Each bottle has it's own unique graphic-novel-style label and associated postcard by Emily Chappell. You can read an amusing account of how she came to create whisky labels here!
A parcel arrived the day before the tasting - here is my un-boxing video:
The drams we tried were:
Distillery : Loch Lomond
Whisky : 19yo Single Grain (267 bottles)
Characteristics : 500ml 49.7% ABV, 19yo
Price : £54.95
Nose : Vanilla Ice Cream, Mocca, Sun Cream
Palate: Honey, chocolate, tiramisu, very drying but pleasantly drinkable!
Finish : Spice
Overall : I really liked this dram, my first grain whisky, but honestly I couldn't tell it wasn't a single malt.
Link : Loch Lomond
Whisky : 24yo Single Malt (264 bottles)
Characteristics : 500ml 46.8% ABV, 24yo
Price : £124.95
Nose : Tea & Port leading on to boiled sweets, putty
Palate: Plums, Cranberries and Cherries floating in cream sprinkled with cinnoman
Finish : Red fruit as above but the cream turns into yoghurt
Overall : I loved this dram - it was my favourite of the night, my first Irish Single Malt. It was sublime and is definitely going on my to-buy list!
Link : Irish Unnamed
Distillery : Mortlach
Whisky : 18yo Single Malt (363 bottles)
Characteristics : 500ml 48.9% ABV, 18yo
Price : £93.95
Nose : Floral, saw wood and maple syrup
Palate: Chewy, creamy, smoky wood with a touch of vanilla
Finish : Sharp burnt wood
Overall : I wasn't keen on this dram. It came across as smoky without being peaty - some of the other tweeters talked about smokey bacon or pork scratchings - Mortlach traditionally has this 'meaty' taste but I wasn't keen.
Link : Mortlach
Distillery : Glenrothes
Whisky : 25yo Single Malt (139 bottles)
Characteristics : 500ml 49.7% ABV, 25yo
Price : £119.95
Nose : Coconut, grilled pineapple developing into ginger, the longer it was left in he glass the more complex it became.
Palate: Creamy slightly bitter taste to start but developing into spicy gingerbread
Finish : Creamy coconut and that spicy gingerbread lasting forever!
Overall : I really liked this dram, it really developed over time and I would have liked to have taken longer to appreciate it, but tweet taskings are all about feeding in your thoughts, trying to read everyone elses then moving on to the next dram.
Link : Glenrothes
Distillery : Secret Highlands
Whisky : 15yo Single Malt (124 bottles)
Characteristics : 500ml 51% ABV, 15yo
Price : £107.95
Nose : Fruit buns fresh from the oven with hot tea - this was sublime - I could have nosed this dram all night!
Palate: Liquarice torpedoes, cinnamon, mounth filling tea.
Finish : A really long tea with spice finish
Overall : I loved this dram, it was nearly my favourite of the night but one more nose of the empty bottle of the Irish swayed it for me. Some of the comments from fellow tweeters suggested that this was a Glenfiddich and the postcard gave some sutble hints in that direction!
Link : Secret Highlands
Some of the other tweeters who took part may recognise that my sampling order isn't quite the same as theirs! An issue with trying to open the wax covered bottles without slicing my fingers off (as one other tweeter nearly did - there was blood!) caused me to misorder my samples..... The notes are correct against the pictures but they're not quite in the same order as everyone elses!
As you can see some of these are only available in very small quantities so get in quick if you want to try them!
Many thanks to Steve for organising, Boutique for supplying the drams and all my fellow tweeters for making it a night to remember!
1 comment:
A nice write up with some great notes.. I look forward to the next tasting along with you
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