The first of the two sample sets, single malt scotch whisky, has arrived and been tasted, my guesses were returned and Oliver announced the results today. The methodology was quite simple – we needed to guess distillery, age, abv and the specific expression. 25 points would be given if we got the expression (and thus everything else) right, with 5 points each for the others (with 0.5 of a point removed for each 0.5% of the ABV or year that we were out).

The whiskies were all recent official bottlings (no independents) from working distilleries that listed their age to give us a chance to guess what they were. To make sure that there were no pointers as to what the whiskies were Oliver only charged us a down payment on the drams to start with so that we couldn’t work backwards to find out a total cost (although he did reassure us that it wouldn’t be more than €500 in total for the 5 bottles) and labelled them up with coloured stickers so as not to imply any sort of tasting order. Cunning man.

Anyways here are my raw tasting notes (edited for poor spleling), guesses (and the tasting order I chose from dram colour alone) and what the whiskies actually were:

Yellow
Colour: Light Gold
Nose: Grass, fresh cut apple, honeysuckle, flowering hedges, sour fruit chews, perfumed wood, rose wood(?), lemon zest, lemon butter sauce, joss sticks, damp green leaves. Buttery biscuit (base?) + spice, flower petals, light cherry, marzipan as it sits in the glass.
Palate: Light and oily, syrup hit to start, then sour wood, some vanilla, light sweet cream, building tannins, green sticks + dry wood. Nice, but not as good or deep as the nose.
Finish: Stony, sour wood, fresh cur wood develops. Tannins linger with Granny Smith apple skins.
I guessed: Bladnoch 20yo 46%
It was: Loch Lomond 1966/2011, 40%
Points: 3 (abv)

Green
Colour: Light Gold
Nose: Butter, fruity wood, spicey peach stones, damp pine forest floor, earth, damp car blankets, butter burns off to reveal a more savoury nose with light cinder toffee sweetness.
Palate: Piney smoke, bracken, pungent earth, hot (cask strength?), tar, background minerality, underlying smoky caramel, more cinder toffee.
Finish: Mossy bonfire stones, damp burnt wood, light sour apple tannin.
I guessed: Tobermory 10yo 46.3%
It was: Caol Ila 12yo Unpeated, 57.6%
Points: 4 (age)

Orange (aka Red)
Colour: Mid Gold
Nose: Fake butter, damp wood, spiced cream, dired strawberry pieces, buttered caramel popcorn, white chocolate/caramac/Milky Bar, sour rhubarb develops.
Palate: More butter, sour fruity wood underneath sherry wood. Hints of cinnamon and clove, oily mouthfeel, raisins and vine fruit.
Finish: Tannins, yet more butter, apple skin, some fruit and damp fruity wood, spiky sherry wood lingers.
I guessed: Glenfarclas 21yo 46%
It was: Glenfarclas Premium Edition Oloroso Sherry Casks 1993/2011, 46%
Points: 5 (distillery) + 5 (abv) + 3.5 (age)

Black
Colour: Light Bronze
Nose: Mud, pine compost, woody anis, sweet butter, stony underside, sweet mentholated smoke, sweet butter develops. More herbal and vegetal as it sits. Dark choc and earth – loam? Some red fruit, cherry?
Palate: Sweet spicy sherry, hot (cask strength?), vanilla, red fruit, cherry, marzipan, tarry smoke.
Finish: Sweet butter, trodden leaves, menthol smoke.
I guessed: Benriach 17yo Solstice 50%
It was: Auchentoshan 1999 11yo Bordeaux Matured, 58%
Points: 2 (age) + 1 (abv)

Blue
Colour: Dark Bronze
Nose: Pine cone infused butter, beaten too long curdled vanilla cream, wood ash, apple, menthol, cola bottle gummi, fruit chews, red fruit, rough cognac, green rhubarb, some sherry fruit underneath everything.
Palate: Wood smoke, rich sherry wood, rubbery edges, hot (cask strength?), cloves, earth.
Finish: Sweet raisin, cloves, fruitcake, wood smoke, sour fruit skin.
Guess: Bunnahabhain 25yo 50%
It was: Benrinnes Friends of the Classic Malts 23yo, 58.8%
Points: 4 (age) + 0.5 (abv)

From Oliver’s results it seems I was one of only two participants who managed to guess a distillery correctly: Glenfarclas. It was my most certain guess, albeit for the wrong expression, and I managed to guess it fairly solidly which seems to be the only reason I got on the leaderboard. The rest ranged between 2.5 and 4.5 which looks to be a fairly usual score for a vaguely informed guess. The other thing I noticed is that my tasting notes generally are more accurate than my guesses – the two bottlings that I’ve tried before (the Auchentoshan and the Caol Ila) both have similar notes to what I have written before (apart from the smoke in the Auchentoshan…). Which at least gives me some confidence in my palate.

So, in conclusion – blind tasting is just as random as you might think, at least at this level. Now to await the freestyle round…

Oliver has written up more about the results over on Dramming.

Monkey Shoulder is a blended malt whisky from Grant’s, made by combining whisky from Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie. While the first two are well known establishments the latter is more unknown. It’s not really a distillery, instead being a set of stills round the back of Balvenie, used to produce extra malt for blending. According to the ever reliable Johannes van der Heuvel’s Malt Madness they closed it down in 2010 in favour of their new (and huge) Ailsa Bay distillery. There have only been two single malt bottlings released from Kininvie, labelled as ‘Hazelwood’ and sold for silly sums of money through travel retail, and with its close I suspect that we won’t see it appearing as single malt at anything other than a silly price . I see this as being almost certainly the case as Grant’s like to teaspoon their whiskies to make sure that they can’t be sold as single malts – they add a little bit of whisky from one of their other distilleries to the cask when they sell them, making them no longer the product of one distillery. No floating around casks of Kininvie = no independent bottlings = no cheaper bottlings. Anyways, as of next year spirit from Ailsa Bay will start becoming whisky and us whisky geeks can switch our attention to whinging at Grant’s for a taste of that instead…

So, Monkey Shoulder. It’s been around since about 2006 and is another creation of Grant’s Malt Master David Stewart. It’s made up entirely of bourbon cask matured whisky (27 casks per batch, so the marketing goes) and is a mix of both young and old spirit further married in bourbon casks for 6-8 months.  The idea of the blend is to back up the light younger spirit with some older more flavoursome whisky to help it to stand out when mixed while staying fairly light and easy drinking – its place in the portfolio as a whisky for those who don’t usually like whisky and those who want to make whisky cocktails.

We were joined by brand ambassador/bartender Dean Callan and handler/madman Olivier Ward for a Whisky Squad with a difference – no blind tasting and only one whisky (well, two, but more of that later). The plan was to try a couple of cocktails and knock back a bit of Monkey Shoulder while chewing the fat with Dean and Olivier.

