#BlendOff

We all love our drams (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this!) whether they are single malts, single grains or blends. Most of these are actually 'blends' or vattings of different casks, maybe from the same distillery (it's where the word 'Single' comes from) and someone has to put these together. It might be the Distillery's Manager, Master Blender or a team - whoever it is we all appreciate their work!

I'm part of a group who regularly swap samples without labeling them and take part in an evening of #BlindTasting - a great way to discover new drams! @Wessex had an idea to take it one step further and blind taste each other's blends. An interesting and at some time difficult challenge!

The concept was simple:

There were six of us taking part, we each submitted 200ml of our blend to Dave, some taking it very seriously...

Photo from @jwbassman_

Photo from @SpiritAndWood

There may even have been spreadsheets involved.....

Dave then decanted them into 30ml sample bottles.

Just to make it a little more interesting someone submitted two and Dave added an unknown bought blend - do that gave us drams 'A' to 'H'. Dave then labelled all the bottles but just to make it even more interesting he mixed up the letters a little so that when he sent them out everyone's 'A' was not the same! I hope he's kept track of it all. The idea was then over the course of a couple of evenings we tasted each dram and ranked from from best to worst. No one knew which was their own or anyone else's blend!

So on to the whisky - what did I think?

1A : Dark gold in the glass, swirls lead to slow fat legs. initial nose sherried....

Nose: A memory of a dunnage warehouse, strawberry jam, damp hay.

Palate: Thick, oily, spicy, loads of sherry, strawberry jam, big kick of chilli - this has to be from @SpiritAndWood There's also a little hint of sour grapefruit as it disappears down the throat - interesting!

Finish: Long spicy, some honey and more of the strawberry jam. Quite a kick on this one - at least 46% maybe higher - nice start to #BlendOff

1B is quite pale in the glass, swirls lead to slow fat legs (again), initial nose orchard fruit. I'm sure I'm mistaken but this could be mine!

Nose: apples, pears, a little honey, slight acetone note - some young drams in here?

Palate: Just like the nose - loads of fruit, but smothered in honey, a little acetone kick, but no spice to note, a little drying effect.

The more of this I sip the most I think it's mine! I'm not revealing what's in it but the notes of what I put in it are coming through.

Finish: medium length honey and spiced pears - nice!

1C Pale gold colour, gravity defying swirls. Initial nose honey.

Nose: Sweet honey, some stewed pears and a hint of acetone. This one could be mine too! There's a little hint of toffee too.

Palate: Lemon meringue, stewed pears and a big ginger spicy kick. ABV seems a little higher than the last two - maybe 46%?

Finish: Short, fairly spicy - some honey but a lot of ginger.
Nice dram, don't think it was mine!

1D another very pale dram, might we get some peat this time? More gravity defying swirls like 1C, beads eventually form and fall as thick slow legs. Initial nose faint peat smoke!

Nose: faint peat smoke, guessing a blend of peated an non-peated drams? It's a little medicinal with maybe a hint of seaweed. There's some red fruit in there too - Nice!

Palate: Thick sweet arrival, a little honey and spice but loads of smoke, much more than the nose suggests! Slightly drying leaving a light spice on the tongue.

Finish: Long and smoky with a sweet honey edge. Yummy! This is really good - either a great blend from one of the team or maybe a bought one?

1E pale gold in the glass, swirls leave very thin lines leading to slow fat legs. Initial nose spiced apples!

Nose : loads of apple, pear, cinamon, some honey and a little pineapple

Palate: immediately spicy on the tongue, lots of sweet honey and pineapple, orchard fruit from the nose have gone.  Nice!

Finish: the spice tails off a little, lots of sweet honey. Short but sweet. Nice dram!

1F mid gold in the glass, gravity defying swirls, no legs to speak of. High ABV? Initial nose dunnage warehouse!

Nose: typical sherry bomb - nose : dunnage warehouse, musty book shop, maybe a hint of smoke? There's strawberry jam and honey in here too - sublime!

Palate: loads of honey, pineapple, mango, a hint of lemon. Not at all what the nose suggested....
There's a nice kick of spice and maybe a hint of damp hay?

Finish : sweet honey and spicy ginger combine and linger - lovely blend!

1G gold with maybe a hint of pink? Some wine influence maybe? Swirls leave thin lines which fall as fat legs. Initial nose milk chocolate.

Nose: Milk chocolate, musty bookshop, maybe a hint of strawberry jam - another sherried dram?

Palate: thick sweet arrival - almost syrupy and it has a bit of an ABV kick - yummy!
There's a big hint of raw steak on the tongue and a lovely spice note.

Finish : Long and sweet with a lovely tinge of chilli spice - this is yummy! Best so far tonight but there's still one to go!

1H very pale in the glass, swirls firm tiny beads immediately and fall as thin legs. Initial nose BBQ pineapple

Nose: bbq pineapple to start, a little honey drizzled on for good measure than a lovely covering of smoke. YUMMY! OK I think a steak just fell on my BBQing pineapple - really interesting notes this one!

Palate: thick meaty arrival - not sure about this.... there's a slightly off note, slightly soapy. Little hints of honey and mango but the meat covers everything. Sorry to whoever's this is I don't like it.....








Overall a great set of drams - but what was my order of preference?

I think in order I prefered:

1D, 1G, 1F, 1B, 1E, 1A, 1C, 1H

But who's were they? Well it turns out:

1A : (S&W) @SpiritAndWood blend of 55.6% Teapot Dram Batch IV, 18.5% GlenDronach 1995 22YO PX Cask #3311, 5.9% Bunnahabhain Mòine & 20% North British SMWS G1.16. Designed using Analytical Hierarchy Process with Pairwise Comparison.

1B : (JWB1) @jwbassman_ blend #2 of Chapter 7 Speyside, SMWS112.35, Girvan No. 4 Apps and Abelour A'Bunadh

1C : (BCWS) @BlackCountryWS secret blend

1D : (MM) My blend of equal measures of Glen Moray Classic Sherry, Knockando 12yo, Jura Origin, Glenlivet Founder's Reserve, Glenlivet Master Distiller's Reserve & Ardbeg Uigeadail

1E : (PW) @winstpaul secret blend

1F : (WW) @WessexWhisky blend of  24% Glen Marnoch 29, 17% Balblair 12 GM, 12% Old Pulteney 15, 10% Cameronbridge 26, 10% Loch Lomond 19 Grain, 10% Bunna 14 McDavid, 10% Speyside 21 OP, 5% North Star Tennessee 13, 2% Caol Ila 13 GM

1G : (MoS) Malts of Scotland Classic 18yo

1H : (JWB1) @jwbassman_ blend #1 of SMWS 135.6, Wish Broker 25yo, Glen Scotia 18yp & Whisky Broker 8yo Islay







So what were the overall results?

S&W (Alistairs) blend came out top, with JWB2 (John) second and Malts of Scotland Classic 18yo third. All the rest were pretty close!

And who voted for what?

As you can see MaltMusings (me), JWB (John) and S&W (Alistair)  managed to prefer our own blend over all the others!

A great idea, it took an awful lot of organising and some time to complete but thanks again to @WessexWhisky for organising!