equilibrium.

Balance.

Yin and yang.

Ebony and ivory.

The fusion of seemingly different components merge their features to something bigger than the sum of its parts would suggest. Musings on the need to be aside, pairing artisanal cheese with a decent wine is never not a winning combination in the flavour bliss department – a department that forms the foundation and vantage point for the fine people behind the hip hop themed destination restaurant Big Poppa’s, their trademarked Cheese Club and its objective to hit harmonious notes while gently taking its members outside the zones they would normally feel comfortable in.

Big Poppa’s expertise, when it comes to classic pairings, does not result in them claiming that they know it all. Appreciating that everyone’s palate is different and unique, they provide different combinations as part of their carefully curated sessions.

Acknowledging that every country has its own individual identity and that cheese and wine will often have evolved side by side in particular parts of the world, they take it a step further and pair e.g. Australian grown Italian wines with cheeses from other corners of this earthround chosen by Big Poppa’s executive chef, Liam Driscoll – which was the case for tonight’s sessions.

Andrew Jamieson, the mastermind behind Andrew Jamieson Wine Merchants' is usually responsible for helping to blend Big Poppas’ House Wine pours. Tonight he was expertly educating us about Italian varietals, their acidity levels, tannin, their attributes and how they have been successfully grown and cultivated on terra australis, while Big Poppa’s bar manager and hardcore turophile Chris Garner MC’ed through the textures and idiosyncrasies of the cheese offerings.

The proceedings were kicked off with a crisp and young dub style skin contact Vermentino Mc Laren from South Australia whose delicate acidity met a delicate and milky, fatty and dense Penny Bu, which cut through the latter’s heavy and rounded character.

The highlight of the evening came next with Inkwell’s Primitivo Mc Laren paired with an earthy and sharp Trebbione Sheep Pecorino from the Tuscany before affairs were rounded out with a Siamo & Co. Nebbiolo from Alpine Valleys in Victoria, which was paired with a melange of a rich and funky sheep and goat milk mild and a luscious Testun Al Barolo from the Piedmont region, which again conveyed the quintessential flavours of Italy with its intensity, tang, saltiness and depth of flavour.

Was the aforementioned one long delicious run-on sentence? Well – good, because it accurately describes the evening.

A rich and sweet glass of the Old Redemption XO Tawny was proffered to finish affairs and left one lusting and intrigued for what Big Poppa’s will be planning for the next instalment.

If you are ever in Sydneytown and not averse to cheese, vino and Italian fare in an ambience that is accentuated by constant serenade of classic hop hop, it would be hard to go past Big Poppa’s.

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Photos by @k.a.vv

Delacroix

Barthelemy Jobert.

Princeton University Press

Alright – Eugene Delacroix.

To describe this French craftsman as “prolific” would be an understatement par excellence. His oeuvre is expansive and very diverse and it is not for a lack of trying to cover all aspects of it, as there is a myriad of books tackling his output from a vast array of angles – angles which tend to change throughout the ages.

Barthelemy Jobert is a luminary when it comes to his subject, i.e. being professor of Art History at the university of the Sorbonne, his tome on Delacroix is informed by the extensive access to his illustrations from all major galleries in France along with elaborations on Delacroix’ ornaments that adorn Paris’ public buildings, which is particularly interesting as most of them are usually not open to the public.

Despite his academic background, Jobert shares his insights in an accessible and engaging manner that caters to both the uninitiated as well as the scholar.

His book is thoughtful, well-paced and he does not hold back with his conclusions and how he arrived at them. If you are not familiar with Delacroix, it is hard to imagine that you could source a better guide to induct you.

What I like about Delacroix is the ferocious manner in which he borderline attacks motifs, which radiates from his paintings. This opulently illustrated book does justice to the detailed depictions of blossoms along with topical biblical and Shakespearean compositions, his strong grasp of architecture and the authentic and attentive homages to wild life, which still inspire terror and awe in equal measures.