First up we passed around a bottle of Monkey Shoulder so we could see where we were starting from. On the nose it had butterscotch, popcorn, creamy grain, hints of lemon, sweet vanilla and honey. To taste it was soft and creamy with a bit of woody spice, lemon cream and malted milk biscuits. It finished with some dry wood, cinnamon and lemon rind, and faded to bitter wood. An easy drinking whisky without much complexity but enough flavour to make it one that is quite easy to knock back by the glass. As a few people around the room quickly realised.

With the bottle still moving around the throng Dean moved onto the first cocktail of the evening, the Old Fashioned. Often considered to be the first cocktail, it’s as simple as they come – spirit, sugar, bitters, ice. It’s one of my standard cocktails and I already wrote a post about it way back in 2009 (my fifth post…) – since then I’ve played around with it much more and am always interested to see what other people do with the idea (as long as it doesn’t start with ‘muddling’ fruit in the bottom of a mixing glass). Normally Dean would build this in the glass it was to be served in, but as he was serving a lot of us he made up a batch to be poured individually. His recipe is, as hoped, simple – Monkey Shoulder, sugar syrup to taste (he’s one of the “don’t bother using a sugar cube soaked in bitters” crowd that I used to be part of – these days I use a cube smushed up with bitters to create a layered effect, as outlined in point 3 of this American Drink article), a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters, ice for stirring and some orange peel to garnish.

On the nose it was dominated by the orange oils from the garnish (expressed over the glass), but also had a bit of caramel and woody spice. To taste it was sweet (a bit sweet for my taste), with a malty edge from the whisky, soft cinnamon, brown sugar and some caramelised orange, finishing sweet and spicy. One of my big problems with whisky in cocktails is a jarring malt flavour that often appears when mixed. The way that I’ve found to round it out/hide it is by using bitters, the great flavour connector in many cocktails, and the Angostura here fulfil that task admirably, keeping everything together.

Next was The Malt Jockey, a Monkey Shoulder twist on the Jockey Club, itself a Manhattan variant with maraschino added as a sweetening agent. The Malt Jockey’s recipe is: 50ml Monkey Shoulder, 25ml Sweet Red Vermouth (Dean is an Antica Formula fan, but something fairly heavy and sweet should work well), 5-10ml of Maraschino Liqueur (depending on how sweet you like the cocktail), 2 dashes of chocolate bitters (I think Dean used Fee Brothers, which are quite sweet); stir with ice, strain into a chilled glass and garnish with expressed orange peel.

On the nose the orange yet again dominated and it appeared on the palate as well, along with a woody edge and a rich whisky/vermouth mix with the herbal notes  and hint of chocolate from the vermouth accented. It finished with green herbs and a burst of unexpected chocolate from the bitters. Again it married well, with the chocolate bitters helping tie everything together but not being as much of an overt influence this time compared to other times that I’ve tried it.

We then moved on to another Malt Jockey, this time tweaked by one of Dean’s current obsessions – barrel ageing. The small barrel was built by the coopers at Balvenie, having been chopped down from a retired cask to be a couple of litres in size. Dean filled the barrel with the regular recipe Malt Jockey back in February, giving it a couple of months of wooden influence before we got to taste it.

The wood had definitely had an effect, and tasting the two cocktails side by side it was obvious which was which – the aged version had a more malty nose and more bitterness on the palate along with a caramelised edge to the orange notes that hadn’t been there before. While the bitterness from the wood wasn’t a surprise, the softening and marrying of the flavours was something I hadn’t expected to have changed so much in a small amount of time – when playing with small casks you have to be really careful as the ratio of spirit to wood means that things happen fast.

Next we switched back to whisky, with Dean pulling out a special bottle – Cask Strength Monkey Shoulder. He managed to get a few bottles pulled from one of the marrying casks before dilution and presented them, individually labelled with the recipients name, to a group of visitors he was showing around the distillery, making sure he got one himself. I suspect he has some sneaky refills at home, but it’s something that isn’t out in the wild and was exciting to have a taste of.

It was bottled at 58.5% rather than the regular 40% and the extra concentration really showed. On the nose there were Green herbs, anis, cinnamon, bitter clove, toast, sweet butter, orange zest, vanilla and floral hints. To taste it was soft despite the strength, with vanilla and big spice, lemon and orange. It finished quite long with a surprising tinge of violets and polished wood with a hint of floral Mister Sheen. Not what I expected and a whisky that I wish I had a bit more time to sit down and think about – I wish I knew where the floral notes came from as I’d jump on a whisky with them. I suspect it’s young Glenfiddich and hope it wasn’t the Kininvie…

For a final drink Dean pulled out another experiment – New French Oak Aged Monkey Shoulder. While investigating the use of wood for cocktail maturation Dean had a small two litre new French Oak vat made up for him and about a month before the tasting had filled it with Monkey Shoulder ‘to see what would happen’. New oak can be very active and with a huge wood/spirit ratio compared to a full sized cask it was going to have had a big effect on the whisky, I just wasn’t sure what it would do.

On the nose it was rubbery with big pungent wood, lots of woody spice and a musky perfume. To taste there was masses of heavily perfumed wood and a ginger/rubber combination that reminded me of Adnams’s Spirit of Broadside – a distilled beer that they then matured for a year in new oak. It finished with sweet rubber and cheap fake chocolate. Overall I reckoned it was fairly awful as a drink, picking up all the overly woody and rubbery notes from the cask while avoiding the nicer elements that could have been added, apart from a little bit of extra spice. However, making tasty whisky wasn’t the point – I’ve now got a better idea of the flavours that new French oak imparts to a spirit.

And that was that. Many thanks to Dean and Olivier for looking after us and the Red Lion for having an excellent upstairs room.

Monkey Shoulder
Blended Malt Whisky, 40%. ~£25

Cask Strength Monkey Shoulder
Blended Malt Whisky, 58.5%. Not generally available.

20+ writers, 1001 whiskies, several hundred images, a very Jim Murray introduction and a couple of kilos of paper and card. I had a read through my entries today and already a couple of them make me cringe, however I only wrote 14 (1.39% of the book) so there’s lots of good stuff in there if you have a look. It’s not really a ‘what are the best 1001 whiskies evar’ but more of a ‘what are 1001 whiskies that people wanted to write about’. There’s everything from everyday whisky to obscure foreign drams and everything in between, including some that I agree must be tasted and many that I wish I hadn’t. Don’t expect a coherent whole and do expect some repeated information, but as a book to dip in and out of it should keep most people happy for a while. However, I am biased and my word can’t be trusted at the best of times.

Anyways, the book is now out and you can buy it on Amazon (and doing so through that link might even give me a commission). I advise that you get it sent to its final resting place as it’s quite heavy, as I discovered this evening when carrying it home.

I wonder if any of those drinking their way through Ian Buxton’s 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die will follow up that challenge with tasting their way through this book…

Ta muchly to Dom Roskrow for asking me to contribute and to the nice folks at Quintessence for giving me a thankyou at the end of the book for helping them sort out some of the photos.

