I bought a Chivas Regal whisky,
"Ultis".
It's a neologism combining the English word for ultimate (ULTIMATE) and
the Latin word for strength (FORTIS),
though there's also a watch brand called Fortis.
It's the first blended malt whisky in Chivas Regal history, unveiled in 2016.
Malt means that malted barley is the primary ingredient,
and whisky bottled from a single distillery is called "single malt,"
but Ultis luxuriously blends rare single malts from five distilleries,
making it a rather pricey whisky.
The standard model "Chivas Regal 12 Year" is also a blended whisky,
but it's a blend of grain whisky made primarily from corn, rye, or wheat
and malt whisky,
and since all the base spirits are aged for 12 years or more,
it has "12 years" in its name.
The other day, when I stopped by to see my mentor's place,
I mentioned I'd bought Ultis and would send it to him, but for some reason he got angry.
This is something he always says—he prefers quantity over quality,
and tells me to buy something with more volume for the same price.
For example, when I bring beer,
he says it would've been better to get the low-malt beer with the larger volume.
But frankly, this is my own decision,
because I want my mentor to drink good whisky.
I won't budge on this point.
Ultis costs about 6 times as much as the same volume of Chivas Regal 12 Year,
and the Chivas Regal 25 Year I gave him last year was about 8 times the price of the 12 Year.
If I were to say "does it matter as long as you get drunk" and send him
ethyl alcohol (I looked it up—about 40 liters) for the same price as Ultis,
I'm pretty sure he'd still get angry, so quality over quantity is the way to go.
Especially if he doesn't often buy expensive alcohol for himself.
There's a reason I chose Chivas Regal too.
My mentor is a frame builder, and he names his frame models
(though not all of them) after types of alcohol,
and among them there's a frame model called Chivas.
It's not quite as elaborate as Chivas Regal 25 Year,
but it comes in a pretty fancy box.
The big V on it indicates the blend of five distilleries,
and there's also a V mark stamped on the bottom of the bottle.
Actually, it wasn't just for my mentor—
I bought some for myself too.
It wasn't available at the local liquor store, so I bought it online,
and I'm not entirely unaware that this cost the liquor store a sale.
There are some bike shop employees who don't like the lost sales when customers buy things through online retailers,
but those same employees buy things outside of bike parts through mail order,
causing lost sales for brick-and-mortar shops in other industries,
so I think it's wrong to simply criticize it.
With alcohol, you're just drinking it—the only concern is that it's genuine,
some might counter that bike parts need proper installation so they're not comparable to alcohol,
but the real issue is that proper installation itself is in question,
which is why people buy from cheaper online retailers in the first place.
It features the signatures of five master blenders throughout Chivas Regal's history.
The third one lists Alan Bailey (1960–1966), but
of course these are his years of tenure, not his birth and death years.
The fourth one lists Jimmy Lang, and
he has nothing to do with Heidrich Lang from Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
"Ultis".
It's a neologism combining the English word for ultimate (ULTIMATE) and
the Latin word for strength (FORTIS),
though there's also a watch brand called Fortis.
It's the first blended malt whisky in Chivas Regal history, unveiled in 2016.
Malt means that malted barley is the primary ingredient,
and whisky bottled from a single distillery is called "single malt,"
but Ultis luxuriously blends rare single malts from five distilleries,
making it a rather pricey whisky.
The standard model "Chivas Regal 12 Year" is also a blended whisky,
but it's a blend of grain whisky made primarily from corn, rye, or wheat
and malt whisky,
and since all the base spirits are aged for 12 years or more,
it has "12 years" in its name.
The other day, when I stopped by to see my mentor's place,
I mentioned I'd bought Ultis and would send it to him, but for some reason he got angry.
This is something he always says—he prefers quantity over quality,
and tells me to buy something with more volume for the same price.
For example, when I bring beer,
he says it would've been better to get the low-malt beer with the larger volume.
But frankly, this is my own decision,
because I want my mentor to drink good whisky.
I won't budge on this point.
Ultis costs about 6 times as much as the same volume of Chivas Regal 12 Year,
and the Chivas Regal 25 Year I gave him last year was about 8 times the price of the 12 Year.
If I were to say "does it matter as long as you get drunk" and send him
ethyl alcohol (I looked it up—about 40 liters) for the same price as Ultis,
I'm pretty sure he'd still get angry, so quality over quantity is the way to go.
Especially if he doesn't often buy expensive alcohol for himself.
There's a reason I chose Chivas Regal too.
My mentor is a frame builder, and he names his frame models
(though not all of them) after types of alcohol,
and among them there's a frame model called Chivas.
It's not quite as elaborate as Chivas Regal 25 Year,
but it comes in a pretty fancy box.
The big V on it indicates the blend of five distilleries,
and there's also a V mark stamped on the bottom of the bottle.
Actually, it wasn't just for my mentor—
I bought some for myself too.
It wasn't available at the local liquor store, so I bought it online,
and I'm not entirely unaware that this cost the liquor store a sale.
There are some bike shop employees who don't like the lost sales when customers buy things through online retailers,
but those same employees buy things outside of bike parts through mail order,
causing lost sales for brick-and-mortar shops in other industries,
so I think it's wrong to simply criticize it.
With alcohol, you're just drinking it—the only concern is that it's genuine,
some might counter that bike parts need proper installation so they're not comparable to alcohol,
but the real issue is that proper installation itself is in question,
which is why people buy from cheaper online retailers in the first place.
It features the signatures of five master blenders throughout Chivas Regal's history.
The third one lists Alan Bailey (1960–1966), but
of course these are his years of tenure, not his birth and death years.
The fourth one lists Jimmy Lang, and
he has nothing to do with Heidrich Lang from Legend of the Galactic Heroes.