The whisky lesson
Michael Jackson, friend of malt, learns the British way
One of my favourite restaurants is owned by a chef called Greg Higgins. When he decided to start his own place, he agonised over names, as any of us would. âWhy donât you call it Higgins?â his wife eventually suggested. So he did. An unpretentious name for a gastronomically serious restaurant. Higgins is in one of the worldâs most pleasant cities, but one that is not especially well known. South of Seattle and north of San Francisco (and perhaps overshadowed by both), Portland, Oregon, has virtues of its own. We will hear more of Portland in the future â take my word for it.
The Pacific coast state of Oregon has excellent fish, grows wine grapes, pears and malting barley. In 1984, a local family that owned a winery started the Columbia River brew-pub, making rather Scottish-tasting malty ales. The Portland metro area now has about two dozen breweries, more than any other city in the world. Steve McCarthy was an environmental lawyer, a job in tune with Oregonian preoccupations, but turned to another pursuit well-suited to the landscape. He set up the Clear Creek Distillery to make pear brandies. He has also, more recently, begun to distil barley-malt so that Oregon now has its own whisky (several âboutiqueâ whiskies are now being produced in the northern part of the West Coast). Such a career transformation is common place in the United States, especially the west.
This land of wine, beer and whisky first beckoned me more than two decades ago. I stayed at Po.....
To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue
or subscribe to Whisky Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.
You can unlock and read this entire article with 1 of your community tokens by clicking here.
By Michael Jackson
Section : Musings with Michael Jackson
Page number : 7