Yes, after two years of schmoozing the assembled masses of the whisky industry Andy and Jason managed to lever a number of sample bottles of new make spirit out of the hands of the distilleries for a bit of a special evening – tasting blind, as usual, whiskies and the new make spirits that they started out as.

The pairs were served together, to allow appreciation of the similarities and variances in the aged and unaged spirits. The first new make had a buttery nose, with ground coriander, lemons and yeasty bread. To taste it was sour with crunchy pears and peach. The accompanying aged dram was light and floral on the nose, with sweet grain, hints of sherry and a touch of farmyard. On the palate it remained light, with a little bit of fruit, lots of cream, and some grain. It finished with woody spices and pleasant oak. The mask came off the bottle to reveal that it was Glenmorangie 10 year old. I’d gone for a while without having tasted the 10, but had tried it recently at the Whisky Lounge festival in Brighton (a good time was had, even from behind the Glenmorangie/Ardbeg stand were I was stationed for the day) and was more favourable towards it than I remembered being. It’s light and easy drinking and you can see why they sell so much of it.

The next new make had a slightly fizzy nose, with pear, grain and a little bit of generic fruitiness. To taste it was sweet, with some charcoal and fruit, and a minerally backbone. The whisky had spiced pear on the nose, with caramel digestives, brown bread and browning apples. To taste it was creamy, with cinnamon, sweet and sour apples, woody spice and a touch of linseed oil. It finished with more apples, both flesh and skins. I was quite surprised to guess this correctly, with the label coming off to reveal that it was Glenfiddich 12 year old. As I’ve written before I wasn’t a fan of the distillery until recently, letting the memory of bad old bottles and whisky snobbery get in the way of actually tasting the stuff. I still don’t think it’ll change your life, but it’s a decent dram.

The third new make had a nose of lemony grain, caraway seeds and pungent farmyard – bits of silage and a hint of cowpat. It started off tasting sweet, but quickly faded away to not a lot. The whisky was a different matter, with a spicy nose of sherry fruit, parma violets and iced fruitcake. To taste it was spicy, with apples, spiced spongecake, bananas and a touch of tannin, finishing with more parma violets. This was a bit of a conundrum, with the assumption being that it was a refill sherry cask matured whisky, but the label came off and it was revealed to instead be from the Isle of Arran – a single cask whisky from a bourbon barrel, to be exact. A tasty whisky that showed not only how much the wood lends to the spirit, but also how different every cask can be.

Number four came as a trio rather than a pair, with a mystery dram poured in between the whisky and new make. The spirit had a nose of citrus and caraway, with a hint of coffee ground bitterness. To taste it was very light, with only really a hint of sweet grain, and finished very hot. The second glass had a nose of butter icing and lemon, and a soft creamy taste that continued into the finish – we assumed, correctly, that this had been in a cask for at least some time. The whisky was quite different to the middle dram, with a nose of charcoal dust and sherry, carbonised bacon and young raw spirit. To taste it had sweaty leather, lots of sharp wood, pungent raisins, ground coffee and a lingering finish of new make spirit. The presense of an intermediate dram meant that this wasn’t much of a surprise – it was Glenglassaugh First Cask, a three year old whisky bottled at 59.1% that was some of the first distillate to be produced after the distillery changed hands back in 2008. The middle dram was their Fledgling XB, matured for a year in bourbon and sold as part of their spirit drinks range,. I’ve tried some of the older Glenglassaugh’s and I very much hope that their new spirit continues to develop towards that style, as I wasn’t a fan of the First Cask (or their new three year old Revival).

The next new make was very different – crunchy and green on the nose with pungent grain, and a spicy taste with lots of pear. The whisky was again different, with a nose of balsamic vinegar, raisins, Garibaldi biscuits, marzipan and damp forest floors. To taste it had sour cream and sweet fruit laid against a muddy background, finishing with cream, spice and a touch of menthol. The label came off and the bottle was shown to be Glenrothes 1995, a recent entry into their range of vintages that was bottled last year.

The penultimate new make started our decent into the smokier end of things, with a nose of sour fruit, light smoke and a hint of ham. It was sweet to taste, with mint, hay, tobacco, tea, tar and a young spirit caraway tang. The whisky had smoked peanut butter, coal stoves, lime and brine on the nose. On the palate it had coal dust, mango, sweet spicy fruit, extra strong mints and a burny hit of alcohol. It finished with a sherberty fizz and fizzy fruit chews. The big reveal showed it to be Lg3 from the Elements of Islay range, a rather excellent range bottled by my employers. I can’t possible mention which distillery Lg3 comes from, other than that it is on Islay, but the new make we tried beforehand was from Lagavulin.

The last new make of the night had a nose of smokey limes and a sweet mineral heavy body. The whisky’s nose started out with sweet fruity pip sweets and flowers, and moved on to glacé cherries, medicinal peat, freshly unwrapped bandages, germolene, turkish delight and candied lemons. To taste it had smoky coal, sweet syrup, more flowers, mint and a creamy, oily texture. It finished with the lime and coal smoke of the new make’s nose. For the last time the whisky was revealed and turned out to be Ardbeg 10. I don’t know whether to blame my knackered taste buds but this was not how I remembered Ardbeg 10, with none of the big vanilla that I associate it with coming out, replaced by a much more delicate and interesting set of flavours underneath the smoke. More investigation needed.

Anyways, with the whisky over there was only one thing left to do – eat cake. And cake there was.

Expect more Whisky Squad writeups when I get round to them. There were three sessions in April and I’m already a month behind, but as I’m missing the next one (my second one missed since I started going from #4) I might have a chance to not only finish up but also write about something else for once…

Lack of piccies courtesy of frantic note writing and talking toot with the lovely people of The Squad. Ho hum. Luckily Charly was on hand and took some rather pretty ones – they’re over on her blog.

Glenmorangie 10yo Original
Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 40%. ~£25

Glenfiddich 12yo
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 40%. ~£25

Arran Cask Strength Bourbon (I think this was the 1998)
Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 57.8%. ~£45 

Glenglassaugh First Cask
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky, CS%. £90 

Glenglassaugh Fledgling XB
Scottish Barley Spirit, 50%.  ~£13 for 20cl

Glenrothes 1995
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 43%. ~£45

Elements of Islay Lg2
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 58%. ~£45

Ardbeg 10
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky,  46%. ~£35

BrewDog/Lost Abbey Lost Dog – a collaboration between BrewDog and Lost Abbey, a ‘monastically inspired’ brewery just north of San Diego in California. It’s a rum cask aged Imperial porter, produced during a visit by the Californians about a year ago. It’s a big dark beer, but held up to the light has a deep red colour. On the nose it had sticky red berries, massively sweet caramel and a little bit of burnt toffee – a nice but unsurprising nose that could have come off many sweet dark beers. To taste it was rich, laced with port fruit, and had a light fizz that cut through the sweetness. It finished with thick malt syrup sweetness, a burst of smoke (like a fire in a chocolate malt bin) and a very long lingering fruitiness – cherries, raisins, fake rhubarb. I tried this on tap previously at BrewDog Camden and it’s just how I remember it – a big sweet dark beer with some interesting fruit on the finish. The bottled version also comes in a pretty box.

