What a mouth full! On the 15th of March myself and many others in the great whisky twittersphere were selected to take part in a twitter tasting. For those not in the know, a twitter tasting is when a few people get on twitter at the same time to taste and talk about the whisky they are enjoying or perhaps not enjoying. This weeks offering was a quirky set of whiskies from a very hip and refreshing independent bottler That Boutique-y Whisky Company.
Unfortunately my set didn't arrive on time so I'm a day late with the tasting notes, however I still tuned in with the rest of my whisky pals to go through the motions. The evening turned out to be a fast and furious tweeting journey through some surprising drams. Each bottle is accompanied by a very thorough tasting card adorning some interesting and very creative artwork, which also double up as the bottle labels.
First up in the 30ml sample bottles provided by "drinks by the dram" A Loch Lomond 19 Year old, same as me ;-) On the nose there is the instant aroma of coffee with cream, vanilla bits scraped straight from the pod. then it leads into quite an acetone tickle. Then we are allowed to take a sip and instantly nutty and with the sharp hint salted popcorn and ready brek. The finish is all about nuts. All in all quite a smooth easily drinkable grain whisky. We supply Loch Lomond with distilling ware so knowing our glassware helps prepare the whisky is an added bonus to tasting it.
2nd is Top Secret - we are told, a 15 year old single malt. This is from an undisclosed Highland Distillery. So this is a bit blind! It's pinky pink and ABV 51% so I have my water dropper at the ready. On the nose it's fruity like orange, lemons, and very winey, so the colour probably means it's from a wine cask. On the sip its very sharp with liquorice and blackberries, All in all quite disappointing even if it was a secret :-/
3rd up and it's a beauty A Mortlach 18 year old with a scary label for The Beast of Dufftown. So to the sniffing and it's tobacco-ish like bbq sausages then morphs into bubblebath. Crazy i know but that's what my nose sees. on the palate it's a total surprise! lovely bees wax honey note and then woody and cinnamon grahams or crunchy nut cornflakes. A hot chocolate sauce finish and a couple drops of water in this one opens it up.
The penultimate dram of the evening is an old favourite of mine, being a big speyside fan! The Glenrothes 25 year old from a batch of 139 bottles, on the nose its like white chocolate mice and peachy hints. The coconut crumbs from Lees macaroon. I couldn't wait to get stuck into this. This is warm and silky soft like creme caramel eaten beside the chiminea in the garden, with a little bit of heat on the finish. It is definitely very moorish.
The finale is in celebration of our pal St Patrick no doubt and The Irish Single Malt is from another undisclosed distillery. A lovely horse though is the graphic from the tasting card and well who can argue with a lovely horse? Well, what's a horse's favourite snack? Most definitely apples and sugar lumps with this one. On the first sip it opens into a big sweetie drink rush like lemonade or limeade or even plumade - is that a thing? The finish is smooth and eeks into a satsuma cheesecake softness and thats it! Dessert has been served!
Thank you so much to The Whisky Wire, Steve and That Boutiquey Whisky Co for getting my missing package to me, was hoping to receive two in the mix up but I think Fedex have well and truly snaffled it!
Until my next whisky tasting, I hope you found this as interesting as I did.
Whisky Kisses, Karen xUx
Karen Somerville is Angel's Share Glass Managing Director. Angel’s Share Glass is a small family business based in Bridge of Allan, Stirling that produces beautiful glassware to supply some of the world’s leading distilleries with products used for the distilling process.