I've gotta say, whisky has played a large part in every novel
I've written (Lord help me). But I don't think I've ever had
this rye thing. JD and Jim Beam are the only US whiskies I
think I've had. But no, it's scotch all the way in my writing
world. Laphroaig, Black Bottle, Grants or something.
To me Rye is a train station in South London.
Charlie.
---------- charliewilliams.net
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Con Lehane" <con@...>
wrote:
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, david david
<davividavid@>
wrote:
> >
> > I haven't had much to say lately, but this
topic is
> > right down my gullet:
> >
> > Old Overholt (or old overcoat, as afficianados
have
> > affectionately nicknamed it) is a good, smooth,
light
> > bodied starter rye. I actually think it works
better
> > >
>
> Once more, I'm astounded by the erudition and arcane
knowledge of
this group of rare
> birds. I've read versions of the history David David
attributed to
Bettridge before, and
> assume it's accurate. But bourbon didn't replace rye
in the bars of
New York when I was
> familiar with them. When I was a young man around
the New York
bars, we used the term
> rye to refer to a bunch of blended
whiskeys--Imperial, Calvert,
Seagrams, and so on, (the
> Canadian whiskeys were call brands but understood to
be rye)---as
in rye and ginger, rye
> and soda, and so on. When I moved to Milwaukee and
ordered a rye
and water the first
> time, the grumbling bartender dug around the back
shelf for about
10 minutes before
> fishing out a dust-covered bottle of Old Overholt
straight rye that
I'd never in my life
> heard of. The bar liquor in Milwaukee in those days
was brandy, as
in brandy and sour,
> whatever the hell that was (though it was not sour,
as in whiskey
sour), and brandy and
> schnapps, for which a few drops of schnapps was
dribbled onto the
top of a shot of
> brandy--a forerunner of the shooters of later
decades. Regional
differences, I guess, in
> that world west of the Hudson.
>
> Con Lehane
>
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