WhiskyFest Chicago 2007
WhiskeyFest Chicago 2007 photos

Mike Miller, owner of Delilah’s and another high priest in Chicago’s whiskey cult, says his free monthly tastings and 400 whiskey choices draw a motley lot.

“It’s impossible to put your finger on,” he says. “The people who are coming in could be a 22-year-old Columbia College student or a 52-year-old collector of high-end malts. You just never know what it’s going to be like. I’d say it’s generally more guys, but I did a seminar about Irish whiskey last Wednesday night, and there were more women than men, like two-thirds women.

“The tastings are an extremely valuable tool for us. Customers get to meet the people who are making it happen. We call it booze school.”

A recent celebrity guest at Delilah’s for St. Pat’s was Colum Egan, 37, master distiller at the 399-year-old Bushmills distillery in Northern Ireland. Bearing Irish charm of at least 80 proof, Egan proved to be a hit at numerous appearances throughout the area.

But he obviously takes his charge of “maintaining the bloodlines” of Bushmills as seriously as the occasional public-relations foray, and he too fits neatly into the demographic the Irish distillery is trying to reach. That’s what would make him say something like this:

“Whiskey, especially Bushmills, is there to enjoy. So if you drink it with Coke or Sprite, drink it like that. You’ll actually get the whiskey characters coming through. I’m not saying you want to mix the 16-year-old or the 21-year-old, but definitely Bushmills Original and Black Bush.”

As for the sought-after Bushmills demographic of 25- to 40-year-olds, he says: “The palate is beginning to develop a little bit. They’re not eating a burger and chips from McDonald’s every day. They’ve got a job, and they’ve gotten a couple of quid together.”

Nevertheless, for many of those drinkers, reverence rules at the highest end. And so it was at an impromptu Bushmills tasting, where the 16-year-old and 21-year-old single malts at first rated a hush, then low, soft moans. A neophyte would have melted.

There’s a reason for that, according to Miller, who says tequila and especially vodka are as much marketing vehicles as anything – pretty bottles, glitzy names. But with whiskey, quality can’t be faked.

“It’s different than all the other spirit worlds,” he says. “Rum is defined by the fact that’s it’s made from sugarcane. Whiskey has different rules based on where it comes from. There are about 200 whiskey distilleries internationally. They’re all turning out differing products that don’t necessarily overlap. People who are putting out custom whiskey aren’t doing it so they can make a lot of money. It’s because they’re into it.”

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