The Eagle Has... well, you know...

How old do you have to be to know the origin of that declarative? How old do you have to be to swap out a word for "Beagle"?... How old can you be to not give a shit?

Okay, so, instead, I'll say this: Catching Up With The Eagle

Seems I'm a little late to the party (again... didn't I just post something about that a second ago?)

This week, I've adopted another New God: Eagle Rare 10 Year Single Barrel Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey. Go, me!

Well... new to me. Out There, it's old news, but, hell... This is definitely a Better Late Than Never move.

It's yet another concoction from Buffalo Trace in Kentucky (owned by Sazerac, Metairie). The deal is they only do single barrel -- no blending -- aged for 10 and 17 years, respectively. Both are considerably longer than most bourbons. The marketing ploy is a retailer can pick a barrel for their exclusive, and Eagle slaps on a label of that retailer. To boot, because of the single barrel's unique qualities, the booze is always going to be a bit different. I got this store's exclusive barrel's bottle at Blackwell's in San Francisco.

Insanely complex, it has so many things going on that you might miss something if you blink. As such, it probably goes with... everything. Even better, it's very easygoing (Molly at Blackwell's said that was a factor in their barrel pick). Dealmaker: Just thirty freakin' bucks for the 740ml. (They have liters for fifty. No lie.)

Given my recent alert that Son of Bourye has been discontinued and BevMo's now asking seventy dollars for Campfire, the Eagle is feeling like... High West revenge.

(Seriously, when is the Park City icon of the liquor renaissance just going to get it over with and rename themselves High Price Rye?...grrrrrr)

Mighty Mites!

Okay, I'm late to the party here but, hell, better late than never.

I had recently approached the cheese section of a local Whole Foods, typically lacking in specific ideas, much less an agenda. Asked if I needed help, I started to say something about making my usual arbitrary pick of something because there's so much... when I spotted it. No. Really?

The last hunk was the only thing holdinig up the little sign saying Aged Mimolette.

As I said, I'm a bit late here, but I was naturally baffled and tickled.

"How did this happen?"

The staffer behind the counter thought I'd referred to the stock having sold down to one last piece. Ah, no, I mean... it's proper damn Mimolette...

No idea.

Oh, and also, the ports dispute has held back something like twenty percent of their normal inventory. Yep, the metal bottom of the display case was visible. Not sure I've actually seen the bottom of one of those cases. Not good.

It's Mimolette! Woo-hoo!

" -- The reasoning was insane," I said, for the disappearance of the stuff last year.

So what actually happened altogether? My initial web searching for information on this reprieve turned up nothing but old news about the beginning of the fiasco. At first, there seemed to be no follow-up. Eventually, I found Janet Fletcher's Planet Cheese. She had looked into it more diligently.

The short version is, the relevant parties aren't volunteering an explanation as to exactly why it's okay again for us to do the consenting adult thing and bring (different) mites into our homes so we can eat a cheese. Viva La Something or Other... Play La Marseillaise... ("Play it!")

(Of course I know they were singing about something more important than cheese, but that was a movie and...this is a blog.)

Konnichiwa!

Oh, sure, that looks like a greeting in Romaji, but it's also the name of a good sake recommended by Beau Timken at True Sake for cooking. Omigawd, he's right. wheee::::::