submitted by Dame Veronica Hastings

Chicago Dames and guests who attended the Scotch! It’s Great With Dinner member event on Oct. 4 were treated to both a seminar and delicious meal with courses selected by Chef Glen Slauterbeck of the newly refurbished Glenview House to complement different scotches from three of Scotland’s most renowned distilleries: The Famous Grouse, Highland Park, and The Macallan.

The evening began with a Ginger Grouse cocktail (recipe below). Dame Steph Ridgway, Midwest Ambassador for The Edrington Group’s whisky portfolio, then led the group through a tasting and seminar. During the seminar, guests learned that while Scotch is a whisky, all whisky is not Scotch. In order to be called Scotch, it must come from Scotland. There also are two types of Scotch: Single Malt Scotch in which the malt is grown and produced by one distiller; and Blended Scotch which is a whisky blended from whisky of different growers. Blends frequently are of a high caliber as their pedigree can be distillers such as Highland Park and Macallan. An example is the Black Grouse that was tasted.

The evening ended with a special demonstration of the icesphere. The icesphere is a large dense sphere of ice, between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball that melts slowly to impart the perfect amount of water and chill needed for a fine Scotch. Macallan invented the copper icesphere-maker used to create this dense ball of ice. To demonstrate it, the final Scotch tasted, the Macallan Sherry Oak 18-Year-Old was served over the icesphere. Drinking the 18 yr. old over the sphere was sublime!

Recipe For Ginger Grouse Cocktail – 
Blend 1 and 1/2 ounces Famous Grouse Scotch with the juice of 1 to 2 limes, to taste. Pour over ice in a rocks glass. Fill glass with ginger ale and enjoy!

Menu and Pairings
First Course
Smoked Rabbit Risotto with roasted root vegetables, pumpkin seeds, aged Balsamic
Macallan 15

Second Course
Smoked Amish Chicken breast and thigh, mole, guajillo
Black Grouse

Third Course
Grilled Tenderloin of Bison, celeriac puree, macerated figs, Concord grape
Highland Park 12

Fourth Course
Roasted Banana Bread Pudding
Macallan 18