We see snow at Loch Ness. It hails during our Glenfiddich tasting. There’s at least some rain everywhere else. But we also get our share of sunshine, and the fleeting ephemeral nature of it makes it that much more special. Here are the a list of the places in Scotland that we visited while constantly [...]
From mashtuns to worts to washbacks finally to distillers, we learn how malted barley, water and yeast are processed to become moonshine. Little flavor is added at this stage other than peatiness, while most of the taste comes from the maturation process. Maturation happens in wonderfully stacked casks, and the process which coopers use to [...]
Rolling hills, little cottages, and greenness, The sheep, the cows, and a fair bit of rain, We start in Edinburgh, go to Loch Ness See a monster from the road’s fast lane. Castles in Edinburgh and in Urquhart, A night’s stay in a Fort Augustus B&B, With only a little sun, a work of art [...]
Throughout this trip, Nick has diligently “checked us in” via the application Foursquare, thus making it easy to retrace our steps and see where we’ve eaten, drank, lodged, as well as what sites we’ve seen. The asterisks that can be found at the end of locations indicate my favorite places, and the more asterisks the [...]
As it turns out, the luck of the Irish doesn’t always extend to the realm of weather. Our first day in Dublin and Dalkey may have been more an anomaly; however, being day one, we didn’t fully understand the magically delicious weather we had. Day two starts still sunny, but by the end of the [...]
Soon after our Boston midnight flight We seek an Irish morning meal Blood sausage and eggs, what a sight And we eat with quite some zeal. Very soon to Dalkey we train To visit a friend and relish the sun, As we walk up and down costal terrain We feel this day can’t be outdone. [...]
We find a piece of home, and more specifically of Trader Joe’s, when we visit Viña Concha y Toro, the famous wine producer of Casillero del Diablo. After a couple tastes at this winery just southeast of Santiago, we continue southward to the Colchagua Valley where we enjoy wines, lunch, vineyard-filled hills, and walks among [...]
Zapallar and its neighboring towns to the south feel like the Chilean version of the villages and hamlets on the South fork of Long Island, New York. Not that I’ve ever been to the Hamptons, but based on my extensive television viewing, this seems to fit most of the stereotypes of that region. The homes [...]
Chile is full of vineyards, and today we decide to explore the Casablanca Valley, which is nestled between Valparaiso and Santiago. The varietals that appear frequently throughout our tastings include Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay among the whites, and Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Chilean specific Carmenere for the reds. Our first stop, which also [...]
To make our unnecessarily long break from school seem more “productive” and to escape colder and colder temperatures that recently caused the Charles River to freeze, four of my classmates and I took off for Chile. With temperatures in the high eighties and low nineties, with daylight that lasts until almost 9pm, with an outdoor [...]