Break Out the Scotch for Robert Burns Day

Tuesday is Robert Burns Day. It’s a time to celebrate!

Oh, it helps to be Scottish, but as on St. Patrick’s Day, when everyone’s Irish, we all can be Caledonian on Jan. 25, which marks the birthday of Scotland’s greatest bard.

In Scotland or wherever you find Scottish expats, you may come across Burns Night celebration dinners featuring haggis, a sheep’s stomach stuffed with a pudding of oats and ground offal; poetry readings, and plenty of libation, usually Scotch whiskey or perhaps some Scottish ale.

While some of us may not have heard of Burns, we are surely familiar with the words to the ditty he composed for New Year’s Eve, “Auld Lang Syne.”  Other better known Burns'1 works include  include “A Red, Red Rose;” “A Man's A Man for A' That;” “To a Louse;” “To a Mouse;” “The Battle of Sherramuir;” “Tam o' Shanter,” and “Ae Fond Kiss.”

So, here’s to Bobby Burns.

To begin the celebration, you may want to find some haggis. Not available locally, you can, however, find purveyors online or in New York City, such as Myers of Kestwick, which sells a canned version.  I suppose some other easily made Scottish victual could be substituted. Scotch eggs -- hardboiled eggs covered in seasoned sausage meat, breaded and deep fried or baked -- will make a fine accompaniment to any Burns Day libation.

You might want to celebrate at , 314 New York Ave., where you'll find Scottish meat pies and Scottish bridies (turnovers) on the menu for dine-in or take away, a selection of single-malt Scotch whiskeys and at least one Scottish beer.

Whiskey is the traditional drink of a Robert Burns Night feast.   Potent, peaty and pricey, there is a bewildering range of offerings available in area liquor stores in different styles, 

There are blended whiskeys (which contain an assemblage of various single malts and, grain whiskey), among them Cutty Sark, Dewar’s, Bells, John Begg, Famous Grouse, Ballantine's, Johnny Walker, Chivas Regal and others. The least expensive blends are aged just four years.   Johnny Walker Black Label or Chivas have been aged 12.  Blends constitute about 90 percent of all Scotch whiskies produced.

“As the years go up, the price goes up, the smoothness goes up,” said, Ralph Picudella, manager of on Wall Street and a Scotch aficionado.

And there are single malts, whiskeys produced and bottled at individual distilleries. They’re available in an almost infinite array of styles, ages and origin. Scotland’s whiskey regions include the Lowlands, the Speyside-Highlands-Islands, Campbelltown and Islay (pronouced eye-luh)

There are many inexpensive whiskeys, but these often are so diluted with grain whiskey (whiskey made from grain other than barley) and water they’re barely recognizable as Scotch. Personally, I take delight with some blended whiskeys that offer more complex flavor profiles, among them Johnny Walker Black Label and Chivas Regal.

I particularly enjoy such single malts as the complex, fruity, floral and spicy offerings of Glenrothes. But I won’t turn down a Dalwhinnie, Macallan, Glenlivet, Glenmorangie, Glenfiddich or Highland Park.  Others  may favor--not I--in the heavily peated, phenolic-flavored smokey whiskeys of Islay, an Scottish Island. These whiskies include Lagavulan, Aardberg, Laphroiaig and Caol Ila. The last is so smokey, its flavors remind me a freshly tarred road.

Seaholm, 134 Wall St., has among the broadest Scotch whiskey offerings in the area; 99 E. Main St., has a handful of interesting selections, including four bottlings under the Pure Malt label from British malt specialists Gordon & MacPhail. More modest selections can be found at Huntington Wines & Liquors 735 W. Jericho Tpke. and Liquor Plaza, 133 Walt Whitman Rd., Huntington Station.

For a more temperate celebration consider Scottish ales. To be sure, Scottish ales are relatively scarce in these parts and the selection will vary with the store. Nonetheless, I was able to find a handful -- Belhaven, Williams Bros, and Innis & Gunn -- at such area beer merchants as Shoreline Beverage, 645 New York Ave.; Big Z Beverage, 1675  E. Jericho Tpke.; Huntington Thrifty Beverage, 1687 New York Ave and SuperStar Beverage, 516 Jericho Tpke. 

The Belhaven Scottish Ale is typical of the Scottish ale style. Modest in alcohol at 5.2 percent, only moderately bitter and redolent of caramel maltiness, nuts and a touch of fruitiness. From Belhaven you will also find Twisted Thistle, a golden, somewhat hoppy India Pale Ale brew; St. Andrew’s Ale, a citrusy brew named for the famous golf course; Wee Heavy, a malty, warming brew that reminds me of a chocolate malted, and a Scottish Stout, which seemed more like a porter, stout’s brewy, less bitter cousin.

Williams Bros offerings include a Session ale, golden, light, low in alcohol and a tad resiny and Heavy or 80 Shilling Ale, which delighted with its malt and chocolate notes.

The Innis & Gunn offerings are aged in either bourbon or rum cask and are exceedingly smooth and flavorful. The former may remind you of sipping a glass of bourbon. The latter has notes of chocolate.

A word of caution. Scottish beers don’t sell well, nor do they age well, so avoid bottles with dust on top and sediment on the bottom. Some of the beers I sampled recently were past their prime. You’ll know this if they taste of cardboard.

That said, I offer a Scottish toast: Slainte. Here's tae ye!