Glenmorangie Scotch Dinner

Sunday, November 11, 2012 at 4:19PM

Have you ever considered pairing Scotch with food? Until a few weeks ago, I had not. At the time I was eating dinner with some friends at Perry's Steakhouse & Grille in downtown Austin.

This was my first time at Perry's, and I kinda wanted to hate the place -- just a little. Perry's seems fancy. It's part of a chain of restaurants, and on the surface seemed like it might lack soul. Adding to the effect, there was even a Lamborghini parked outside the front door (yes, I'm jealous). It was just a gut reaction, a prejudice, and it was wrong of me. The pork chop changed my mind.

So, there I was at Perry's, poking around with my camera like I do, and one of the very nice staff told me about a Scotch dinner they were doing in a few days with Glenmorangie. My buddy Chris and I immediately signed up for the dinner. Never underestimate the power of pork to reverse first impressions.

One dining room at Perry's is located in a former bank safe.

The Scotch dinner was hosted by Gregor Mina, also known as @ScotchGregor on the Twitter. He told us wonderful stories about Scotch and Glenmorangie. You can see the Scotch lineup above.

Above you see the Seared Duck Breast with Gingered Cranberry-Pear Marmalade. This was paired with the Glenmorangie Artein.

The Brasied Pork Belly and Brussel Sprouts with an Apple Fig Chutney. This was paired with Glenmorangie 18 Year Old. This Scotch would have voted if I had not consumed it.

The delicious beverage itself.

Fun stories about the distillery:

• it is located on 500 acres on the coast of Scotland
• the water source is a secret hidden somewhere on that land, and even VIP tours must wear blindfolds on their way to visit it
• The stills are the tallest in the Scotch industry at 5 meters
• Some of the stills were purchaed from Charles Tanqueray and moved from London
• The design on the Glenmorangie bottle comes from the signet stone on their property, carved by the Picts.
• Glenmorangie makes it's own barrels with wood sourced from it's own forest in the U.S.
• Before using the barrels, Glenmorangie leases them to bourbon producers for four years

For more interesting reading, I suggest the Wikipedia entry on Glenmorangie.