Auchenthoshan Valinch – I’ve had this on my tasting stack for ages because the lid was stuck. I finally took a pair of pliers to it the other day and cracked it open. It’s Auchentoshan’s no-age-statement Classic bottled at cask strength, something that their fans have been asking about for a while and which they finally released last year. On the nose it’s young and spirity, with crunchy peach, lemon travel sweets, sweet pastry, vanilla sugar, green peppercorns and floral candles. To taste it has wax polish, sour green fruit (apples, crunchy pear, limes), young floral spirity notes and woody spice. A drop of water calms things down and brings out some vanilla cream. It finishes with lime skin and sour wood, adding in apple skin tannins and apple chews as it fades away. It is very young tasting and when I first tried it I wasn’t a fan. However, my tastes have recently started hitting out towards the light and floral end of the spectrum, and this is now much more towards where my palate is at the moment.

anCnoc 1998 – a newbie from the folks at Inver House (new enough that we don’t have it at work yet). I rather like the regular 12 and 16 year olds from anCnoc but haven’t been a massive fan of their vintage releases in the past. On the nose this was big and lemony, with fizzy yeastiness, Tangfastics, fizzy chewitts, green grapes, apple chews, fennel tops, tall grass and waxed fruit, and it got sweeter as it sat in the glass. To taste it was soft and creamy with green apple, light cinnamon spice and some green rhubarb. The rhubarb lingered in the finish, along with some pepper and sour green wood. It’s a very drinkable dram with some good fruit and spice. It’s not a game changer and doesn’t fit in with the regular anCnoc releases but is perfectly decent whisky.

Bowmore Tempest Batch #3 – this is the sample that reminded me I hadn’t done a quick tasting post in a while – I’ve had it for ages (Sorry DK). It was rather loved at work, with m’colleague Tim choosing it as his Christmas whisky, but I’d not got round to doing more than have a swig in the office. On the nose it has old bonfires, unripe fruit, brine, tarred ropes, damp dark wood and floral hints. To taste it had upfront wood smoke and charred wood, with sweet muddy peat, pears, some young spirity flavours, and sweet and sour fruit. It finished quite sweet, with syrup, spicy wood and some lingering hammy wood. I wouldn’t pick it as a favourite, although it does do a very good job of balancing smoke and sweet fruitiness.

The Spirit of Broadside – a weird one this, Adnams’s Broadside (tasty beer) distilled at their new(ish) distillery and then matured for a year in new oak. So, one year old, hopped, sort-of whisky. I went along to the launch and had some thrust into my hand. On the nose I got powdered rubber tire inner tubes, balloons, ginger, hops, marmite, raisins and lots of childhood memory smells – the scent of brewday on the other side of town to my school when I was growing up. To taste it was oily with caramel sweetness, pine, juniper, oranges, fresh cut ginger root, stewed apple, garam masala and cardamon. It finished sweet, with ginger, real maraschino cherries and lingering hops. Definitely not a whisky and interesting, although I have no idea where it fits in the world of spirits.

Copper House Limoncello – After I’d tried the Spirit of Broadside I had a glass of this handed to me. On the nose it was pure fresh cut lemon – enough so that I asked John McCarthy, the Adnams distiller, whether he’d used any more of the lemons than the traditional zest. He hadn’t, having bought horrendously expensive zest, but the nose still managed to get whole lemon juiciness into it somehow. To taste it was syrupy and oily, with buttery lemon and some zesty bitterness. Well balanced and not too sweet.

La Fée Parisienne - a sample given to me by the excellent Ryan Alexander at Barcamp London after myAbsinthe session. According to the internets this is almost a traditionally made absinthe – distilled rather than compounded using oils. However, it does have one definite additive – colouring. It’s a shocking fluorescent green and it louches to a quite impressive green as well. Before adding water it’s very spirity, with the alcoholic base coming out almost as strong as the anise, which is very strong, and almost swamping the few bitter herbals that are noticeable. After dilution (1:3 absinthe:water) the nose is still anis heavy, with a bit of seediness (like the seed at the middle of an aniseed ball) and a little bit of green herb bitterness. It tastes very sweet and syrupy, like melted aniseed balls, with a little hit of wormwood bitterness, and finishes with some mulchy grass and even more sweet aniseed balls. An unsubtle absinthe with lots of sweetness (I switched to Jade Edouard after this and it was incredible how bitter it seemed in comparison, when normally I find it naturally sweet) and a scary colour. It’s not bad though and is reasonably priced.

Glendronach 8 year old, bottled 1970s, Italian Import – A rather special dram this, acquired by m’colleague Tim, opened and shared around the office. It’s Glendronach from before the days that they became known as the sherry kings. Well, the time before the most recent time they became known as sherry kings, anyway. On the nose it doesn’t want to give up much, but has a chunk of sour tropical fruit – passion fruit, unripe rhubarb and mango – as well as a little bit of syrupy sweetness. To taste it’s nowhere near as sweet as the nose suggested, with polished wood, apricot, anis spiciness, cinnamon and acres of beautiful, old, elegant woodiness. It finished warming and spicy, with apples and a mineral edge, as well as more well aged wood. This is a proper old school whisky, the sort that I’d not even realised existed before I started working at TWE. The nose has all the marvellous tropical fruit that has got me looking for old bottlings of young whisky in auctions and the palate is dry with the Good Wood that I capitalise when I write about it. It seems that another few beers have been added to the ‘drinks to buy Tim’ list.

Thanks to DK at Margaret and Lukas at Alembic for the samples of Auchentoshan and Bowmore, and anCnoc respectively; and to Alice from Westgate for inviting me along to the Spirit of Broadside launch.

Despite it being such a big name in the world of whisky I’ve not had much exposure to Highland Park. I’ve knocked back a few drams over the last few years, bought a bottle of their duty free only 1997 vintage (which I initially hated but returned to after 6 months to discover that my palate had changed enough that I loved it) and tried a couple of older versions of their whisky (which is the reason why I have a 1990s bottling of their 12 year old on my ‘Special Whisky’ pile) but don’t really have much of an idea of their current range. As such, an offer to try the 12, 15, 18, 25 and 30 as well as the new Thor wasn’t really something I could turn down.

We kicked off the night with the 12 year old, the entry level expression and a mainstay on bars for years. On the nose it had salted lemons, a whiff of charcoal smoke, crunchy green apples, tropical fruit chews, unripe mango, beeswax, honey, dusty wood and fruity dark chocolate – maybe chocolate limes? It developed in the glass, picking up more fruit and slowly cutting the citrus notes. To taste it started off with syrup sweetness, quickly moving on to sour and creamy wood, with more tropical chews, pineapple and smoked orange rind. It finished with smoky wood, malt syrup, green pine cones and woody spice.

