特色

How to drink whiskey?

Frankly speaking, how to drink whiskey is a big project. If I hit my own face, how to drink whiskey? Drink with your mouth. Indeed, there is nothing to teach or how to learn about drinking. Drink it and feel it with your mouth. But now with the Internet, with a comparison mind, with “step by step” and “learning”, systematically “learning” whiskey has become a learning. I have a knowledge to support wine, but that is limited to people who take this profession, because the industry needs to communicate and needs to use the system to guide guests. But the guests don’t necessarily need it, the guests just need to drink happily and afford it. If the guest’s money is not enough, we will help the guest find a cheaper wine that can meet the demand. For example, if you want to drag a car, you have money to buy a Porsche, no money to buy a BMW, and no money to buy a Mazda. It’s all the same thing. Wine may be high and low, but people are not. Moreover, whether it is a multimillionaire or a street cock, everyone’s true feelings are the same, there is no difference between high and low. Therefore, drinking “not tasteful” wine is just a problem of the wine itself. Don’t use this as an argument. So at this point, I will prepare a brief introduction white paper for everyone, talk about some of your favorite small problems, and let you do some popular science for everyone.

What can I drink and what should I drink?

Whiskey is a refined classification of grain distilled liquor. Around the world, the definition of whiskey is not exactly the same. But basically, whiskey refers to: distilled wine with fermented grains and the participation of malt. Aging process involving oak barrels. Except for some American honey whiskey and laurel whiskey, most whiskeys are also “original”, that is, after the barrel is finished, the whiskey does not add other flavor substances except for blending and downsizing.

But despite this theory, there are actually three main types of whiskey:

Scotch style whiskey, Irish style whiskey ,bourbon.

This point is of course to facilitate the explanation of the problem. For some well-known reasons, Taiwan, China, Japan, India, Australia, Denmark, France and other countries have participated in the whisky brewing. These factories also gradually have products on the market. You can define a Japanese whiskey style, but it doesn’t matter. Does Taiwanese whiskey have its own style, then India? What about Australia? What about Denmark? In fact, Japanese whiskey is Scotch style whiskey. There will not be any “contradiction” in a pile of Scotch whisky. That’s why I say this. Of course, there are indeed special products such as Mizunara barrels in Japanese whiskey, but it is obviously not suitable to be cost-effective-Nantou in Taiwan also has orange barrels and lychee barrels. Scotch whisky is distilled twice, mostly in old barrels, there will be pure malt, and mixed grains; Irish whiskey is distilled three times, mostly in old barrels, there will be pure malt, and mixed grains; Bourbon whiskey uses new barrels, will use such as rye , Wheat, corn and other raw materials, the proportion of barley malt is low. In fact, the difference between Scotch whiskey and Irish whiskey is not big. The biggest difference is the relationship between the two times and three distillations in the process-but in fact many Scottish distillation plants carry out three distillations. If you don’t understand it, you only need to know that the ancestor was Ireland, and later Scotland became the boss for historical reasons. Americans came up with fewer raw materials and used new oak barrels, a relatively low-end imitation called Bourbon. The difference between the two is that first of all, the Scottish-Irish style will be more slender (Ireland is particularly slender); Scotland will have a peat flavor; Bourbon whiskey is sweet, fragrant and rough. But it came to light on the paper. After I had a drink, I understood everything. For Bourbon, the famous Maker’s mark is the masterpiece. If you like Bourbon, you are happy in a sense. The world of Bourbon is not as fancy as Scotch whisky. Those wineries just drink it one by one. There are not many people who can get it in the country. It is very beautiful to have at least some Rye whiskey.

A Beginner’s Guide to Tasting and Appreciating Whiskey

Whiskey can definitely be regarded as a wine shared by the world. From the islands of Japan to the southern United States, people all over the world are looking for new and eye-catching wines while savoring the flavor of ancient whiskey. However, it is not easy to become a veteran of tasting no matter which country you are in.

If you want to truly become a connoisseur of whiskey, you can’t be shy to ask, and don’t be deterred by the variety of whiskeys. And for those who are arrogant and omniscient when it comes to whiskey, stay away from it. True whiskey lovers always want to know more and are willing to share their own experiences. In this spirit of sharing, this article lists some frequently asked questions about whiskey for readers.

What is the difference between whiskey, scotch and bourbon?

