Scotchology

We were fortunate enough to have a quick interview with Master of Scotch Steve Beal during WhiskyFest San Francisco. At almost every booth, people were telling us that he was the man to talk to. A quick bio from his website:

Steve is a very familiar figure to both the consumers who enjoy them and the those in the trade who make and sell fine single malts. He has earned the respect of everyone he meets with his endless energy and passion for all things Scottish and whisky in particular.

Steve is admired and well known by almost every top-shelf bartender, chef and waitperson in the San Francisco Bay Area and the West. Although he is the official brand ambassador for the Classic Malts of Scotland & Johnnie Walker Blended Scotch Whiskies, Bushmills Irish Whiskey, Crown Royal Canadian Whisky, Bulleit Bourbon and George Dickel Tennessee Whisky, many have come to consider him the unofficial brand ambassador for the category of whisky as a whole on the West Coast. He is regarded as one of the top distilled spirits experts in America.

We finally caught up to him late in the event and though we were a wee bit toasty at that point, we still managed to pull off a good interview. He gave us some excellent advice for the scotch novices like ourselves.

Scotchology: Do you have any advice for new scotch drinkers on how to get started?
Steve Beal: The really good news is there are so many scotches and other whiskies, that if you look around you’ll probably find one that you’ll probably like. The question I always ask after you’ve tried a few is do you like smokey ones or not?

If you like smokey ones, then look for the name of an Island on the bottle, like the Isle of Sky or Islay or Jura or Del La Mone, because those whiskies will have more smokey flavor. And if you don’t like smoke, you wanna look for the Highlands because they’re the lighter, sweeter and easier to drink ones. Not better than the others, just a little bit of a different style. Then, once you’ve done that, you can look at a map and find a whisky in the same neighborhood of one you like because the closer they are together, the more likely they are to share flavors. Whiskies are like wine, they share the characteristics of their region.

A neat thing to do is go to a bar like Swig, which is a very hip kind of fun bar, but they have 200-300 whiskies, bourbons scotches, irish. Or you can go to Bourbon and Branch, which is very famous for its whiskies. Or if you love Sushi you can go to Nihon, which has the best whisky selection in San Francisco. Then you can try them one at a time. Find the one you like, then you can go to your favorite whisky store, like D&M or the Whiskey Shop on Sutter St or John Walker.

Scotchology: Does higher price equate to higher quality?
Steve Beal: No, not really. It’s kind of what you like. For example a really great scotch from the Speyside is called the Singleton. It’s similar to the Macallan or even Glenlivet, but it’s a lot less expensive, because even though it’s a 110 year old as a distillery, it’s only just arrived in the US. And so right now people are just getting to know it, so the prices are a little bit lower. And it’s a really a $40-50 whisky you can get for under $30. Price is never an indicator of quality.

Scotchology: What can new drinkers do to guage quality?
Steve Beal: I’d go some place where they serve a lot and the bartenders know a lot about it and can help you out. You look at a good bottle of scotch and its about a $30-$100. A good bartender should present that to you like a very expensive bottle of wine. They should show you the label, they should put it in front of you, you should be able to hold the bottle and they should be able to tell you about it. And if they’re a really good bar, they’re going to give you a little capful to taste it to see if you like it.