Phoenix... and I don't mean the Snow one

Today marks a special anniversary. Not once but twice. Both, unfortunately, negative in nature. 


However, I digress...Number 1 question from January 2018 to October 2019 = Why are you not blogging anymore?!  I would often answer: "Nobody reads my blog, I don't have any added value, there's plenty of other blogs that have way more to say than mine, etc..."  The reality though was everything around me had come crashing down and being "whiskylassie" was the last thing I wanted or needed to do.


Quietly I moved through the motions of what ever this thing called life... is. It took lots of smiling on the outside but also closing the doors sometimes and focusing on what was really important - simply surviving the next 5 minutes or the next three hours or the next day. I lost people that I truly loved in my life, some to death and some due to divorce. I changed jobs (Stressful when you are on the back nine and see the retirement goal post on the horizon). I relinquished things I thought I needed in my life: Car, house, boat, etc...  And all I could say for the better part of that first six months of chaos was: Here I am starting all over again. FUCK was a word I had come to use as easily and likely more often then spoon or toothbrush.


But as with all descents into the darkness we all go through as humans, so exists the flip side of the sine wave. Grand daughter arrived, my "own" boat materialized, friends I didn't realize I had were not only my safety net but became family to me. The job change ended up being the best thing for my career and in hindsight so was the divorce. Slowly the scars, the hurt, the stupidity and the need to close that door and swear until the air was blue simply faded away. I have a new "puzzle" to put together and instead of fearing the fact that I have no idea what the fuck is going on most days, I embrace the joy of the unknown and have learned to simply "b". Then one day, I think it was October 11th 2019 - when I found myself getting back in the car after touring the Waterford Distillery in Ireland, I felt giddy and inspired. As I started to make my way back to my hotel room I suddenly found myself writing an article in my head as I drove. I literally stopped the car on the side of the road for a moment and cried. Whiskylassie may have been going through the motions, hosting classes and attending festivals but again - SMILES EVERYONE SMILES!!!! (For those of you too young to get that - Google Fantasy Island). For the first time in almost two years, I felt lassie'ish…  Coquette in nature, yet somewhat ready to write about whisky once again. Wow... and about time.


So let's start with the basics shall we:  What the hell have I been doing? LOTS...  WARNING: I have developed a taste for GIN (My apologies to all whisky enthusiasts who may be highly offended by that statement). I also love rum apparently -> See what happens if left to my own devices?! My boyfriend (yes I have a boyfriend now - but from here on end he will be referred to as "the boy" - FYI. However... my first love is still - ALL things whisky.

Life has been good. It's taken me awhile to feel a sense of normalcy, to feel like I belong again. It's sort of like being the awkward kid that moved away but then came back and everyone says Hi but... it's awkward regardless. So here I am, just a girl, errr I mean woman... errr I mean lassie looking to start writing again just for the fun of writing whisky stuff.  Will it be read - who knows.  Will it be classical disaster chick meets shenanigans meets life as a whisky person - oh hell ya!  Do me a huge favour though don't expect - BORING...  or MARKETING REGURGITATION or SERIOUS - dear God don't expect serious....?!  Read the whisky bible if you are looking for serious ;)

I'm back, that's all that matters for now. I am making a commitment to write a blog every week for the next 55 weeks.  So sit back, read, giggle, share or comment. Whatever it is you feel like doing once you get "here" is fine with me and wherever you are on your own journey - congrats for making it this far. 
Whisky brought me to this place, it's introduced me to a world of places, friends and of course drams that I could have never imagined. I raise a glass (it's only water mind you but I'm raising a glass none the less) to the next 55 weeks.





HERE



WE




GO!




Lassie

My first encounter with Dutch whisky...

This was originally written in Perfect Whisky Match in July 2012. My intent is to repost all those entries in Whisky Lassie....   

Femke was one of the first whisky people I got to know on twitter and facebook. She and I plan on meeting in June 2014, very excited!!!!

