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Hard News: Trams, drams and scams

Posted at 10:29AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

We were in Christchurch, my producer Nigel and I, to record a variety of things for a forthcoming radio show, and we were busy. After landing on Friday, we popped into Sound Archives and quizzed Dr Paul Gee of Christchurch ED about why the youth of Christchurch seem to get so very much more munted on party pills than those of Auckland.

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Then it was back to the hotel - the pleasant Copthorne Commodore, right out by the airport - to freshen up. We took a bus that wound through Ilam, where the trees were all a quarter century older than I remembered. The new suburbs I grew up in looked all bedded in and leafy.

Then it was off to the Whisky Guild members' dinner at Riccarton House. The weather could hardly have been more unfavourable for an indoor-outdoor do, but it was a convivial affair, with rather more whisky than food available if you weren't quick.

We bumped into the mayor and met Metro's beverage man Kerry Tyack, and also greatly enjoyed the arrival of the Canterbury Cheesemonger selection, featuring the Cropwell Bishop Shropshire, a blue vein cheese of spectacular orange hue, which tasted like God's own marmite. It went splendidly with the dry, peppery seaspray flavours of the Adelphi Breath of the Isles, and it didn't exactly disagree with the Glenfarclas Cask Strength that followed.

The following morning was Dramfest 07, New Zealand's first single malt whisky festival; launched, as you might expect with a pipe band. Good lord, there was some whisky on offer. Twenty-five exhibitors laid out their wares, with more specialist drams tasted in sets of six at the masterclasses.

It was striking what you could sample - in not-ungenerous portions - on the show floor. Fred Laing of the independent bottlers Douglas Laing was kind enough to put out a bottle of the Old Malt Cask Directors Tactical Selection, a rare independent bottling of 25 year-old Talisker, which I thought was sensational. I also attended the Adelphi masterclass with Alex Bruce, where a 35 year-old Springbank shone. And I had a crack at the nosing competition, where I made understandable mistakes about region, largely got the ages right and wound up kicking myself for failing to spot the deep, dark Glenfarclas from the night before.

The festival is the brainchild of Michael Fraser Milne, whose specialist store, Whisky Galore, seems to function as much as a community centre for whisky lovers as a shop. Michael is a man immersed in the culture of fine whisky, and in its role at the centre of good conversation. Although the show, sold out with more than 500 tickets at $45 each, was provisioned at the level of about one bottle per punter, there was (as Michael had predicted), no obvious drunkenness by later afternoon. No one was falling over, breaking things or causing trouble - although some of those who arrived early in the day had become highly social.

In line with a thread that will emerge when we make the show, we ducked out in the afternoon to interview the manager of New Zealand's largest adult store. Later, we paused to take in a Christian rock band in Cathedral Square on our way to The Lab, an example of that peculiarly Christchurch tradition, the NOS lounge.

Actually, lounge would be pushing it. The Lab is a party pill shop with a broken-down couch and some camp chairs. Given that they're making a margin approaching 99% on their $6 balloons, I think they could shell out on some better chairs, but the manager was friendly and good interview talent. And yes, in the spirit of inquiry, I did some NOS while the DAT tape ran. It sounds pretty funny.

After an unsuccessful trip (as in, we didn't get the interview we were promised) to a suburban brothel, we hooked up with David Haywood and Jen Hay for dinner at The Bicycle Thief and a pint or two at the Twisted Hop, which was roaring with social noise. I was struck again with the insight that pretty much every other city in the land has a better bar culture than Auckland.

After that, Nigel and I returned to The Lab where, as promised, we found some munted punters - quite a few of them backpackers from Europe - who were willing to give vox pops. I made Nigel do a couple of balloons so I could have a turn laughing at him. Outside, young folk - students, we figured - were forming huge queues to get into booze barns like Shooters and Boogie Nights. Many, if not most, of them appeared to be on the party pills. It was busy all over.

Now, the advantage - the only advantage - of staying at a hotel way the hell out by the airport should be that you can order a late Sunday checkout, sleep in, skip up the road to the airport and be home in Auckland before you know it. Unfortunately, thanks to broken planes, lost luggage and general Air New Zealand messiness, it would be fully seven and a half hours from door to door.

