JIM, GALLO, YOICHI AND MY BEST LAULAU EVER

This is the third, and final, chapter on Japanese whiskies.  And, by the way, is it whisky or whiskey?  If in Ireland or Japan, it is whisky.    If you're in Scotland or the USA, it should be whiskey.  Which make no sense because the Irish brought this drink to America, and the Japanese went to Scotland to copy scotch.  The next World Whisky Day is May 16 next year.

If you read part two of this series, you would know that Suntory bought Jim Beam for a princely price of $16 billion.  Never thought much of Jim Beam Bourbon, and placed it right by Ten High once produced by Hiram Walker, the cheapest bourbon you could get if you lived in any sugar plantation in Hawaii.  They bought it by the case.  Lot of alcoholic supervisors working in the sugar industry in those earlier days when I was there.  Today a bottle of Ten High costs $15.

I should add that in the bar across the street from the Hutchinson Sugar Company factory where I worked served only Budweiser Beer and the screw-cap Thunderbird Wine, made by Gallo.  Thunderbird wine originally came from a white grape, fortified to 21% alcohol, as it was then, and now from pear and apple juice, at "only" at 17.5%.  You might never have ever experienced this sweet potion.  Its past is too good not to be shared.

This comes from Modern Drunkard Magazine (for real).  In 1906 Joseph and Assunto Gallo, Italian immigrants, founded a grape farm in Fresno County, California.  It became prosperous, but in 1933 Joseph shot his wife to death and then killed himself.  At least, that was the verdict.  His two older sons were first suspected.  His three sons did not get along with each other, but with Prohibition over, the grape farm became a winery.  Gallo is today the largest wine producer in the world.  But how did it get there?  Thunderbird wine!

In 1954 the federal law regulating the definition of wine was relaxed, allowing vintners to add flavors.  Thus, Thunderbird was created as a uniquely American drink projecting Indian  power and strength, with a logo that was similar to Ford's hot new car of the same name.  The product was mostly at first marketed to inner-city bars in African-American neighborhoods and close to the homeless.

This was so successful, that Gallo rolled out a media blitz featuring Cesar Romero at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas on television, shifting the clientele to movie stars and high rollers.  By the end of 1957, 32 million gallons/year of Thunderbird were sold, thrusting Gallo to star status.  Gallo then from the late 50's led the way to carbonated, fortified and flavored wines like Ripple, with Fred Sanford being a popular customer.  Their Boone's Farm followed, becoming the best-selling wine in the USA.

Gallo felt that their name, rightfully, was becoming synonymous with cheap, low-class street liquor, so hired British actor James Mason to pitch for Thunderbird.  Said Mason, "I like the unusual flavor of Thunderbird wine," placing the glass and bottle on a silver tray.  He wrote the script himself.

However, respectability failed, and Gallo, while still selling the wine, disassociated itself by taking Gallo off the label.  Even today, no mention of the company.  They began focusing in the 70's on more respectable table wines like Gallo Pink Chablis, which became America's favorite.  In the 80's came the wine cooler, so Gallo invented Bartles and Jaymes, said to be two kindly old men with a down to earth personality, and the company emerged bigger and stronger.







In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer, the "cannibal killer," was apprehended, and the circus that followed showed an earlier photo of him passed out with a bottle of Thunderbird cradled in his arm.  Sales dropped to 300,000 cases in 2003, a tenth of what it earlier was.

I've been looking for Thunderbird Wine for some time and can't seem to find it.  Online, I see that Wine Chateau sells it for $7/bottle.  But Shopright Liquors in New Jersey has it for $2.76.  Next time I'm in the area I'll make sure to stop by.

So back to Japanese whiskies, yesterday I caught The Bus to Suntory Restaurant in Waikiki on the third floor of the Royal Hawaiian Arcade to check on how much a bottle of Hibiki cost there.

The only whisky you can today add to your private collection is Jim Beam.  Cost?  $80.  At least it's affordable, and should last me here for the rest of my life.

Remember the Ten High Bourbon I mentioned above generally available for $15?  Guess what the Jim Beam costs in your favorite liquor store?  About $15.

But the meal of unagi and sashimi was absolutely wonderful:

Having come this far, I would like to introduce you to Suntory Ao, meaning blue in Japanese.  The symbolic meaning refers to the fact that they have combined the products of five distilleries around the world they own--Japan, plus Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the USA--from throughout the blue ocean.  The reality is that their Japan distilleries are at the peak of production, so they now can sell the Suntory name with products from other countries who can make this product cheaper and make a lot more money.

The price for this bottle was supposed to be less than $50.  However, Dekanta has it on sale for $199.99.  How can they charge so much?  They have a supply, being the only online distributor from Japan.  My advice?  Wait until Ao arrives in your local stores.

Dekanta also lists these as attractive: 

I remember buying Suntory Old and Royal a couple of decades ago at duty free shops, for $25 or less.

Continuing on, I ordered the 15 Craigside Hawaiian meal last night and enhanced it:

To the supplied lomi-lomi salmon I added more tomatoes, cucumber and onions, and splashed on some hot chili sauce.  I first fried in olive oil 1/8 inch slices of scallops.  Mistake, I was supposed to use the wagyu beef fat, not olive oil.  So tossed in this fat, then added the laulau cut in half, heating the combination at low heat for five minutes.  There was a lot liquid fat at the end, so I added some cut onions and poured the whole thing on to the laulau:

You sometimes learn things in error.  The scallop slices became crisp, adding texture to the flavor:

I added a tablespoon of Dewar's White Label Scotch to the chicken long rice and had the Hawaiian meal with beer and some Yoichi 15.  Of all the scotches I have, I probably drink White Label the most because it is much cheaper than any of those Japanese whiskies.  The laulau?  Best ever, for the combination of wagyu and scallops did so much to complement the taro leaf, butterfish and pork.

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Hurricane Erick largely dissipated south of Hawaii, but should yet bring some rain to Kauai this weekend.  Hurricane Flossie is weakening, but the latest track shows the storm brushing the north side of the Hawaiian Islands:

The ocean storm of interest is Francisco, now only a tropical storm, but expected to strengthen and possibly make landfall over Japan:

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