You may have followed one of my #BlindTasting or #MiniTasting sessions
over the last few years - a group of friends who swap samples and try to
discover what they are - sharing their thoughts on Twitter.
I've often thought about how this could be expanded to include more people and that's how the Blind Tasting Consortium came about!
I invited a larger group of friends, trying to get 14 to join in, it ended up with a consortium of 28. We each paid £29 and have bought 2 bottles of 5 different whiskies - 10 bottles in total! These were split into 50ml samples so each member receives 5 x 50ml samples of whisky - the catch is that only I know what they are!
We used a twitter tasting on Saturday 6th June @ 8pm to share our thoughts using the hashtag #BlindDrams.
For this tasting I'd selected 5 drams from 5 different regions so the gang had to identify the region and decide whether they'd buy a bottle before I reveal them! On the night we had loads of fun trying the whiskies and I think most of them were new to the majority of people!
These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium 8 #BlindDrams evening.
Appearance: pale gold in the glass, swirls cling and fall as slow thin legs.
Nose: fresh orchard fruit - sat under the tree. A lovely vanilla custard and maybe some cherry? A little time in the glass offers biscuit notes and a little hint of peat? Maybe some icing sugar?
Palate: smooth almost syrupy arrival - hots of honey and orchard fruit. A big kick of spice as the liquid disappears - high ABV / young dram?
Finish: the orchard fruit and citrus linger, there's a hint of smoke and a salty note. Nice!
Appearance: darker gold than #1, swirls leave a thin line on the glass, beads form and fall as slow thick legs.
Nose: full on orchard fruit, a little lemon and a little smoke. More biscuit notes and a little hint of dried fruit.
Palate: smooth sweet arrival, a little smoke but dominated by orchard and tropical fruit, There's a little citrus fizz as the liquid disappears, Nice!
Finish: Long lingering ginger spice with a little dried pineapple. Hint of smoke - Nice!
Appearance: Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling and fall as slow thick legs.
Nose: huge maritime notes - salty seaweed, sea mist and a little damp seagull? There's a lot of lemon in here too - huge spice notes on the nose.
Palate: ABV kicks you straight away - very smooth but spicy - ginger / chilli notes and those huge maritime citrus notes from the nose.
Finish: spicy lemon all the way - long and lingering! Nice!
Appearance: darker gold than the rest of the set, swirls bead up immediately as a crown of thorns before falling as slow thick legs.
Nose: malty musty bookshop stuff, strawberry jam, dark chocolate orange and a hint of chilli spice.
Palate: smooth almost buttery arrival, orange, dried fruit, strawberry jam then a huge ginger spice note. Nice!
Finish: long oaky spice with a citrus note and the ginger from the palate - well balanced - nice!
Appearance: Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling for a while then fall as slow thick legs.
Nose: huge maritime peat notes - bbq on the beach, a little lemon and some vanilla custard
Palate: smooth sweet arrival, maritime smoke and lemon notes - a little ginger spice as the liquid disappears - nice!
Finish: long lingering smoke with a touch of citrus Nice!
The drams were:
The theme was #Regions with one bottle from each of the main regions:
Dram 1 was a 46.5% Lowlander - Eden Mill's St. Andrews 2019 Release
Half of the gang thought it was from the Lowlands
Dram 2 was a 46% Highlander - Loch Lomond's 12yo
Dram 3 was a 59.1% from Islay - Caol Ila's 15yo Unpeated
Most of the gang guessed this was from Speyside!
Dram 5 was a 46% from Campbeltown - Springbank's Longrow Peated
So what did people think?
Overall the BenRiach came out top:
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