Bourbon & Chocolate

Last Saturday, the 7th of July, I had a pretty damn good day.  First thing in the morning, I drove out to the South Riding Golf Club to take a golf lesson that my lovely wife purchased for me as an early birthday gift.  Within five minutes my instructor, Kevin Hamluk, had me hitting the ball farther and straighter.  After bombing about 50 drives, we cut the lesson short because it was nearing 100 degrees.  I was okay with this because I had already sweat through my golf shorts.

Since I was out in "Real America" (Nicole and I don't go outside the beltway terribly often), I decided I'd pop over to Purcelville to visit Catoctin Creek Distillery.  This was a big day for Catoctin, as they were releasing 100 bottles of a cask strength version of their excellent Roundstone Rye.  There were about 50 people in line, which was fortuitous because they limited each customer to 2 bottles of the cask strength rye.  I was about 30th in line so I secured my allotment with no problems.  While I was at the counter I decided to pick up their Watershed Gin and a bottle of their barrel aged maple syrup.

Since I was out in Virginia anyway, I decided to stop at the local VABC store.  As luck would have it, I was able to find the latest rye release from Jim Beam, Knob Creek Rye.  So it was sort of a big day for booze purchasing.

When I got home, I was fairly tired (I hadn't driven that far in one day in over a year), but I pushed through and sampled the Cask Strength Roundstone Rye.  It starts grassy with a little mint at the end and is a seriously spicy rye--it is the purest form of rye I've ever tasted.  I very much enjoyed my first pour, and I'm looking forward to spending some more time with it in the future.

After a brief nap, Nicole and I got dressed and went over to Citronelle, which is widely regarded as one of the best restaurants  in the city.  It. Was. Phenomenal.  We both had the 10 course tasting menu with the wine pairing.  Everything from the lobster sandwich, to the halibut, to the foie gras (which I usually don't like) was fantastic.  We both agreed it wasn't as good as Komi, but far better than  CityZen. 

Anyway, Saturday was one hell of an enjoyable day.