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NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...

NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...

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f only older people go back.”<br />

~~~~~~~~~~<br />

<strong>NYT</strong>-1207: DINING & WINE - SPIRITS <strong>OF</strong> <strong>THE</strong> TIMES<br />

From Scotland, Fog and Smoke and Mystery ... By ERI<br />

C ASIMOV<br />

The panel tasted 2o single malts from Islay, smoky<br />

whiskies that demand a sense of wonder.<br />

===== notyet<br />

TASTING whiskies can be a clinical, prosaic task,<br />

nosing and assessing, jotting notes, reconsidering<br />

, lips compressed in concentration, brow furrowed.<br />

Yet, as the spirits panel tasted 20 single malts<br />

from Islay, we reminded ourselves to step back a m<br />

oment, to contemplate with no small amount of awe<br />

the magic of what was in the glass. Islay demands<br />

a sense of wonder.<br />

I’ve never visited Islay, that island off Scotland<br />

’s western coast with the evocative pronunciation<br />

EYE-lah. But sipping a good Islay single malt, wit<br />

h its astounding range of complex expressions, tra<br />

nsports you to an Islay that seems as mythical as<br />

it is real.<br />

It’s a world unscarred by modernity’s claws, an is<br />

land of fog, smoke, brine and mystery, where ancie<br />

nt distilleries, after years of throbbing producti<br />

on, go dark when demand wanes. There they sit, aba<br />

ndoned on the green and craggy landscape, their di<br />

stinctive pagoda roofs intact, yet silent like pha<br />

ntom freighters.<br />

Some remain that way, their sites revered like anc<br />

ient stone circles by whisky lovers. For others co<br />

mes reincarnation when market conditions change ag<br />

ain. The ghostly cobwebs are cleared away, the pot<br />

stills rejuvenated, and once more they will yield<br />

the precious distilled vapors of malted barley, p<br />

eat, yeast, crystalline water and air.

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