Michael Jackson, on the road, With an ear for a great whisky
A columnist in the San Francisco Chronicle, Stan Delaplane, popularised “Irish Coffee”. He introduced it to the Buena Vista bar, at
Fisherman’s Wharf, after encountering it as a warming drink at Shannon Airport. This questionable concoction sold a lot of Irish whiskey but did it also limit the app...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 15 published on 16/4/2001
Michael Jackson on the road again, testifies to the magic of malt... and music
Paris. Around midnight. No, it's later: the wee small hours. The dinner is long over, whiskies and all. Robin Laing has poured out the last of his vocal tributes to the water of life. Norma Monro has moistened our eyes Westering Home. They have acknowledged the applause, put their guitars back in th...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 14 published on 16/2/2001
Michael Jackson makes an exception for the Emperor of Japan.
Royalty continues to attach itself to me. I discovered that the organiser of my annual malt-tasting in
Minneapolis is announcing in his posters that I once performed for the Emperor of Japan. This complete untruth must have arisen from a quite different episode.
I once gave a beer-tasting at the B...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 13 published on 16/12/2000
Michael Jackson digresses democratically
When jazz musician Eubie Blake was congratulated upon his hundredth birthday, he commented: “Had I known I would live this long, I would have looked after myself better.” Shortly afterwards, he died. This shows how unreliable centenarians can be.
The Queen Mother’s ton-up has been covered more tha...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 12 published on 16/11/2000
Michael Jackson reports on a hot night in Bowmore
The news seemed to have spread the 10 miles from Port Ellen like a peat fire. That's why the village hall at Bowmore was having difficulty coping with the crowd. Only 25 people had booked in advance, but 120 more jostled around the entrance. In a village-hallish sort of way, it was like the podium ...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 11 published on 16/9/2000
Michael Jackson, Master of the Quaich, in sheepish mood.
Had I fallen asleep in the passenger seat, or had I really stepped out for the afternoon in a place called Rainbow Village, in Saint Cloud, Minnesota?
It sounded like America at its most conservative, but even such prairie parishes accommodate jazz musicians who know Eddie Condon's hangover cure (...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 10 published on 16/6/2000
Michael Jackson joins the poitin patrol, in prepartation for St Patrick's Day on Friday 17 March.
There is a perfectly legal Irish whiskey called Paddy, and that is what the label before me announced. However, the contents of the bottle were the colour of water, smelled slightly of silage, and had a suspiciously hot finish. "This is a good one. You could drink this all
night and have no hangover...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 9 published on 16/4/2000
Good things take a while, sometime decades to reach their best. Michael Jackson makes the case for prizing maturity... and animal warmth
You may call me “Sir”. My knighthood is in the post, so to speak, though it may take a while. I have just hit the road to publicise the latest edition of my Malt Whisky Companion, the fourth in 10 years. At this rate, it will take only 60 years or so to reach the 29th edition. That fine version, by ...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 7 published on 16/12/1999
Which whisky wins the bookish prize? Self's Laphroaig, Black's Glenfiddich 18 ...or Michael Jackson's Bellow Bourbon?
What do you like to read with your bedtime whisk(e)y? Or do you choose the whisky to suit the author? It has been a while since I had a Bellow’s Bourbon with its namesake Saul. On the other hand, Philip Roth and a risqué whiskey is always a pleasure. A shot of wry, so to speak, with Mordecai Richler...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 6 published on 16/10/1999
Whisky is for sniffing, drinking and dabbing your ears, Michael Jackson explains, Calvin Klein would understand.
We had discussed the oak in the casks, which dated from before World War One, and considered the infuence of their position in the warehouse. Now we were sampling the contents. My enthusiastic host, Australian winemaker Mick Morris of Rutherglen, Victoria, first offered me a Shiraz, then a fino-styl...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 5 published on 4/8/1999
In the matter of marketing, Michael Jackson proposes that Scotland take a lesson from Florida
When Florida's orange-growers felt that their juice was not selling sufficiently well, they launched an advertising campaign pointing out that ‘It's not just for breakfast’. American students responded with tee-shirts illustrated with a glass of beer and bearing the same slogan. Maybe we should do t...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 4 published on 13/6/1999
inspired in the two Gravediggers, Michael Jackson seeks a provocative pint and a combative ball of malt
The most famously well-kept Scottish ale was for decades the McEwan’s 80/- in an Edinburgh pub officially called The Athletic Arms but universally known (because it was between two cemeteries) as ‘The Gravediggers’. Oddly, the publican who kept such a good cellar did not himself drink alcohol.
The...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 3 published on 13/5/1999
Michael Jackson has a story of seduction, and a moral for all would-be seducers
The first year we shared bed and board, I greeted my girlfriend on Valentine’s morning with a glass of Champagne, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. We raised a toast with the Taittinger, she enjoyed the eggs and loved the salmon, but none of it had quite the effect for which I had hoped. She stroked...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 2 published on 16/3/1999
Michael Jackson refutes the belief that new devotees of whisky want blandness in thei drams
Where does one start with malts? This has to be the question I am most often asked. Normally I would say: start with something relatively mild in flavour, perhaps a Lowlander like Auchentoshan or Glenkinchie, or one of the gentler Speysiders, maybe Cardhu or Knockando.
A remarkably common comment c...
By Michael Jackson
from Issue 1 published on 12/1/1999