For this common question, even people who claim to be experts sometimes get the wrong answer. In fact, this is a problem with a trap, because whiskey itself contains multiple types of alcohol, and Scotch whiskey and bourbon are also among them. The names of Scotch Whisky and Bourbon are derived from place names: Scotland and the town of Bourbon in Kentucky, USA. However, unlike pure Scotch whisky that is only produced in Scotland, bourbon can be brewed in other regions of the United States outside of Kentucky.

“Whiskey” can refer to any kind of subordinate liquor, mainly including Irish whiskey, Japanese whiskey, Canadian whiskey, American whiskey, Scotch whiskey and bourbon. Whiskey enthusiasts and Irish drinkers may simply refer to Irish whiskey as simply “whiskey”, and only when they talk about other types of whiskey, they add place names.

Wait, is the spelling of whiskey “Whiskey” or “Whisky”?

The answer is that both are correct. “Whiskey” is the Irish spelling (used in Ireland and the United States), and “Whisky” is the Scottish spelling (used in Scotland, Canada, and Japan). Regardless of the spelling used, the source can be found in Ireland and Scotland, namely “uisge beatha” or “usquebaugh” in Gaelic, which means “water of life”, originally translated from the Latin “aqua vitae” , Used to describe spirits.

Where is the origin of whiskey?

Both Ireland and Scotland claim to be the birthplace of whiskey. However, food writer Kate Hopkins wrote in the book “99 Glasses of Whiskey” that neither country has conclusive evidence. She wrote: “Ask the scholar… he (she) is likely to shrug, and then noncommittal say to you, ‘the ghosts know that people in that place don’t seem to like to record history.’”

The manufacture of spirits can be traced back to at least 800 AD. When the Arab chemist Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan was distilled, he fermented the liquor into the original liquor. (Ie beer, wine or cider). The late Michael Jackson wrote a book about whiskey. According to him, when Irish and/or Scottish doctors were still trying to distill beer, there were already distilled liquors around the world. In this “Global Whisky Guide” by Jackson, he explained that the MacVey family (also known as the “Beatons”) were all doctors, and they were translating Arabic medical works. When the secret of distillation was discovered, the whiskey was the first to be brewed. As a doctor, the McVay/Beaton family has operations in Ireland and Scotland, which is why the source of whiskey is unknown. Let’s count as a tie for the time being.

How to make different whiskeys

Generally speaking, the process of making whiskey includes: (1) crushing grains (barley, corn, rye, wheat, etc.) to make broken malt; (2) adding water to make malt paste; (3) boiling the mixture and waiting It is cooled; (4) Yeast is added to decompose sugars and produce alcohol to complete the fermentation; (5) The water in the fermented liquid (equivalent to the beer that is usually drunk) is filtered out, and then the distillation equipment is used for distillation; (6) The resulting wine slurry is poured into wooden barrels for aging.

The following are the methods of making different whiskeys:

Scotch whisky is made of water and barley malt (barley that is soaked in water to cause it to germinate). The alcohol concentration after distillation is less than 98.4%. It is brewed in oak barrels with a capacity of no more than 700 liters for more than three years. The alcohol concentration when bottled is not less than 40%. Except for water and caramel for coloring, no additives should be added. According to the law, only whiskeys that comply with the above process and are brewed in Scotland can be called Scotch whiskies.

“Pure Malt” Scotch Whisky is made from malt and brewed in the same distillery, while “Pure Grain” Scotch Whisky is also brewed in the same distillery, but its raw materials include barley malt and other grains. “Bonded” Scotch whisky is a blended whiskey that is brewed in multiple distilleries.

Irish whiskey must be distilled to an alcohol concentration of less than 94.8% and brewed in wooden barrels for more than three years. According to the law, only whiskey brewed in Ireland in compliance with the above process can be called Irish whiskey.

There is at least 51% corn paste in the bourbon raw materials. The wine must be distilled until the alcohol concentration reaches 80%, and then mixed with water to bring the alcohol content to 62.5%, and then packed in unused carbonized oak barrels. Brew in the barrel and ensure that the bottling alcohol concentration is not less than 40%. According to the law, only whiskeys that comply with the above-mentioned processes and are brewed in the United States can be called bourbon whiskeys.

Tennessee whiskey is a bourbon whiskey produced in Tennessee and filtered through maple charcoal. Other American whiskeys include wines made from rye, corn, barley, and other grains, while blended American whiskies refer to whiskeys made from a blend of 20% American whiskey and 80% neutral alcohol.

