Normally I don't drink hard liquor with dinner; the exception is that I occasionally like a little Tequila or mezcal with Mexican food. But whisky, for me, is something to enjoy after the meal.
Last week I attended a Scotch-pairing dinner hosted by the makers of Highland Park, who were introducing their new 40-year-old bottling, which sells for a rich $2000.
Highland Park makes some great whisky. I particularly like their 18-year-old, a relative bargain at about $85. It's spicy, rich and fruity, with a chocolatey on the smooth finish.
But does Scotch, even good Scotch, go with dinner? Chef Mark Sullivan at Spruce restaurant in San Francisco was tasked with proving that it does.
A couple of his dishes succeeded marvellously. The opening course of French Pumpkin Soup with Chestnuts & Sage was a great success. It was paired with the Highland Park 15-year-old, smooth with a mild peatiness, but it also went well with the other Scotches on the table.
The key was the richness of the soup -- creamy, very slightly sweet, with noticeable nuttiness that played well with the whisky's flavor profile.
The second biggest hit was dessert: Nougat Parfait with Vanilla-Roasted Apple and Scotch Caramel. The apples were poached in Muscat and finished with some of the 25-year-old Scotch served with the dish. I don't recommend pouring a $250 whisky on your own dessert, but surely a cheaper Scotch would work just as well. (Maybe not Old Smuggler ...)
I loved the Savory Roasted Rabbit with French Lentils and Chantenay Carrots, and it was also quite good with the 30-year-old Scotch. But to be fair, this dish would have been excellent with a huge range of drinks: white or red wine, sake, beer, cider, you name it. So I credit Sullivan for making a great, booze-friendly dish, though I don't know if it was Scotch-specific.
Highland Park's story is interesting. The distillery is way, way up in northern Scotland in the Orkney Isles. The remoteness is the only reason the company still has enough single-malt to make the 40-year-old.
Back in the '80s, blended Scotch made up the majority of sales, and the industry was suffering, so most distilleries sold their single-malt barrels to go into blends (Chivas Regal, Johnnie Walker, etc.)
Highland Park would have done the same thing, but the transport costs from Orkney meant they weren't competitive on price. So the distillery suffered through hard times with a lot of whisky aging, unsellable, in its cellars.
In the '90s, single malts took off, and now many distilleries found themselves with shortages. There's no way to go back in time 25 years and make more single-malt whisky; you just have to wait. But here's Highland Park, sitting pretty on a surplus.
I'll be honest: The $2,000 40-year-old was only my second-favorite whisky of the night, after the 18-year-old. It's very rich, and much peatier than the rest of the lineup, with molasses and cocoa notes and a very long finish. If you should splurge at a cocktail bar for a taste, do NOT add a wee drop of water -- the whisky did get a rounder texture with water, but a less interesting flavor and a shorter finish.
I also preferred the 25-year-old (noticeably sweet, with notes of molasses and caramel corn) to the harder-edged, more expensive 30-year-old.
The 40-year-old was not served with dinner; it came afterward on its own. This mildly undermined the message that you can have Scotch with your food. But I did come away from the dinner with a new appreciation for Scotch's food-friendliness. Hold the haggis, please.
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