#BTC29 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 29th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Paul @pswhisky

His theme was PS I Love You, picking whiskies from his 2nd favourite distillery!

So as usual the other 27 of us worked our way through the 5 blind drams, sharing our thoughts and giving a score out of 5 before they were all revealed at the end.

Dram 1

Appearance: dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line which beads up slowly and fall as slow thin legs.

Nose: stewed orchard fruit, a little salinity, some vinegar, honey and toffee. A little air offers some citrus zest and drying icing sugar

Palate: thick sweet arrival, loads of orange zest, honey and stewed pear. Immediately spicy - ginger and pepper. There's a little salinity in here and maybe some berry notes?

Finish: short sweet and spicy with honey and orange & ginger marmalade.

Dram 2

Appearance: dark bronze in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thin legs.

Nose: sherried dried fruit, marzipan, wet rubber car mats and icing sugar. There's some dark chocolate and toffee notes here too.

Palate: again a thick sweet arrival, golden syrup, dried fruit, dates, figs, black cherries - Speyside sherry bomb. There's some red berry jam notes pointing me towards port but I'm pretty sure this is sherry cask maturation.

Dram 3

Appearance: mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line and fall as slow thin oily legs.

Nose: buttered popcorn, vanilla ice cream, some red berries and a little icing sugar - a grain maybe?

Palate: lovely berry fruits to start, some salinity and a bite of spice - they it all goes very dry. Got to be a red wine cask finish - just not seeing it on the colour... This is really good!

Finish: long dry finish, berries, spice and a little citrus zest - YUMMY!

Dram 4

Appearance: bright gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thick legs.

Nose: arm yard funk, a little salinity, orchard fruit, damp sawdust and wet pine needles. Getting a little lemon meringue pie here too. Very interesting...

Palate: thick sweet arrival: golden syrup, honey, a little dry icing sugar. There's some sour grapefruit hints here too. A little hint of salinity, smoke and lots of old dry wood.

Finish: long spicy finish with dead wood and citrus.

Dram 5

Appearance: dark gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thick line in the glass, bead up slowly and fall as slow thick legs.

Nose: dirty dram - salinity, smoke, engine oil, rubber, shellfish. Applewood smoked cheese, sliced apple and a sprinkling of cardamom seeds.

Palate: dry salty arrival, a little tropical fruit, some berries, some dried fruit. A gentle blanket of smoke. Much calmer than the nose suggested. The cardamom is here again with some cloves and cinnamon. Peated sherry cask - Ledaig?

The drams were:

Dram 1 was a Benriach 2011 10yo Cask #2377 [AWWC]

Dram 2 was a Benriach  2009 12yo Cask #800341 [LotG]

Dram 3 was a Benriach 2011 11yo Cask #2372 [AWWC]

Dram 4 was a Benriach 2001 21yo Cask [ChWh] 

Dram 5 was a Benriach 2011 10yo Cask #740017 [DT]

The overall scores from our 28 members were:

More information about the Blind Tasting Consortium and the scores for all of our tastings can be found here!