How to drink whiskey

Sooner or later, a vocabulary related to spirits can come in handy when ordering at a bar. The vocabulary contained in it describes the way the bartender serves you wine. If you want a whisky at room temperature without any embellishments, remember to order neat whiskey. On the contrary, adding ice cubes (On the rocks) means that you want to add ice cubes to the glass before pouring the whiskey. Normally, straight up and “pure whiskey” have the same meaning, but such a statement often causes confusion. American bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler explained that because The word up contained in this word often means to cool and use a cocktail glass to serve the wine. You can also ask for a small amount of water when ordering whiskey, or you can ask for a water back, that is, another glass of water. Of course, there is nothing shy about expressing your preferences in other plain language when ordering wine. After all, drinking whiskey is not about memorizing words, it is important to enjoy the wine.

It is recommended to add a small amount of water when drinking whiskey. (For those liquors with higher standard alcohol content, that is, barreled original wine, you can add a little more water, because this kind of wine is not mixed with a little water when bottling.) Proper dilution can make your nose and tongue fully perceive the whiskey. Taste, because it counteracts the numbness caused by alcohol. This is the same as what the whisky taster said “water can help open the taste buds”.

When learning how to taste whiskey, consider its appearance, aroma (first the original whiskey, and secondly the diluted liquor), taste and taste. The famous whisky taster Charles MacLean (Charles MacLean) “Legend of Wine: Scotch Whisky” provides a quick plan for tasting whiskey, explaining in detail the method of brewing pure malt whiskey.

For more in-depth professional tasting, please refer to the Michael Jackson column of “Whiskey Magazine”.

Types of whiskey to try

Finally, we will list some wines worth tasting. Next time you visit a whisky bar (Dublin, Speyside, Kentucky, or any other place that loves whiskey), please pay attention to whether they have the types in the wine list below.

Bushmills 12 years: An Irish whiskey with a small amount of sherry, fruit and nuts
Connemara (Connemara) pure malt: peat whiskey, sweet, with a small amount of vanilla ingredients, produced in Ireland’s only independent distillery: Curry.


Dalwhinnie: Scotch whisky with heather aroma


Ezra B (Ezra B) single barrel: aged for 12 years, this bourbon has rich layers and flavors with spices and honey.


Glenfarclas 12 years: A pure malt Scotch whisky from Speyside, nutty, peaty and caramel aroma.


Talisker: Peaty Scotch Whisky from the Isle of Skye


Willett 8 years: Produced in Kentucky’s limited sale of bourbon, its standard liquor releases a mellow, smoky honey flavor.


Speaking of this, you must be eager to try and thirsty. Then you can toast to your heart’s content.

I dont like nothing about beer

“Beer. There’s nothing I don’t like about it. I love the smell, the taste—even the sound of it. The cool thunk of the cap coming off the bottle, the silvery crack of the pop-top can. The cold sweat of the container against the fingers on a sultry afternoon. Every drinker has their poison. I am a beer man. You need to sip a whiskey. And I was never a sipper. I was a guzzler. I loved the feeling of it: to open wide the mouth of the soul and pour a cold one down my throat, with my mind racing ever-forward toward the next. Beer was kind and faithful, like an old friend.”

“DE DAARU is the best bar and pub in Delhi, it has two bars in the city, the beer bar has food restaurant, with all kinds of drinks available like whiskey, rum, beer, scotch, vine, desi, tharra, Daru, alcohols.
We strive to make our Adda, the best of happiness with friends and family. Enjoy the good time at De daaru with pocket-friendly foods and a wide range of Daaru options starting from Absolut to Glenvid.

R2, Rectagle Building1, Unit 1 & 2, Saket New Delhi 110017
+917481000009”

“American beer drinkers had been conditioned to believe they were choosing Anheuser-Busch’s beer, but that was only half true; Anheuser-Busch had left them few other options.”

Whiskey was a good start

“The whiskey was a good start. I got the idea from Dylan Thomas. He’s this poet who drank twenty-one straight whiskeys at the White Horse Tavern in New York and then died on the spot from alcohol poisoning. I’ve always wanted to hear the bartender’s side of the story. What was it like watching this guy drink himself out of here? How did it feel handing him number twenty-one and watching his face crumple up before the fall of the stool? And did he already have number twenty-two poured, waiting for this big fat tip, and then have to drink it himself after whoever came took the body away?”