Next was the 15 year old, which is on its way out in the UK, soon to only be available in the USA and Scandinavia. On the nose there was strawberry ice cream, rhubarb and custard sweets, floral meadows, sweetened grapefruit juice, a touch of honey sweetness, tropical fruit squash, sour cream and cocoa – or as @LRWhisky put it:

#HPTT #HighlandPark15 On the nose I get chocolate cheese cake, smoked pears #Mmmm

March 28, 2012 7:31 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@LRWhisky

LivingRoomWhisky

To taste it had rich vine fruit (not tomatoes, as a curious @lizbonline queried, but grapes of varied levels of raisin-ness), linseed oil, sweet citrus, tinned pineapple (complete with a metallic tang of the tin), creamy malt and a wisp of smoke. It finished with more tropical fruit (fresh mango) as well as some dusty wood and crushed charcoal.

We then moved onto the 18 year old, another one of the longer running members of the range (released back in 1997). On the nose it had lots of fruit – green apple, tinned pineapple (again with a touch of metal tin), kiwi and lime zest – as well as sweet pastry and floral notes, all backed up by coal smoke. On the palate it was big and sweet with sour coal dust matched by limes, bitter green herbs, rhubarb, a touch of marzipan, some menthol and a bit of cinnamon spice. It finished long, with nutmeg, clove and lemon sherbert, before fading to dry wood.

Next was the 25 year old, made up of more sherried whisky than most of the rest of the range (about half) and demonstrating what a properly active sherry cask can do to HP’s spirit. On the nose there was a pile of sweet and sticky fruit: figs, stewed apples and plump rummy raisins. Along with that there was marzipan, rich sweet pastry, wax furniture polish, some dry wood and a hint of cooling spice – mint/menthol/clove. To taste it started with a thick wedge of rich dried of fruit before a big whiff of struck match. Underneath that was woody smoke, soft brown sugar, some spicy cinnamon and woody liquorice. Again the finish was long, with marzipan, clove and cedar cigar boxes. The big thing for me in this dram was the way the wood was handled; as I said at the time:

#HPTT the 25 year old is a very old skool tasting whisky - not the sort of thing you get much of around these days. Elegant wood.

March 28, 2012 8:25 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@cowfish

Billy Abbott

Next was as close to the top of the regular range as we were going to get (as sending out £85 a go 40yo minis as part of a Tweet Tasting was probably a bit much to ask, and the 50yo is £9k a bottle) the 30 year old. On the nose it was sweet and floral, with some sour fruit (unripe peaches and mango, and lime zest), sweet buttery pastry, marzipan, cola bottles, sticky cherries, plum jam and a hint of metal. To taste it had sweet marzipan and sherry fruit up front, shot through with sour spices and wood. There were also Cinnamon Grahams, good maraschino cherries, polished wooden floors and big woody spice. It finished spicy, with nutmeg, ginger, soft brown sugar and dark unfinished wood.

We then went for our last dram of the night – the recently released and vaguely controversial Highland Park Thor. The “controversy” was due to a combination of three things: its relatively young age – 16 years; its price – £120; and its packaging – a nice looking rustic bottle wrapped up in a wooden cage of viking longboat prows. I wrote about Highland Park’s love of the special release over on the work blog recently and gave my opinions on the matter, but in short: not everyone who buys whisky just cares about the liquid and many people are happy to pay a bit extra for pretty packaging.

Anyways, tasting notes: On the nose it was quite spirity to start with, giving way to brine, lime and apple skin, tingly ginger, woody spice, earthy smoke, forest floor leaves, green herbs and a hint of mint. On the palate it was hot and spicy, with more ginger and cinnamon, muddy smoke, salted caramel, oranges and lemons. Adding water totally changed things, with a few minutes of resting after addition helping even more, calming the spice and producing more polished wood and sweet fruit – apples and bananas. It finished spicy, with lots of cinnamon, as well as floral notes, soil, lightly smoked wood and liquorice root. As that fades apple skin tannins and sweet marzipan linger on. Not as big and ‘oomphy’ as I remember from my last tasting of it, but I had just tasted my way through five not un-heavy drams.

At the end of the night Steve asked us all what our favourite had been. As I said at the time:

@TheWhiskyWire For me it's been the 18 - excellent balance of fruitiness, light smoke and rich sherry. Now I need to try the 21yo... #HPTT

March 28, 2012 9:21 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@cowfish

Billy Abbott

They’ve just rereleased their 21 year old whisky (at 46.5%, as it used to be before it was dropped to 40% and then discontinued outside of travel retail due to a continued stock shortages that meant they couldn’t supply the whole market) and if it sits, as I hope, between the 18 (not quite enough Good Wood for my liking but lots of great fruit) and the 25 (too much sherry but lots of tasty woody notes) then I might have found a new favourite dram.

Many thanks to Steve Rush (@TheWhiskyWire and @TweetTastings) and Daryl Haldane, global brand advocate for Highland Park, who took over the @HighlandPark twitter account for the night. Steve has some tasting note highlights from the evening over on his blog, and you can find a few more writeups around the web – Whisky Discovery, Glen Untitled, Living Room Whisky. I also have a transcript of the tasting along with the various tweets leading up to it, thanks to my magic ‘format a bunch of tweets vaguely nicely’ script – if you want to read through everything that was said you can find it here.

Highland Park 12
Orcadian Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 40%. ~£30

Highland Park 15
Orcadian Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 40%. ~£40

Highland Park 18
Orcadian Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 43%. ~£60

Highland Park 25
Orcadian Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 48.1%. ~£140

Highland Park 30
Orcadian Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 48.1%. ~£200

Highland Park Thor
Orcadian Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 52.1%. ~£120

I’m not going to talk too much about the whisky as the folks from Monkey Shoulder are running the next Whisky Squad night, which I suspect I may be writing about shortly after, but as the Chocolate Trail is only open until Monday night I thought I’d get something up.

Basically, they’re doing a pop-up cocktail shop just off Carnaby Street over the Easter weekend. They’ve set up a bar surrounded by greenery concealing painted eggs – punters are invited to find an egg and then swap it for a whisky cocktail and matched chocolate from Niko B. I popped in on Saturday for a chat with the folks and a couple of drinks.

First up was a simple Ginger Monkey, mixing Monkey Shoulder with Fentiman’s ginger beer. It was matched with a burnt caramel and lemon chocolate, kicking in some sweet citrus and crunchy sugar to balance the spiciness of the drink. I followed that with a Malt Jockey, one of  Monkey Shoulder’s signature cocktails – a Manhattan twist with some chocolate bitters and an orange zest garnish. It was matched with a dark orange chocolate, contrasting the cocktail’s orange nose and chocolatey body with a chocolatey nose and orange body.

My third cocktail (I tried to leave but they wouldn’t let me) was one that I’d not tried before – a Rose and Rhubarb Julep. A simple Monkey Shoulder julep, with crushed ice, spanked mint and sugar syrup, dosed with some rose liqueur and a dash of rhubarb bitters. It’s an excellently sweet julep, with Turkish delight and sour rhubarb. It was matched with a lemon, ginger and cayenne truffle, a big flavour contrast that strengthened the elements of the whisky flavour that were hidden by the sweetness and floral notes of the cocktail: ginger and spice.