If you are remotely into 19th-century European art, it would be your loss if you missed out on this frank portrait of Delacroix – an artist that is commonly considered both the first modern artist and last classical artist. An artist whose emissions elicited a powerful riposte that is partly due to his adulation for the old masters, which reverberates in each of his paintings.

Home for Surrealism

Arts Club of Chicago

Surrealism. Dreamlike paintings.

Salvador Dali and his works spring to mind.

Not necessarily Chicago, however, as this book illustrates the windy city and the Midwest in general seemed to have been fertile ground for surreal artists in the mid of the twentieth century.

A Home for Surrealism depicts those paintings, which were created by artists that took the European school of surrealism, reflected on it and made it their own. Their redefinitions of surrealism run the gamut from upbeat daydreaming to having the abyss of nightmares gazing back into you, depending on the individual psyche of their creators – which is an interesting point of difference: Traditional surrealism was more or less a movement of sorts, partly politically inspired, while the American equivalent is more of an exploration of the mind and imaginations spurned by it.

The book comprises meditations, depictions of landscapes, self-portraits and many other styles created with different media and methods of painting.

If one had to determine a common denominator, it would be the meticulous approach and the nuances in which things are intentionally wrongly depicted. If one was to contextualise the Midwestern surrealist movement of the 1940s and -50s, it stood out against the predominant trends of the era, an era where abstract expressionism reigned supreme, by interpreting the European movement as something more personal and accessible and merging it with fantasy – fuelled by jazz, blues and Beatnik traditions.

The book supports the notion that Surrealism in Chicago, i.e. the refusal of the status quo and the embracing of the unreal, in Chicago shaped and reverberated through the arts scene in the Midwest ever after – along with what appears to be an innate desire to question and redefine things that seem to be set in stone.

Sydney Contemporary Opening Night

Carriageworks

Sydney, Australia

September 12, 2018

Basics first: If you zone in on Australasia’s Art Fair, Sydney Contemporary is a brightly shining beacon that attracts an eclectic melange of renowned and upcoming artists,  local and international galleries, collectors, connoisseurs, aficionados, industry professionals and art loving public on terra australis.

With Carriageworks, the multi-disciplinary art precinct, serving as the stage, a myriad of curated sectors, e.g. installations, talks, workshops and performances in form of a multitude of presentations and media pervading every nook and cranny of the vast venue the previous Eveleigh provides.

Ever since its inception, Sydney Contemporary Opening Night has never not been a highlight of the social calendar and claiming that the evening is condensed with events, performances and entertainment would be an understatement par excellence.. This year was certainly no exception:

A ritualistic performance was staged Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year 2018 dancers in collaboration with Paris-based Australian Visual Artist Mel O’Callaghan: Pervading the crowds, the dancers underwent a breathing ritual fueled by a musical score that serenaded the performance.

The elemental and explosive connections between earth and the air were explored by Emilty Parsons-Lord  via a volatile pyrotechnic performance with the fireworks being coloured and merged with minerals.

Lauren Brincat paid tribute to Carriageworks as a venue with a site-specific dialogue between two drummers, who explored the space sonically and percussively.

Not that there was much doubt but he fourth, and now annual, Sydney Contemporary 2018 is a living proof that Sydney has firmly cemented itself as the presenter as Australia’s pre-eminent art fair with local and international galleries and artworks by big names like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin along locals like  Ben Quilty, Tracey Moffat, Reno Rekkie and Patricia Piccinini.

While the event map is a useful and needed resource because of the wealth of exhibits and performances, tumbling down the corridors of Sydney Contemporary at Carriageworks without any guidance is a rewarding and gratifying experience: A voyage of surprise and delight as literally every time one turns a corner, some new and exciting can be discovered – especially from galleries, exhibitors and artists that so far have not been on your radar.

Both the 2017 and 2018 incarnations of Sydney Contemporary were expertly-curated events and borderline overwhelming experience that makes one simmer with excitement for 2019.

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Photos by @k.a.vv