“To her own heart, which was shaped exactly like a valentine, there came a winglike palpitation, a delicate exigency, and all the fragrance of all the flowery springtime love affairs that ever were seemed waiting for them in the whisky bottle. To mingle their pain their handshake had promised them, was to produce a separate entity, like a child that could shift for itself, and they scrambled hastily toward this profound and pastoral experience.”

“Hemingway is overrated,
Twain is even more lost at sea,
And all truths point to the mouth of a woman,
Where both her whispers and her screams,
Are born.
Pour another glass,
Beer, wine, whiskey,
I don’t care,
So long as its wisdom is sharp,
And it tells lies instead of promises.”

“Lovecraft says he knows about tentacles
but that motherfucker never bedded a girl from
West Chester
and survived

She was a toothache
that one
and she tasted like crack
the best thing about her
was if I was ever hungry
I could always make a meal out of whatever
was making rest at the corners of her mouth
I can’t remember her name
as is the case with most of them
then again I can’t remember
how many donuts I ate this morning
or how many beers I’ll drink tonight,
tomorrow”

“Rage and hurt coalesce into a stone in my chest and as I take another gulp of my father’s prized whiskey, I hear myself say, “Tell me about your plan.”

Farewell, Timothy Riley’s Bar

“Farewell, Timothy Riley’s Bar,” Lane said softly. “Home of the nickel beer. Snooker emporium. Repository of Bluebird records, three for a dime. We honor you and your passing. Farewell. Farewell, Timothy Riley—and terraplanes and rumbleseats and saddle shoes and Helen Forrest and the Triple-C camps and Andy Hardy and Lum ‘n’ Abner and the world-champion New York Yankees! Rest in peace, you age of innocence—you beautiful, serene, carefree, pre-Pearl Harbor, long summer night. We’ll never see your likes again.”

“There are a thousand small honest breweries in this country that because they have been too poor and localized to compete with the big boys have been forced to close, or else operate under famous names while they turn out yeast, or hops, or some other important but unnamed ingredient of the main company’s beer. Now, with the trains full of soldiers and supplies rather than pale ale, perhaps people far from the great breweries will turn again to their local beer factories and discover, as their fathers did thirty years ago, that a beer carried quietly three miles is better than one shot across three thousand on a fast freight.”

“The Australian jewel beetle has sex with beer bottles.
The beetles are a light chocolate color with dimples all down their back and dark black legs and heads that peek out from underneath their carapeces. Their bodies are big and long instead of round, and they resemble cicadas more than they do ladybugs.
The male Australian jewel beetle is hardwired to like certain aspects about the female jewel beetle. They like females to be big, brown, and shiny. The bottles they make love to are bigger, browner, and shinier than any female could ever hope to be. In Australia, a certain type of bottle called stubbies overstimulates male jewel beetles. In a trash heap filled with bottles, you will often see every single stubby covered in male jewel beetles trying to get it on. The stubbies are what evolutionary psychologists call supernormal releasers. They are superstimuli, better than the real thing. The beetles will mate with these bottles even while being devoured by ants.”

Beer or Bill

“I look up at the sky, wondering if I’ll catch a glimpse of kindness there, but I don’t. All I see are indifferent summer clouds drifting over the Pacific. And they have nothing to say to me. Clouds are always taciturn. I probably shouldn’t be looking up at them. What I should be looking at is inside of me. Like staring down into a deep well. Can I see kindness there? No, all I see is my own nature. My own individual, stubborn, uncooperative often self-centered nature that still doubts itself–that, when troubles occur, tries to find something funny, or something nearly funny, about the situation. I’ve carried this character around like an old suitcase, down a long, dusty path. I’m not carrying it because I like it. The contents are too heavy, and it looks crummy, fraying in spots. I’ve carried it with me because there was nothing else I was supposed to carry. Still, I guess I have grown attached to it. As you might expect.”

“Never underestimate how much assistance, how much satisfaction, how much comfort, how much soul and transcendence there might be in a well-made taco and a cold bottle of beer.”

“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but in the very least you need a beer.”

“Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.”

Whisper stay

“I stood in your doorway this morning
dreaming you’d turn around
you’d tilt your head
you’d softly whisper ”stay”

or that you’d grab my arms
to shake me while asking
what the hell are we doing
we love
each other
and this is not right
so we will make this work
now stay!