From my mother's generation and grade 11 world history I know that the Dutch love Canadians. In 1942, during the second world war, Canada sheltered Princess Julianna and her daughters for three years during the occupation of the Netherlands. One of her daughters was born in Ottawa. The Canadian government had the maternity ward of the hospital officially declared international territory so that she could be born in "no country" and retain her Dutch citizenship from her mother. Every year since, The Netherlands sends over 10,000 tulip bulbs as their eternal thank you for that gesture and of course, we have a tulip festival. How Canadian?! hehehe. Fast forward to 2012. My goodness, what a time to be living in, don't you agree? After all, as I sit here in my little office area typing away on my laptop listening to tunes on my cellphone, I am reminded yet again of how small and geographically close the #whiskyfabric has become for me. I only started blogging about 3 months ago but quickly made wonderful connections with other bloggers from around the world. After getting to know a  few a bit better, we began ascertaining the idea of trading samples from each's personal collection. So let me back up the blog for a second here. One of the first people who welcomed me with open arms on the "twitter sphere" was Femke. A lovely whisky imbiber who lives in the Netherlands and has been blogging for about as long as I have. We have alot in common. Our "twitter" friends tell us we are both saucy, we have a great sense of humor AND both seem fearless in our new whisky adventures. I, for those of you that don't know, am also a female whisky blogger (no surprise...) who lives in eastern Canada (no, not Toronto) and although I've been drinking whisky for a while, have only recently started to take it very seriously as a hobby, ok...  obsession. I'll be honest.

The cool part of this story (yes, I'm going somewhere...) is that at some point, her and I decided to send each other a whisky sample from our respective countries. I sent her a "mystery" Canadian sample, with an envelope containing all the information she needed, only to be opened after she imbibed.  She in turn, was lovely enough to send me a Dutch whisky!  A what??  Yes, a Dutch rye whisky?! SO FREAKING COOL... I sent her Forty Creek Confederation Oak, one of my favorite Canadian whiskies and I love to share it with anyone who would like to try it (just saying...) So, I'll go back to my first paragraph of this blog and will state again: As I sit here in my little office area typing out my blog in Canada about a Dutch Whisky I just nosed/tasted, Femke is getting ready for bed or is fast asleep in the Netherlands on the other side of the world. How can you not smile at that fact? I certainly do. I am in awe of this wonderful whiskyfabric and all the doors it continues to open before me. I would have never thought even at the beginning of my own whisky adventure that this type of opportunity would/could have taken place. Ok, maybe somewhere down the road in about 5-10 years from now I might have been able to get a Dutch whisky here in Canada... Oh hell, who am I kidding!?  The technology for men to have babies will happen before that??  Sigh...

Here's to you Femke! I can't thank you enough for my 1st Dutch Whisky. I dedicate this blog to you, my 1st international whisky trade. Hope our whisky adventures cross paths at some point down the road. I certainly can't wait to walk beside you.

Check out her blog please, it's different: http://whiskygirl.nl/  Her style of writing alone will draw you in and make you smile. She's on a whisky journey and I am just as excited to follow hers as I am to be on my own.

Zuidam Distillers was started in 1975 by Fred van Zuidam. His dream was to start a small exclusive products distillery. After 10 years and some help from his wife with packaging, his products really took off and his reputation for being the finest Dutch distillery soared. Although Fred and his wife still keep a watchful eye over the distiller, their two sons Patrick and Gilbert run the distillery today. They make a few different whisky products: The rye, a single malt as well as a peated single malt. Their Rye Whisky is from a pure pot still made in small batches and aged five years. Interesting fact: Zuidam uses traditional windmills to mill the grains it uses to make their products. The traditional way causes almost no increase in temperature which means the grain retains more aroma and flavor. It's a great example of how Dutch heritage is preserved.

Zuidam Dutch Rye Whisky, 5 years old, 40% AVB

Color:  Deep golden yellow. Legs are plentiful but not very viscous.  

Nose:  I had no idea what to expect when I poured the whisky into my glass.  I was perplexed because I felt like I had smelled this before somewhere?  I started comparing it to other ryes I have in my collection and never did put my finger on it?  However, I really liked the nose on this.  Rich, fruity and fresh in nature. Alot of spice - hints of cardomom and cloves. This may sound odd but a really ripe banana!? Nice and oaky on the hands.