Anyways, they’re only there for a couple more days – if you’re knocking around Soho you should pop in for a quick cocktail. If you do make it, make sure you have a play on their musical chairs:

You can find full details on the Anonymous Artists webpage. They’re at 63 Broadwick Street and are open from midday to 7pm on Sunday 8th and Monday 9th April. If you miss it then keep an eye on Facebook and the internet – they’ve got lots more coming up this year.

The whisky in question is the first release of Glenfiddich 50 year old, made by vatting together 9 casks from 1937 and 1939 with 500 full sized bottles filled on July 26 1991 – a time when Jamie was working as a tour guide at the distillery. They released a second version in 2009 but this was the first, one of the miniatures produced at the same time and sat around for 20 years before we got try to try it.

It’s rather restrained for something quite so old and pricy. Apart from the silk lined box…

Miniatures aren’t well known for their seals and this one had most definitely had some evaporation, with the alcohol loss probably taking its the strength from its initial 43% to below the magic 40% limit to legally be whisky. However this is much more than just the liquid, it’s very much a slice of history. The casks were selected to honour the lives of distillery founder William Grant’s two children and the whisky in them was distilled during the years preceding the Second World War, with 1937 and 1939 coincidentally being often given as the starts of the war in Asia and Europe respectively. The style of whisky is very much different to Glenfiddich in modern times, with peat still being used to dry barley in those days, and this is by 1 year the oldest (by distillation date) whisky I’ve had the privilege of trying, beating the 70 year old Glenlivet from 1940 that I poured for a masterclass at last year’s Whisky Show.

Anyway, enough virtual fluffing – what did it taste like?

Nose: Ever changing in the glass – lots of layers. Elegant old wood, light marzipan, grassy fields, flower beds, glacé cherries and a hint of smoke, aged from pungency to a light muddiness.

Palate: Soft tropical fruit, creamed apples and pears, light muddy smoke, polished lightly coloured wooden panelling, orange zest, Fry’s dark chocolate orange creams.

Finish: Very light but long lasting – creamy wood and old polished floors slowly turning to a really tasty dark bitter wood with burned orange peel and orange oil. As the bitterness fades the light end of the polished wood and a little bit of fruit hangs around for even longer.

There’s not much more to say. It had obviously been open for a while, with a drop in the intensity of flavour and an increase in ‘dustiness’, but even so it was an impressive dram, reminding me of many of the old woody flavours I’ve found in older bottlings of whisky as well as the rounding of the flavour that bottle aging can achieve. On top of that the old style of the original spirit is something that yet again reminds me that looking for cheaper 70s bottlings is something I need to spend more time on: later in the day I had another taste of the Glen Garioch 1971 that TWE bottled last year, as well as their more recent 1978 bottling which brought home how much the styles of whisky have changed – the former was much more smoky (unlike the latter), but with that smoke gentrified by its years in wood.

The big problem with trying something like this is the realisation that there’s a good chance nothing like it is going to come your way again any time soon.

At least one of us was dressed for the occasion. I also need to practice smiling.

Many thanks are due to Jamie Milne and Jonny McCormick. It looks like it’s my round until the end of time…

Glenfiddich 50 year old (1st Edition)
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 43%. Price is whatever comes up at auction, but the last one I’ve found went for $38000 US ≈ £24000 for a 70cl bottle. This is now officially the most expensive whisky I’ve tried.

First up – a preview tasting of whiskies with the folks from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

In the last couple of years the SMWS have been upping their public exposure, starting with an occasional open evening during the Edinburgh festival and now running regular public nights and actively recruiting members. Part of this is their arrival at whisky shows, with stands at every major UK show in the last year, including this year’s Whisky Live London. As with last year’s Whisky Show they decided to invite a few favoured souls along to an evening of meat and whisky beforehand to preview some of the drams they were taking along, and yet again I managed to get on to the guest list.

As with last time the plan was quite simple – assemble in Bistro du Vin Clerkenwell‘s Whisky Snuggle (still maybe the most stupid name for a room I’ve ever heard), drink whisky and eat things that were once part of a cow. Bistro du Vin, part of the Hotel du Vin/Malmaison group, are partnered up with the SMWS to provide guests/diners who are members of The Society the chance to have a few drams, and have a range of whiskies and space set aside in some of their locations. Hence the Whisky Snuggle. That name really does make me twitch.

We started off, as is tradition, with a lowland whisky, 25.62 – Classy and Attractive, a 20 year old from Rosebank, closed since 1983 and since converted into a Beefeater restaurant. On the nose it had honeysuckle, light honey, sugared almonds, turkish delight, porridge, lime zest and a hint of dustiness. To taste it had creamy citrus – the middle of lime cream chocolates – dusty oak, parma violets, lemons, and a touch of smoky wood and cedar lined cigar boxes. It finished sweet and fruity, with juicy strawberry appearing as it faded.

Dram number two was 104.13 – An Angel Fallen to Earth from Glen Craig. Glen Craig isn’t actually a distillery, it’s the name given to spirit distilled at Glenburgie in the 1970s using Lomond stills. These are stills with a regular pot still at the bottom but with adjustable plates in the neck and a moveable lyne arm to allow the distiller to modify the character of the spirit. Hiram Walker, owners of the distillery at the time, installed a pair of Lomond stills so as to be able to produce a wider range of spirits to satisfy the demands of the blending industry. However, they the blenders preferred their regular whisky and they removed the stills in 1981. Since then the SWA have declared that Single Malt Scotch Whisky has to be produced using a regular pot still without any spangly attachments, meaning that not much Lomond distilled whisky is produced these days other than at Loch Lomond distillery, who lend their name to the still type.

Anyways, the whisky is increasingly rare these days and I’d not managed to try one from the distillery before. On the nose it had rosewater turkish delight, digestive biscuit crumb crusted lemon tarts, milky cornflakes and dusty wood. To taste it was oily, with cream, parma violets, sour oak and some polished wood. It finished slightly astringently, with cloves and dry oak.

We took a break after the first couple of drams to go and meet the chef and our dinner. Hotel du Vin dry age their meat on site in a special freezer and in order to get the best out of the process they buy slow grown British beef. It’s some of the best beef they can get without turning to ridiculously priced imports (USDA prime beef is incredible, but scarily expensive due to the roundabout route it takes to get to the British market) and comes from Lake District Farmers. They use 29 month old beef, as after that it is illegal to sell the meat on the bone, and then age it on the bone for between 2 weeks (for fillet) and 4 weeks (for rib and sirloin). It’s dry aging, leading to a large amount of waste as not only does the meat contract as it loses moisture (and thus size and weight) but also picks up fungus, which aids in the aging process but needs to be trimmed.