You poured your coffee. Stirred the spoon like a crystal man
with your back to me and not a sound. the fridge humming elegies while the clock ticked on
and the streets are so clean here people rushing to work
and maybe I should be too
by now
at this age
this stage
this town.

I will stand in that doorway
dreaming
for many nights to come.”

Thoughtful white people know they are inferior to black people. Anyone who has studied the genetic phase of biology knows that white is considered recessive and black is considered dominant. When you want strong coffee, you ask for black coffee. If you want it light, you want it weak, integrated with white milk. Just like these Negroes who weaken themselves and their race by this integrating and intermixing with whites. If you want bread with no nutritional value, you ask for white bread. All the good that was in it has been bleached out of it, and it will constipate you. If you want pure flour, you ask for dark flour, whole-wheat flour. If you want pure sugar, you want dark sugar.

Whisper stay

“I stood in your doorway this morning
dreaming you’d turn around
you’d tilt your head
you’d softly whisper ”stay”

or that you’d grab my arms
to shake me while asking
what the hell are we doing
we love
each other
and this is not right
so we will make this work
now stay!

You poured your coffee. Stirred the spoon like a crystal man
with your back to me and not a sound. the fridge humming elegies while the clock ticked on
and the streets are so clean here people rushing to work
and maybe I should be too
by now
at this age
this stage
this town.

I will stand in that doorway
dreaming
for many nights to come.”

Thoughtful white people know they are inferior to black people. Anyone who has studied the genetic phase of biology knows that white is considered recessive and black is considered dominant. When you want strong coffee, you ask for black coffee. If you want it light, you want it weak, integrated with white milk. Just like these Negroes who weaken themselves and their race by this integrating and intermixing with whites. If you want bread with no nutritional value, you ask for white bread. All the good that was in it has been bleached out of it, and it will constipate you. If you want pure flour, you ask for dark flour, whole-wheat flour. If you want pure sugar, you want dark sugar.

Wine enters through the mouth, Love, the eyes.

“Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks called entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing. The only worthwhile miracle in the New Testament—the transmutation of water into wine during the wedding at Cana—is a tribute to the persistence of Hellenism in an otherwise austere Judaea. The same applies to the seder at Passover, which is obviously modeled on the Platonic symposium: questions are asked (especially of the young) while wine is circulated. No better form of sodality has ever been devised: at Oxford one was positively expected to take wine during tutorials. The tongue must be untied. It’s not a coincidence that Omar Khayyam, rebuking and ridiculing the stone-faced Iranian mullahs of his time, pointed to the value of the grape as a mockery of their joyless and sterile regime. Visiting today’s Iran, I was delighted to find that citizens made a point of defying the clerical ban on booze, keeping it in their homes for visitors even if they didn’t particularly take to it themselves, and bootlegging it with great brio and ingenuity. These small revolutions affirm the human.”

“How very like you, Puck.” Ash’s voice came from a great distance, and the room started to spin. “Offer them a taste of faery wine, and act surprised when they’re consumed by it.”
That struck me as hilarious, and I broke into hysterical giggles. And once I began, I couldn’t stop. I laughed until I was gasping for breath, tears streaming down my face. My feet itched and my skin crawled. I needed to move, to do something. I tried standing up, wanting to spin and dance, but the room tilted violently and I fell, still shrieking with laughter.
Somebody caught me, scooping me off my feet and into their arms. I smelled frost and winter, and heard an exasperated sigh from somewhere above my head.
“What are you doing, Ash?” I heard someone ask. A familiar voice, though I couldn’t think of his name, or why he sounded so suspicious.
“I’m taking her back to her room.” The person above me sounded wonderfully calm and deep. I sighed and settled into his arms. “She’ll have to sleep off the effects of the fruit. We’ll likely be here another day because of your idiocy.”
The other voice said something garbled and unintelligible. I was suddenly too sleepy and light-headed to care. Relaxing against the mysterious person’s chest, I fell into a heady sleep.”

Whisky in heart

“To those of us who believe that all of life is sacred every crumb of bread and sip of wine is a Eucharist, a remembrance, a call to awareness of holiness right where we are.

I want all of the holiness of the Eucharist to spill out beyond church walls, out of the hands of priests and into the regular streets and sidewalks, into the hands of regular, grubby people like you and me, onto our tables, in our kitchens and dining rooms and backyards.”

“We laughed a lot and I grew warmer still, lovely and warm. I do realize that some of that warmth was due to the wine, but there was much more to it than that. There are two distinct aspects to Communion wine: one aspect is the wine itself, the other is the idea of communion. Wine is certainly warming, but communion is a great deal more so.”