Palate:  Mouthwatering feel, a bit of burn and bitter but followed by sweet.  Like when you bite into a juicy grape, astringent then sweet. A bit of spice again, reminds me of cinnamon bark. 

Finish: Very short finish, and like most ryes for me (strangely enough) a bit of heartburn type sensation. Still a bit spicy, but not peppery.

Empty glass:  Couldn't find it at all last night, but big VANILLA in the morning. (Oh and a fruit fly enjoyed it's last meal in there as well, who knew they liked rye? hehe)    

I really enjoyed this great little rye and put it above some of the Canadian ones on the market. If you can get a bottle for your collection, if only as something completely different to have, I would recommend it!

A Dutch - Canadian project well done! Here's to the whisky trail and wherever you are on yours!

Johanne

The end always leads to new beginnings...

Everything has as an end. 

Originally when I started blogging in March of 2012 it was with the intention that my partner Graham and I would do it together. It was supposed to be another wonderful, crazy adventure we were embarking on as a couple who shares many passions.  Our blog was simple, fun and most of all we did it together. But then like everything in life, things changed.  My passion for writing propelled me forward and I wrote almost weekly whereas Graham often started with a great blogging idea but in the end felt it was "flat" or didn't quite meet his expectations.  "Our" blog pretty much became mine.  Perfect whisky match didn't seem like a befitting name for a one woman show so the wind got quickly knocked out my sails too.   

I wanted to keep writing and sharing my stories but how do you tell the guy you live with, love and share everything with it was time to call it quits with regards to the whisky blog?  In theory I could recite the whole speech in my head but every time I tried to speak the words I would end up with a big ball of mozzarella in the pit of my stomach. I finally mustered the courage to talk to him about it.  It wasn't easy to say and it definitely wasn't easy to hear.  In the end, he agreed that writing about whisky was simply not a strength of his and that "keeping" up with me was very stressful.  At least, that's what I think I got out of the conversation?  

With the difficult conversation behind me, I began to work on branding myself:  Whiskylassie.  I found this quite difficult at times.  It was hard not to feel like I was somehow abandoning Graham and moving into a new direction alone.  There are hundreds if not thousands of bloggers out there so what would I, Whiskylassie, have to offer to an already saturated blogging community.  Me, sitting in Saint John, NB Canada or as my friend Josh says:  The end of the world, only reachable by car.

Trying to think of the positives or the "added values" that I would bring to the #whiskyfabric began to bog me down.  There are plenty of people out there doing this, so why should I add my two cents worth?  I often sat at the computer and repeatedly watched the cursor blink for at least 15 minutes... nothing would come to mind.  Total writer's block?!  F#@^!!  This went on for weeks.  I couldn't think of anything that was "worth" saying...  until today.

A very good friend reminded me that my writing style is quite unique (well aren't we all, I retorted).  "No, he replied... there are plenty of people out there writing tasting notes but you weave a story with every blog post.  You invite us into your life and I for one find myself sitting beside you when you are staring at a moose face to face (true story) or when you are walking around a whisky event.  Your posts have life intertwined within the words, the whiskies and your discoveries.  You are honest in a straight forward and no nonsense sort of way.  You lift others up to the limelight and you have so much fun.  I don't know any other writer who does all of those things right now, do you?"  I thought about what he said.  Yeah, I blog but it truly is about more than what I nose/taste in a whisky.  It's about the people I meet, the crazy places I end up in and about the experiences of a Whiskylassie finding her way around this thing we have called the "Fabric".  Whisky has changed my life and pushed me in directions I would have never thought possible (even 2 years ago...) and here I am now, ready again, to embark on the next chapter even if with a bit of sadness with regards to leaving Perfect Whisky Match behind.  

So, here I go.  Grab a coat tail and hang on.  Some, no... most of my adventures will be filled with laughter, some seriousness but mostly they will be about a woman learning to make her way on this thing she calls the whisky trail.  Join me if you will.  

It's a bit of a work in progress, and I'll get there.  In the meantime:  

To new beginnings!  Here comes the Whisky Lassie...

Johanne