Blind Twitter Tasting with Wishky

Last night I spent a very enjoyable #wishkyhour drinking whisky with no one! Well that isn't entirely true.... Let me rewind a week or so!

I'm a huge fan of Twitter and follow a whole load of people in the #WhiskyFabric exchanging news, thoughts and sometimes dram samples. A post from one of these was an invite to a Twitter Tasting, I immediately signed up and a week or so later a bottle appeared in the post!

Beautiful bottle

What I failed to realise at the time, but did once I'd looked at the bottle, was that this was going to be a blind tasting, we didn't know in advance what the whisky was! I was both intrigued and worried: how was I going to identify the dram, what if I didn't like it?

As the night grew closer a few messages were exchanged with other testers about the colour and possible source, but we all managed to avoid opening the bottle before the night!

Concerning the bottle: I've received many different ones in the samples I've received from companies and the #WhiskyFabric but none have been as nice as this. It was a little 50ml glass bottle with a lovely cork stopper and sealing sticker labeled "Hand Filled".

So on to the night: I connected to Twitter and set up a window showing the agreed hash tags #wishkyhour and #wishkyone and waited for the fun to start. Most of us were ready for the 8pm start time and we all eagerly poured a dram.



Ready to pour!

Appearance: lovely amber colour with slow falling legs when swirled around the glass, quite oily.
Nose: Winey, honey and lemon - later vanilla with a little pepper?
Palate: Loving the taste - coating my tongue - it's floral - cut grass? But no honey in the taste
Finish: Nice lingering finish - vanilla
Overall: Not peaty (like a normally drink) I detect maybe a little sherry?

My guesses were that we were trying an unsherried, 8-10 year old Speyside, I also suggested maybe an Arran. Other suggestions included Ballantines, anCnoc or Glengoyne.



All done - but what was it?

We all agreed that we enjoyed the dram and we're eager to find out what it was! Right at the end one of the group @jonpearcewhufc guessed correctly!

If you haven't guessed what dram we were drinking yet from my notes - have a look over at the wishky blog.

Many thanks to Neil @wishkyco at for organising and @jwbassman_ @richinspirit @B_R_Drams @bgmearns @GentlemanGrimm @TheAndrewCarr and @mgilberties for making it a really enjoyable evening by myself!

There's another great write up here.