“Studying wine taught me that there was a very big difference between soil and dirt: dirt is to soul what zombies are to humans. Soil is full of life, while dirt is devoid of it.”

“You drink your whiskey,
I’ll drink my wine.
Later when we’re fevered and tipsy
we’ll make savage love divine.
Until then,
let’s swim in the warm, opal sea of each other.
Crash a few innocent waves,
skinny dip, laugh and get lost in those
blood-pumping hearts,
and for a time
forget all our broken parts.”

“There is no fault that can’t be corrected [in natural wine] with one powder or another; no feature that can’t be engineered from a bottle, box, or bag. Wine too tannic? Fine it with Ovo-Pure (powdered egg whites), isinglass (granulate from fish bladders), gelatin (often derived from cow bones and pigskins), or if it’s a white, strip out pesky proteins that cause haziness with Puri-Bent (bentonite clay, the ingredient in kitty litter). Not tannic enough? Replace $1,000 barrels with a bag of oak chips (small wood nuggets toasted for flavor), “tank planks” (long oak staves), oak dust (what it sounds like), or a few drops of liquid oak tannin (pick between “mocha” and “vanilla”). Or simulate the texture of barrel-aged wines with powdered tannin, then double what you charge. (““Typically, the $8 to $12 bottle can be brought up to $15 to $20 per bottle because it gives you more of a barrel quality. . . . You’re dressing it up,” a sales rep explained.)

Wine too thin? Build fullness in the mouth with gum arabic (an ingredient also found in frosting and watercolor paint). Too frothy? Add a few drops of antifoaming agent (food-grade silicone oil). Cut acidity with potassium carbonate (a white salt) or calcium carbonate (chalk). Crank it up again with a bag of tartaric acid (aka cream of tartar). Increase alcohol by mixing the pressed grape must with sugary grape concentrate, or just add sugar. Decrease alcohol with ConeTech’s spinning cone, or Vinovation’s reverse-osmosis machine, or water. Fake an aged Bordeaux with Lesaffre’s yeast and yeast derivative. Boost “fresh butter” and “honey” aromas by ordering the CY3079 designer yeast from a catalog, or go for “cherry-cola” with the Rhône 2226. Or just ask the “Yeast Whisperer,” a man with thick sideburns at the Lallemand stand, for the best yeast to meet your “stylistic goals.” (For a Sauvignon Blanc with citrus aromas, use the Uvaferm SVG. For pear and melon, do Lalvin Ba11. For passion fruit, add Vitilevure Elixir.) Kill off microbes with Velcorin (just be careful, because it’s toxic). And preserve the whole thing with sulfur dioxide.

When it’s all over, if you still don’t like the wine, just add a few drops of Mega Purple—thick grape-juice concentrate that’s been called a “magical potion.” It can plump up a wine, make it sweeter on the finish, add richer color, cover up greenness, mask the horsey stink of Brett, and make fruit flavors pop. No one will admit to using it, but it ends up in an estimated 25 million bottles of red each year. “Virtually everyone is using it,” the president of a Monterey County winery confided to Wines and Vines magazine. “In just about every wine up to $20 a bottle anyway, but maybe not as much over that.”

Whiskey Poet

“When it happens and it hits hard, we decide certain things, and realize there’s truth in all those dark, lonely days”

He had an instantaneous look about him,
a glimmer and a glint over those eyes,
he knew how the world worked,
and took pleasure in its wickedness.

He would give a dime or two to those sitting on the street,
he would tell them things like:
“It won’t get any better,”
and
“Might as well use this to buy your next fix,”
and finally
“It’s better to die high than to live sober,”

His suit was pressed nicely, with care and respect,
like the kind a corpse wears,
he’d say that was his way of honoring the dead,
of always being ready for the oncoming train,
I liked him,
he never wore a fake smile
and he was always ready to tell a story about
how and
when

“We all wake up alone,” he said once,
“Oftentimes even when sleeping next to someone, we wake up before them and they are still asleep and suddenly we are awake, and alone.”
I didn’t see him for a few days,
a few days later it felt like it’d been weeks,
those weeks drifted apart from one another,
like leaves on a pond’s surface,
and became like months.

And then I saw him and I asked him where he’d been,
he said,
“I woke up alone one day, just like any other, and I decided I didn’t like it anymore.”