It wasn't just us. We ran into Open Souls, who were trying to get back to Auckland after playing an Orientation gig at Canterbury, a wee bit hungover. Seeing Tyra Hammond cheered me up: she's just all loud, all the time, even when she's not talking.

The bonus was that we had a long-enough layover in Wellington to pop out and see Kerry and Simon for drinks and nibbles. It was still a very long day, and, in need of something restorative later in the evening, I opened the Adelphi Selection (a 13 year-old Cragganmore) that came back from Dramfest with me, fetched some springwater and toasted the good form of Michael and his people.

Conclusions? Christchurch is as, people say, often strange beneath its reserved exterior. Its mob-handed nightlife is impressive in its boisterousness, but we didn't, as some people had warned us we might, feel threatened on the city streets after midnight. They also have a cheesemonger of distinction.

PS: Without wishing to bum everyone out, what on earth is Tariana Turia going to say next? Her proposal - with apparent party backing - to keep white folks out of the country was explicitly racist. If the party wasn't having such a dream run with the media - and it's an open question how long that will last - it could have been pretty nasty yesterday. Idiot/Savant and dc_red at Blogging It Real have plenty to say.

PPS: This is pretty amazing. McClatchy New Service's Baghdad office lets its Iraqi employees blog. Talk about some bleak, black humour …

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barnaclebarnes
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 38

Posted at 10:29AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

Funny you had problems getting back from ChCh. Last year a friend and I went snowboarding at Mt Hutt for the weekend and were amazed that it the door to door trip actually takes less time than trip to Mt Ruapehu. Well worth the trip if you can get cheap flights.

Stephen Judd
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1096

Posted at 10:38AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

Re the bar culture - in every other city but Auckland, it is more practical and cheap to:

a) get into town on foot, bicycle, or bus;
b) get home via same or taxi once completely trollied.

Auckland's geography and car-centricity are anathema to a spontaneous alcoholic social life.

slarty
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 109

Posted at 10:49AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

When I was 19 I was a field engineer in England, driving around fixing computers. I got a call one day from my boss. "We've just won a big contract in Scotland. We need someone to do the start up audit (counting the copmputers)"

"F*** off. It's a 16 hour drive to Scotland, away from home etc."

"It's Distillers Group"

"I'll be there in the morning."

And so proceeded one of the most debauched three weeks of my life. It would appear that all the staff of small distilleries thought it great sport to get the wee young sasanach (S?) pished. And who was I to argue?

Lasting legacies:

- I like it neat. You don't get pished as quickly.
- I like it warm. You can taste it (n.b. if anything tastes bad, serve it cold. Like SplioDB. Or Chardonnay.)
- I like it single and not too peaty. In other words, I now have expensive taste.
- I haven't touched it for years. Becuase a bottle can so easily evaporate.

Che Tibby
From: The posh end of Cuba St
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1289

Posted at 10:58AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

and word on whether that cheesemaker sends his product to other cities?

i found his website, but can't find out if i could decent cheeses here in wellington?

did he mention if he 'exported' it to the north?

enquiring wannabe gourmets need to know.

Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4586
Moderator

Posted at 11:01AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

- I like it neat. You don't get pished as quickly.

You need to get over that. The premium bottlings often come at a cask strength of up to 60% now. You need to add anything from a couple of drops to another 50% good water to appreciate them, although it's fine to do your nosing neat.

- I like it warm. You can taste it (n.b. if anything tastes bad, serve it cold. Like SplioDB. Or Chardonnay.)

Something I learned: when you add the right quanity of water you can trigger a chemical reaction that actually warms up the whisky in your glass.

- I like it single and not too peaty. In other words, I now have expensive taste.

Yes. When you look down your nose at a $100 bottle you know you have a problem.

- I haven't touched it for years. Becuase a bottle can so easily evaporate.

It evaporates at a rate determined by the variable "x", where "x" is the number of friends you have around ...

Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4586
Moderator

Posted at 11:29AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

and word on whether that cheesemaker sends his product to other cities?

No e-comm, but you can place mail-orders here:

http://www.cheesemongers.co.nz/mailorder.asp

The Shropshire is pictured top-left here:

http://www.cheesemongers.co.nz/cheese.asp

It looks bitchin', does it not?

Che Tibby
From: The posh end of Cuba St
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1289

Posted at 11:34AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

It looks bitchin', does it not?

food porn.

will have to chase up some local providers, to see if they can supply some of the cheeses off that second link of yours.

Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4586
Moderator

Posted at 11:47AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

food porn.

Wait till you actually put some in your mouth ...

Che Tibby
From: The posh end of Cuba St
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1289

Posted at 11:59AM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

Wait till you actually put some in your mouth ...

i'm not entirely comfortable with this thread... and so am exercising my right to stop reading.

Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4586
Moderator

Posted at 12:29PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

i'm not entirely comfortable with this thread... and so am exercising my right to stop reading.

You've gone back to look at that picture of the Shropshire, haven't you?

Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4586
Moderator

Posted at 1:36PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

This just in from Sarah Aspinwall at Canterbury Cheesemongers:

our UK cheese imports (incl Shropshire Blue) are available in Wellington at Kirkcaldie and Stains.

You can get some on the way home, Che.

Che? Che? Are you there?

BenWilson
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1238

Posted at 1:38PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

Porn is always cheesy, so I guess porny cheese is only fair. "Like a genius, I swallowed every drop..."

ange wither
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 14

Posted at 1:56PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

i was in Christchurch a couple of weeks ago, Giacometti at the new gallery and cheese were absolute highlights. Tried my first unpasteurised Swiss cheese which was also my favourite. There was a yeasty French Brie that was meltingly fine. I loved how you got to try each cheese before buying, and the room where the big rounds sit there being misted in some soft spray . Their bread is also supposed to be great - you can call ahead and order which we found out too late. I miss the cheeseshop and wish it was here in Wellington.

Rich of Observationz
From: Beautiful Downtown Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 962

Posted at 2:24PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

Is there any whisky distilled (commercially) in NZ?

Do South Islanders slam into "party drams" in the same way as "party pills"?

And on the subject of the some-Maori Party:
- does Tariana realise that at least one new immigrant to NZ I met last year is Maori - his mum moved to the UK many years ago - I'm sure there must be others.

Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4586
Moderator

Posted at 2:37PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

Is there any whisky distilled (commercially) in NZ?

There's about to be some, although in the way of these things, it'll be a while.

When Seagrams exited its NZ liquor business and sold it to Fosters, Fosters decided it had little use for the Willowbank distillery in Dunedin, and closed it.

Given that the distillery was the source of the dread Wilson's whisky, you might not be inclined to lament its passing. But from 1987, they started putting down a proper single malt.

Until the sale, that malt was marketed as Lammerlaw. But the remaining casks were bought from Fosters as a job lot by an Aucklander called Warren Preston, who relaunched it as the Milford single malt. He now has an ageing facility at a stone building in Oamaru, and has just gained resource consent for a new distillery near Queenstown.

I tried the 15 year-old - it's pretty good. He has a 20 year-old due for bottling this year ...

http://www.milfordwhisky.co.nz/

DMR
From: Christchurch
Since: Feb 2007
Posts: 4

Posted at 4:16PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

http://www.localeye.info/ - Christchurch news and web sites etc etc

You picked some of the best bars, I am a habitue of Twisted Hop's Sunday avo pub quiz especially ...

Plus I live round the corner from the cheesemonger (and Vic's Cafe that does the best cheesy red onion bagels and a good salty rosemary foccacia to have with your cheese)

I am glad Dramfest did well and got lots of coverage.
Hopefully somewhere will do a PortFest too mmm tawny port
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kebabette/370566757/

merc
From: Changeville
Since: Dec 2006
Posts: 1276

Posted at 4:26PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

That would be, gout-fest.

DMR
From: Christchurch
Since: Feb 2007
Posts: 4

Posted at 4:34PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

ha ha - and rosy cheek-athon

Chris Bell
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 36

Posted at 4:39PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

the Cropwell Bishop Shropshire, a blue vein cheese of spectacular orange hue, which tasted like God's own marmite

God's own marmite. Love it.

I quite liked Lammerlaw, in a Glen Grant sort of a way, although my favourite single malts tend to be very peaty - such as a cask-strength Caol Ila or, failing that, a Lagavulin, Laphroaig or a Bowmore.

And I miss British cheeses. Sob.

Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4586
Moderator

Posted at 5:52PM on 27 Feb 07. Permalink.

That would be, gout-fest.

Yeah, keeping an eye on that one. Might have to order some more cherry pills.

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