#BTC45 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

 These are my tasting notes and results from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 45th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Ben @WhiskyWithMolly

#BlindTasting Series 5 - Review

Series 5 of #BlindTasting has recently finished and as usual I'll post a summary. This ended up being our longest series due to Christmas and pressures of work - it extended over 4 months!
This one, like all the rest, has brought up a few surprised with the five of us trying to identify 15 mystery drams through smell and taste, having #NoPreconceivedIdeas to sway our opinions.

#BlindTasting Series 5 - Part 3

Series 5 Part 3

We finally got around to completing Series 5, the team have swapped more drams and tonight we need to try and work out what they are, but more importantly tell us what we think of them without knowing where they are from. #NoPreconceivedIdeas! If you haven't followed us before you can catch up with all the previous series here.

Youtube clips

I've appeared in a few Youtube clips talking about whisky or doing reviews - here's an updated list of them!

The Whisky Family (Was Maltman Mike & Friends)

Glen Scotia Campbeltown 1832

#BlindTasting Series 5 - Part 2

Series 5 Part 2

After a short break over Christmas the team have swapped more drams and tonight we need to try and work out what they are, but more importantly tell us what we think of them without knowing where they are from. #NoPreconceivedIdeas! If you haven't followed us before you can catch up with all the previous series here.

#BlindTasting Series 3 - Review

Series 3 of #BlindTasting has recently finished and as usual I'll post a summary. Following on from fantastic Series 1 & 2 - this one was brought up a few surprised with the five of us trying to identify 15 mystery drams through smell and taste, having #NoPreconceivedIdeas or #MarketingBullshit to sway our opinions.

#BlindTasting Series 3 - Part 1

If you've followed us so far on our #BlindTasting journey of discovery you'll know that is a great fun set of evenings here the five of us try to identify drams from each other. sometimes we can get quite close, sometimes we are completely flummoxed. But the key things are we are trying the drams blind with no preconceived ideas and we are having lots of fun!

#BlindTasting - Review

If you're reading this post you must have read my previous posts on our recent Series of #BlindTasting sessions Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 where @jwbassman_, @SpiritAndWood, @GentlemanGrimm and @WhiskyWings swapped some samples and blind tasted them!

The blind leading the blind #BlindTasting Pt2

Following on from our successful #BlindTasting Part 1 a couple of weeks ago we followed up with Part 2!

#Transparency

I had an interesting chat with the great folk at Bruichladdich today after their latest go at transparency. As you may know a number of companies, notably Compass Box and Bruichladdich, are trying hard to get the law changed on what distillers and bottlers can tell us about the drams we drink.

Laddie CEO Simon Coughlin wrote to @Scotchwhiskycom outlining the next step in their #transparency programme, you can read the article here, but basically what they want to be able to do is be allowed to give us consumers more information about the whisky they are selling us. A fair thing to do you would think but unfortunately it's against EU regulations

How was this dram made?

So whilst we wait for the EU to change the law, if you want to find out what's in your whisky and where it came from ask the distiller or bottler. Bruichladdich will tell you #TerroirMatters, they have even started putting a link on their website to allow you to get the information yourself, all you need is the code from the bottle. Currently this works for some of their range e.g. The Classic Laddie and PC Scottish Barley but hopefully will expand across the whole range in time.

I asked them for some more details about my current favourite whisky, the PC Islay Barley Heavily Peated (review coming soon), whilst there is some information on the box/bottle regarding the farms where the barley was grown, they were also able to tell me which varieties of barley were used: Optic & Oxbridge; when it was harvested: September 2008; when it was distilled: December 2008 and that my wonderful dram was matured in American & European oak casks.


Why wouldn't we want to know this information?