We had a few beefy bits to eat over the space of the evening, starting with a carpaccio (taken from the rump) topped with a fillet steak tartare. This was followed up with a main course of porterhouse steak – an American cut T-bone from the rump end, giving a larger fillet piece than the traditional British version. The Clerkenwell branch of Bistro du Vin has been open for about a year now and they’ve settled in well – the steaks are well cooked, the meat is tasty and other than their portions of chips being too large for my tiny appetite (ahem) it was all good.

No pictures of the whisky, I’m afraid. Just lots of piccies of beefs…

Next dram on the list was 121.50 – Xmas cake and Afghan Coats, a 9 year old sherry monster from Arran. When I first joined the society I’d pick up every Arran bottling untasted but after a couple of less than stellar whiskies I’ve dropped back to trying every one before I consider buying them – I’ve not bought one in a while. On the nose this was filthy, with dirty engine oil and diesel (I’ve never smelled two-stroke, but this is what I imagine it’s like), Vicks, cherry menthol and rich raisiny wood. To taste it was pure big dirty sherry, with a decent amount of struck match sulphur, and the Christmas cake of the name studded with black liquorice, leather, dark chocolate and burned wood. It finished long, with big woody spice and sweet raisins hanging around and slowly turning bitter. One for sherry heads and a bit much for me at a full strength of 61.3%.

We then moved on to 93.50 – Hot Embers at the Gates of Hell, a lightly coloured dram from Glen Scotia, Campbeltown’s ‘other’ distillery. While Campbeltown used to be the centre of the whisky industry back at the turn of the 20th century it’s now been reduced to a couple of distillers, with most of the focus being on Springbank (along with the Longrow, Hazelburn and Kilkerran they also produce). I’ve tried a few society Glen Scotias and none of them have really stuck in my memory. This one had a big smoky nose, metallic and pungent like emptied briny fish tins. After my nose got used to the kick from that I found some caramel sweetness and a bit of smoky lime hiding underneath. To taste it started with sweet citrus and aniseed, before being quickly swamped by hammy smoke. The finish was heavy with minerals, gravelly and dry, sweetened up with some spicy aniseed balls. Again, a bit much for my liking, definitely needing water (which I didn’t get round to adding) and not as complex neat as I’d hoped.

We took another break at this point to try a bit of cheese and some dessert. The 93.50 was a bit much for the Brezain that I nibbled on, as being a cheese wuss meant the Bleu de Gex also on the cheeseboard was a step too far for me, but the 121.50 worked well, cutting through the fat of the cheese without swamping its delicate nutty and smoky flavour. The 121.50 was also the winner when it came to dessert, with chocolate sorbet, chocolate pavé and honeycomb rather well complimented by the dark fruit and sherry wood.

The ‘official’ last dram of the night was something I was rather impressed by, 29.109 – Oak and Smoke Intensity, a 20 year old very sherried Laphroaig. While you get some sherry in most Laphroaig expressions I’ve not tried a fully sherry matured one, let alone one as dark and heavily influenced as this one. On the nose there was pungent extra strong cherry Strepsils, a crisp mineral smoke, damp forest floors, some sugary sweetness and very dark chocolate. To taste it was rich and spicy, with the predictable raisins, leather and cocoa joined by cracked black pepper and smoky charcoal dust. It finished long, with a burnt oak chip smokiness, smoked cheese and fruity dark chocolate. Over the top and rather impressive, one that I may have to investigate acquiring, although it not being on their website implies I might be too late.

Helen, who invited me along for the evening, wasn’t going to let us finish with that whisky, chosen by SMWS London rooms manager Joe, and had brought another one along to rival it, 33.something – an Ardbeg whose name and number I didn’t catch…we had been drinking for a while by then (Update: Helen just mailed me to let me know that it was 33.115 – Man that’s braw, which she translates as “Squire, I do believe this to be a very good dram indeed”). It was lightly coloured and quite a contrast to the previous dram – a nose of smoky menthol, gooseberries, sweet lemons and raisins, with tropical fruit hiding underneath all the rest. To taste it was big and gravelly, with loads of smoke overpowering the rest of the flavours, although a little bit of citrus fruit poked its head round the corner. An interesting one this, although again a bit much for me (I think my recent sticking to 40-46% whisky has killed my ability to drink cask strength), a sherry cask matured whisky (although almost certainly 2nd or 3rd fill) without much sherry to it, letting the spirit’s character (which Ardbeg has in spades) come through rather than being swamped by the cask.

Anyways, many thanks to Helen, Joe and John for hosting the evening and the folks at Bistro du Vin for filling me with steak. Alwynne of Miss Whisky has also written up the evening, as has Tim Chester of thirtyoneseventyfive.

25.62 – Classy and Attractive (20yo)
Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 54%. £86.60

104.13 – An Angel Fallen to Earth (36yo)
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 50.6%. £155 (sold out)

121.50 – Xmas Cake & Afghan Coats (9yo)
Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 61.3%. £42 (sold out)

93.50 – Hot Embers at the Gates of Hell (20yo)
Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 58.6%.

29.109 – Oak and Smoke Intensity (20yo)
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 59.2%.

33.115 – Man that’s Braw (11yo)
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 55.4%.

Nice day for it…

So, Irish Whiskey. The session was led by genuine northern Irishman (despite the doubts that his accent seems to inspire in people – west country?) and, unfortunately for him, work colleague of mine, Mr Tim Forbes, veteran of the booze industry and lover of Irish whiskey. With a Cooley session on the cards within a couple of weeks Tim stuck with whiskies that he was fairly certain wouldn’t appear in that tasting. However, due to the nature of the Irish distilling industry that isn’t a particularly big choice, as there are only three distillers and four distilleries in the country. There were many more back in time and there are efforts to expand that number again in modern times, but the the industry contracted back in the first half of the 20th century and consolidation allowed the remaining companies to survive until the present day.

In the early 1900s the irish distilling industry was beset by a number of problems, which Tim provided a short list of:

• Civil War
• The introduction of bonded warehouses, adding costs to production and maturation of whiskey
• Prohibition in the USA
• A trade war with the UK
• A rise in Blended Scotch Whisky, a lighter style that was more geared to the palate of the time than the heavier Irish whiskey

The irony of the last point is that blends relied on light grain whisky, produced in continuous ‘Coffey’ stills, named for their inventor – Irishman Aeneas Coffey, one time Inspector General of the Excise. He modified the design of Robert Stein’s column still, patented his new invention in 1831 and then shopped it around the Irish distillers. They didn’t want it, so he went to Scotland. The rest, as they say, is history.

The various Irish distillers contracted through merger, intermarriage and closure, eventually ending up with a pair of companies – the latest incarnations of which are Irish Distillers and Bushmills, the former in the south the latter in the north. Irish Distillers is now part of the Pernod Ricard empire and Bushmills Diageo, and in 1988 a new independent appeared – Cooley. They started a second site in 2007, reopening Locke’s distillery (originally founded in 1757 and one of the many sites that claim to be the oldest distillery in the UK, if not the world) and using it distill small amounts of spirit while keeping it as their visitor centre. However, in 2012 Beam Inc, owners of Jim Beam and other assorted brands, bought out Cooley bringing all (legal) Irish Whiskey production into the hands of the multinationals. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, although there are unsettling rumours about the gutting of Cooley’s range that have started alarm bells ringing.

