SCOTCH BLEND
Dinner pairs whisky with flavors, colors of New Mexico
Sip on a beautiful collection of Dalmore whisky while dining on delightfully paired courses featuring New Mexico bison and other locally produced ingredients at Vintage 423.
“We know it’s a Scotch dinner, but it’s going to be with the flavor and the colors and everything from New Mexico, so we’re talking about red chile, green chile, asparagus from Edgewood, carrots from Edgewood and (other local) things,” Vintage 423 Executive Chef Rafael Zamora said.
The exclusive Dalmore Scotch Collection pairing dinner will feature five courses. It all begins with a pork belly confit served with smoked Kohlrabi, port wine demi-glace, apricot preserve, chili aioli and frisée lettuce.
“People from Europe, they love to eat, most of the time, pork,” Zamora said of incorporating pork belly into the pairing menu. “These people like to cure the meat, smoke the meat. We’re talking about the belly, the head, the feet and the tenderloin, all those things.”
The first course will be paired with Dalmore’s The 12, which is matured for nine years in American white oak ex-bourbon casks. It is later divided, with half remaining in the bourbon barrels and the other half transferred to exclusive 30-year-old Gonzalez Byass Matusalem oloroso sherry butts before they are reunited to create this whisky, according to Dalmore’s tasting notes.
A Brussels sprout salad will follow. It features a bacon malt vinaigrette, radish, sweet peppercorn bacon, red onion, blue corn, sliced pear and blue cheese. It will be complemented by Dalmore’s The 15, which is matured for 12 years in American white oak ex-bourbon casks and then split equally among three different sherry woods — Amoroso, Apostoles and Matusalem oloroso — for three more years, according to the tasting notes.
“It has cooked Brussels sprouts, and we decided to make a vinaigrette with the bacon and the fat,” Zamora said of the salad. “It is like Scandinavian food.”
The third course, of Lardon onion soup, is made of cipollini, Emmental cheese and a red wine glaze. It will be served with Dalmore’s Cigar Malt Reserve, which is matured in American white oak ex-bourbon casks and 30-year-old Matusalem oloroso sherry butts and then finessed in premier cru Cabernet Sauvignon wine barriques, according to the tasting notes.
After a palate-cleansing elderflower whisky sorbet, the main course, of Bison short ribs, will be served with grilled romaine lettuce hearts, perigourdine potatoes, watermelon radishes, pickled white asparagus and minted carrots with a Hatch red chile demi-glace. It will be paired with Dalmore’s The 18, which is aged 14 years in American white oak ex-bourbon casks and later transferred to 30-year-old Matusalem oloroso sherry butts for another four years.
The dinner concludes with a sous vide banana brûlée, orange supreme, sliced strawberries, vanilla and brown sugar malt. It will be accompanied by King Alexander III. It is the only single malt in the world to unite a unique six-cask finish, according to the tasting notes. Spirits matured in ex-bourbon casks, Matusalem oloroso sherry butts, Madeira barrels, Marsala casks, Port pipes and Cabernet Sauvignon wine barriques are combined to create a uniquely complex, yet smooth single malt, the tasting notes add. A special surprise cigar pairing follows the dinner.