A few months ago I bought a
Bruichladdich 15 year 2nd Edition. Upon opening the tin I found a small booklet inside that listed Bruichladdich's available vintages. Among 13 of the listed vintages 9 displayed a brief tasting note along with a "Wine Match"... The pairings read as follows:
Bruichladdich vintage - wine match:
10 yr -
Aperitif
12 yr -
Savennieres
15 yr -
Viognier
17 yr -
Riesling
20 yr -
Chardonnay
1989 -
Pinot Gris
1973 -
Le Musigny
1970 -
Pinot Noir
1965 -
Cabernet/Merlot
More amused than interested I slid the booklet back into the tin and poured a double neat and forgot all about it... But a few days ago I was flipping through the most recent issue of
Malt Advocate and came across an interview with Jim McEwan, current Production Director @ Bruichladdich.
(great issue by the way. The entire thing is dedicated to Islay)
In the interview McEwan talks about, what Bruichladdich calls,
ACE-ing or Additional Cask Enhancement. Basically it's just "finishing", but they experiment with a lot of different casks. According to the interview some of the casks they use are Barolo, Barbaresco, Tempranillo and Zinfandels. Obviously using wine casks to store Scotch isn't new, but this is the first I've heard of enhancing a Scotch so much that you could easily pair it with a wine?
Now I'm pretty sure most people have done a Scotch-Beer pairing, but has anyone tried a Scotch-Wine pairing? I'm very interested, but it also sounds like it could be a recipe for a hangover disaster...
~GS
Greasy Spoon