However, ownership apart there is some very interesting whiskey coming out of Ireland. There has been some big investment by Pernod Ricard over the last few years which has paid off, with Jameson storming the USA and dragging the rest of the category with it. William Grant’s, owners of Glenfiddich and Balvenie, have also got in on the act, buying the Tullamore Dew brand from PR, although it is still made by the former owners under contract, and they are relaunching it around the world as I type. Lots of interest and, despite the small number of production sites, a big range of whiskey to try.

There are three distinct styles of whiskey currently being produced in Ireland. After maturation they’re often blended together, helping expand the range of whiskies and flavours available, but everything starts from the three. The first two are obvious if you know Scotch whiskies – single malt and single grain. Both are produced in the same fashion as their Scottish relatives and share characteristics with them. The third style is uniquely Irish – Single Pot Still.

The name is quite confusing, seeing as single malt has to be produced in pot stills by Scotch Whisky Association decree, but production is a mix of grain and malt distillation techniques. It’s a mixture of grains, using malted barley, unmalted barley and a variety of other grains, which is then all distilled in a pot still. By SWA definition this is a grain whisky, as the addition of any non-malted grain to the mash makes it such no matter what type of still is used to distill it, hence the new designation.

The genesis of Single Pot Still whiskey (once called Pure Pot Still, but rebranded due to issues of using the word ‘Pure’ on labels in the USA) comes in part from tax, as so many things in the whisky industry do. There was a tax levied on malt in the 1830s and in an effort to avoid paying so much the amount of malt in the mash was reduced – some was still required to kickstart fermentation, but over time the changed recipes became a distinct style within Irish whiskey.

These days the types of distillation are divided up amongst the distilleries, with Cooley doing malt and grain, Bushmills malt and Midleton, the Irish Distillers distillery, pot still and grain. In a similar fashion to the Scottish distillers they buy from each other to fill the gaps in their ranges and get the various styles and flavours of whisky they need to produce their vattings.

First of the evening was a whiskey that Tim described as ‘a smoky blend’. We were trying them all blind, as usual, but I had a good idea of the list, having discussed the various whiskies with Tim over the proceeding weeks at work. On the nose it had a rubbery smoke, with coffee, prickly raw grain and sweet, creamy porridge oats. To taste it was hammy, with cream, more porridge and sweet caramel, finishing with a puff of smoke and sweet grain. The label came off to show that it was Inishowen, a Cooley made Irish blended whiskey, made from single malt and grain spirit. It’s not a particularly well known brand, but it was rather tasty, combining the traditional creamy grain character of Irish whiskey with a touch of smoke.

The next whiskey had a nose of gravel, tropical fruit (pineapple and unripe mango), linseed oil, green rhubarb and sour gummi strips. Note of the night goes to Pooja, who described it as being like ‘A well full of frogs, in India’. To taste it was sweet and creamy (those words might get a bit repetitive by the last dram) with oil and a touch of dried fruit. It finished with more raisins and a nice bit of well balanced wood. The paper was peeled back to show that it was Bushmill’s Black Bush, the distillery’s most famous blended whisky. It uses their own single malt whisky and is rounded out with grain whisky produced at Midleton.

The third whisky started of a bit shakily with a hint of the butyric on the nose – aka ‘smells like sick’. That burnt off quickly to be replaced by sour apples, rhubarb and custard sweets, and lychees. To taste it was like a malted milkshake, with raisins, stewed apple and a pleasant touch of citrus, finishing with porridge and sugared lemons. This was revealed to be Locke’s 8 Year old, a brand once produced at the distillery now known as Kilbeggan and now made by Cooley, the new distillery owner. This is a single malt whiskey, but Cooley also produce a blend under the same name, something that we suspected wouldn’t be allowed in Scotland. The SWAs reach isn’t quite all-powerful, yet.

The fourth whiskey had a bit more fruit to it, with its nose adding some blueberries to the typical cereal notes, as well as malty Shreddies, malt loaf, banana bread and some unripe green bananas. To taste it had a light creamy custard edge with raisins, rich fruit, sponge cake and a sweetness that nodded towards liqueurs. It finished spicily, with cinnamon cream and vanilla. This was the whiskey I’d been waiting for, as it’s my favourite Irish whiskey of the moment – Jameson Select Reserve Small Batch. Produced at Midleton, this was our first pot still whisky of the night, although it is blended with grain. This is about 75% single pot still, with lots of first fill bourbon and sherry casks in that proportion to give a much richer flavour than in the regular Jameson. Top stuff and one that I will be drinking to celebrate St Patrick’s this evening, if all goes to plan and I can grab a bottle.

The fifth whiskey was massive let down, not due to the dram itself but because none of us got to try it – it was corked. While we often hear of wine being corked it’s not so common to hear about it happening to whisk(e)y and there’s a reason for that – it doesn’t happen anywhere near as often. Unfortunately this penultimate whiskey, Tim’s crowning glory of the tasting, was tainted and was obviously wrong. It was meant to be Power’s Johns Lane, produced at Midleton and named for the old Johns Lane distillery were Powers used to be produced before all production was moved under one roof in 1974. It’s a single pot still whiskey and picked up Jim Murray’s Best Irish Whiskey award in the 2012 Whisky Bible – an impressive feat considering it was released around the time that Jim stopped taking entries for the book. Annoyingly, I’ve only tasted a couple of heavily oxidised samples that I really didn’t take to, but there’s a non-corked bottle on its way to Jason and Andy at the moment, so hopefully I’ll get a taste at a future Squad night.

I had a sneaking suspicion as to the identity of the last whiskey – on the nose it had popcorn, wine soaked wood, crunchy apples, green melon and cream, with a meaty middle. To taste it had cream, raisins, rice pudding, rich sweet wood, cinnamon and Chelsea Buns, finishing with sugared raisins and spiced malt loaf. It was, as expected, Redbreast 12 year old Cask Strength, one of the most eagerly awaited whiskies of the last year. It appeared at Whisky Live Paris last autumn and Tim managed to grab a few bottles, the remains of one of which ended up on my desk and became my go to Friday-evening-at-work dram. After months of waiting our delivery of it has finally arrived and should be appearing on the Whisky Exchange website next week. All that I’m waiting on now is a price, as we’re expecting it to be quite expensive…

Anyways, a top tasting and further evidence that we should prop Tim up in front of a crowd more often. There are three sessions in April for the Squad and two of them still have some places left – Whisky Cocktails with the folks from Monkey Shoulder and Indian whisky and food with Dishoom and Amrut. There’s also a second birthday bash, but that’s predictably sold out. Hopefully there will be cake…