Un Hommage...He Says.

Last night was interesting…possibly most interesting in how normal this sort of event has become for the Lassie and I. Let me back up a bit…begin at the beginning so to speak.

As many of you know The Lassie loves her the electric Twitter. So, a quite normal practice for her is to tweet pictures or statements about what she is drinking. This one particular evening earlier this week it was a picture of a half size bottle of Canadian Club, Small Batch Classic 12 year old that I wrote about in one of my Daily Drams. One response to that picture struck a little nerve, someone calling Canadian whisky an “oxymoron.” I probably should have backed up the truck even further and explain that Johanne is a very proud and passionate Canadian, she has the tattoos to prove it and her love for Canadian whisky is no different. Considering this characteristic, this reply certainly left her with a twitching eye.  Her reply of: “Pardon me?” to the uneducated, might seem to say: “Pardon me but I don’t fully understand your statement?” To those of us who know better and have been on the receiving end of “pardon me?” before know this really means: “You Sir are terribly ill informed and are about to be corrected thusly!” Or something like that.

Given her passion for all things whisky and spreading education about the same, Johanne poked and asked questions and offered to send samples of a range of Canadian whiskies if he would be so kind as to send her his address. When the address arrived, not only was he in the same city as us but also lived within spitting distance of where Johanne parks her car at work every day. And this is how I came to find myself standing in the living room of two smiling strangers holding a cardboard box full of Canadian whisky and Glencairn glasses at 830pm on a Thursday night.

This is now the part of the story where you and I arrive at the point of this blog post together. This story is not about the living room tasting we did last night or how we met two lovely people with a passion for community and life in general but rather how I have the privilege to be paired with a smart, beautiful partner who is not only passionate about whisky but one of the hardest working people in whisky that I know. To top it off she does it all for her love of whisky…aka “Free.”

To give you an idea of what I am talking about I want to give you a little insight into a day in the life of “The Perfect Whisky Match,” a behind the scenes if you will from a man’s wide-eyed perspective, desperately trying to keep up, or at very least, just hang on!

Morning arrives in our home as it does in most homes…too early. Once the coffee has been consumed and the day has come into focus everything truly begins, often where it left off the night before, nosing whisky. I’m not sure how many people do this but we will often cover our mostly empty glasses from the day before so we can have a nose of the empty glass first thing the next morning. This provides a lovely reminder and further insight into the whisky with the perspective of time and a fresh nose (as well it sets the tone for the rest of the day, begin and end with whisky).

E150a Experiment kits ready to go out 

Johanne is a project manager with a background in building infrastructure, security and (previously) chemistry in her “real life.” Ideas and organization with a natural bend toward being inquisitive is no stranger in her world. She asks a lot of questions and seeks a lot of answers. Many of our discussions around whisky will often translate into real life experiments and exercises that, as a project manager, easily carry over into action, either for us or for people in the greater whisky community.  For example many of you are taking part in her current exploration of caramel coloring (E150a). This one experiment alone has involved her writing a premise, procedure and timeline, sourcing sample bottles, uncolored whisky and distiller’s caramel, filling bottles and assembling the experiment kits, seeking out participants and their addresses, packaging and mailing the kits to those participants. All the while she is coming up with other new and interesting ideas that have yet to be released. As it stands right now she is working on five. In between breaths she also reviews whiskies (she was honored to be a judge with the Canadian Whisky awards), works as the Treasurer and Quarter Master for our local whisky society that she helped to found and continues to help organize, is working to organize a group trip to Scotland in 2014, she writes on this blog, and is a passionate participant on twitter (13500 tweets in 10 months equals passionate bordering on obsessed!), which, as I have already described leads to a variety of unconventional opportunities for us to learn and educate as much as we possibly can about the water of life (the grammatically inclined with say “tisk, tisk, that was a run-on sentence” I say “Had I taken out the spaces between words you’ll start to get a feeling for the level of pace and dedication I am referring to”). Oh yeah, and she has a full time career and we have time for a great social life and a hell of a lot of fun. I’m exhausted just writing this.

Truth is I am passionate about whisky as well but I express that in a completely different way. I do a lot of reading, speaking with people one on one or in small group settings, or do my own quiet research. I am not nearly as organized or driven as Johanne and fully recognize that I would never have the chance to experience much of what I have without her hard work and outward dedication. I am talking about someone who truly works a second full-time job for free all as an expression of her interest and passion.

The Whisky Lassie

I speak with a lot of guys who constantly tell me about how their wives “don’t let them” buy whisky, travel for whisky, drink whisky through the week, etc… I am constantly reminded about lucky I am to have a partner who is as interested about my favorite liquid as I am. For me it goes deeper than simply having a wife who lets me drink, I have a partner who shares a passion and in turn works to expand my education, my experience, my social circles.  Gentleman, no need to remind me, I am fully aware of how lucky I am! On this International Women’s Day, I remove my hat and raise a glass to my wife, my partner and my friend, the Whisky Lassie, Johanne.