#Drample Swaps
One of the first things I discovered whilst surfing the whisky wave on Twitter were the number of people doing #drample swaps - I wanted in on this and after a few polite enquiries I managed to set one up, I bought my first sample bottles, filled them and posted them off - at the same time someone I knew only as a handle on Twitter did the same. Within a few days I had my hands on some new whiskies! I've now made more than 30 drample swaps, averaging about one a week and the sample box is now overflowing!
It's a great way to try drams you either haven't come across before, can't get anymore or aren't sure about and don't want to risk paying for a full bottle.
#Books
I've read a few whisky book this year, old ones and new ones - some that stand out are :
- 101 Whiskies To Try Before You Die by Ian Buxton : reviewed here.
- Shackleton's Whisky by Neville Peat : The extraordinary story of an heroic explorer and twenty-five cases of unique MacKinlay's Old Scotch.
- Malt Whisky Companion by Michael Jackson (and Dominic Roskrow and Gavin D. Smith) : a great read for distillery information and tasting notes.
- MacLean's Miscellany of Whisky by Charles Maclean
- Malt Whisky Yearbook by Ingvar Ronde : the best reference book for distillery information.
- Whiskies Galore by Ian Buxton : reviewed here.
- World Whiskey by Charles Maclean : an encyclopedia of whisky.
#TweetTasting
I've been lucky enough to be selected to take part in many @TweetTastings organised by Steve Rush. These have been a brilliant way to try new drams and more importantly share your thoughts about them in real time with others - it's like sitting in a room of 20 people enjoying and dram or two and talking about it - but you can hear what everyone else is saying and join in every conversation!
It's very difficult to pick favourites from these, but here's 3!
Best Presentation : #TamdhuWhisky - lovely box, lots of distillery information with a branded nosing glass and 4 samples including a bottle of their New make Spirit and the fantastic Batch Strength.
Least Number of Samples : #GlenfiddichIPA - now you might think that was a bad thing, but in terms of liquid quantity Glenfiddich won by a mile as they included a bottle of IPA beer and a slice of orange peel!
Most fun : #TBWCTurns5 (That Boutique-y Whisky Company) - TBWC's fifth birthday celebrations complete with jelly on the walls and lots of screaming toddlers!
#Maltman_Mike & Friends
In case you've never some across him @Maltman_Mike is one of the nicest blokes you'll ever meet and his experience and knowledge of whisky is second to none. I first 'met' Mike online at the beginning of the year and as I live in his hometown we get to really meet up occasionally during the year.
I've taken part in, and filmed, a couple of his youtube shows alongside Tim, Mr T. and The Whisky Viking - all were great fun! See his Christmas Special here and my unfortunate, not quite, 60 second review of Haig Club here....
#BlindTasting
Some of my best whisky experiences this year have been our Blind Tasting evenings - this came about then I was talking to a couple of people who hadn't been successful in being selected for a TweetTasting. Between us we suggested organising one of our own, where we supplied the drams from our own collections but with the twist of not labelling them!
Many thanks to @JWBassman_, @Spirit&Wood, @GentlemanGrimm and @WhiskyWings for joining in and taking in part in some fantastic evenings of whisky!
You can read all about our exploits in Series 1 here, Series 2 is in progress and Series 3 is coming in the New Year. If you want to set up your own - it's really simple - read here!
I also took part in a couple of blind tastings organised by @WishkyCo sampling a single dram in an evening - that was great fun too - read about it here!
#GBMM2017
@Maltman_Mike organised his Great Big Malted Meetup in August when bloggers, vloggers and the general public were invited to a sample some lovely whiskies whilst listening to presentations from some distillery and bottling reps.
I even had a go at presenting myself - the wonderful Wolfburn No. 128
Read the whole blog here.
#WhiskyFriends
Thanks to all of the whisky people I have made friends with this year - on Twitter and in the flesh!
#BottleKills
Whether you call it bottle killing or heel-slaying, these are the bottles which won't be continuing into 2018 as part of my collection....unless I buy another one that is!
#My Top Ten Whiskies of the Year
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| My Whiskybase shelves! |
Well this was a little more difficult than I thought - the top five were fairly easy - I have tried four or five cracking drams this year which have stood head and shoulders above the rest but what about six to ten how do I pick them? Well I started using a new scoring method from @TomsWhisky a few months ago (privately - I'm not publishing any scores as they are all very subjective to each of our palates!) so I picked all those which I rated 5 and some of the 4's.
- Invergordon 43yo - That Boutique-y Whisky Company (Grain) Review
- Glengoyne Teapot Dram (Batch 3) Review
- Strathclyde 1990 25yo - Douglas Laing (Grain) Review
- Tamdhu Batch Strength (Batch 2) Review
- Port Charlotte Islay Barley Heavily Peated Review
- Octomore Masterclass 08.3 Review to come
- Glen Moray Peated Port 6yo Review
- Aberfeldy 2001 Cask #21444 Review
- Bain's Cape Mountain Whisky (Grain) Review
- The Lost Distilleries Blend Batch 10 - The Blended Whisky Company Review
#GeekyStuff
- 866 tweets in 7 years up until beginning of 2017, circa 8,000 by the end!
- circa 900 followers on twitter
- circa 16,500 page reads of this blog
- circa 160 drams tried this year
#2018
Well - goodbye to 2017 and hello to 2018 - I'm sure it will be even better - some plans:
- Trip to Campbeltown
- Trip to Spirit of Speyside
- Series 3 of #BlindTasting
- More discussions with you!
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