Showing posts with label WishkyCo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WishkyCo. Show all posts

Monday, 3 April 2017

#WishkyTwo Blind Tasting

Following on from a fantastic blind tasting in February WishkyOne@WishkyCo came up with another evening in March, again an beautiful unidentified 50ml bottle arrived in the post - a simple label identified it as WishkyTwo. The hardest part of all of this is not opening the bottle before the night....


For those of you who haven't heard of this, we had a hour to try and identify the mystery dram - it was time for #WishkyHour

Appearance: Pale Gold.
Nose: SMOKE

As soon as I opened the bottle the smoke jumped out - obviously an Islay - buy which one? My thoughts in the text, others from Twitter:

Appearance: Pale Gold, clinging to the glass when swirled indicating age or non chill-filtered?


Nose: Smoke, Seaweed, Salt with floral tones but not medicinal...


Palate: Strong smoke, vanilla, salt. The dram also came across as very strong...


Finish: Bitter and dry...


Overall: Even though I'm an Islay Fan Boy I wasn't blown away by this one - which led me to believe it was maybe one I hadn't tried before maybe Bowmore,  Bunnahabhain or a strange  Bruichladdich Port Charlotte? Over time we were told it was a 46% whisky.


Eventually we got to the end of the hour and the end of the dram...


If you haven't guessed what dram we were drinking yet from my notes - we were drinking Kilchoman Machir Bay.


Many thanks to Neil at @wishkyco for organising, if you want to get involved next time, there is a small fee to cover costs, get in touch with Neil or better still sign up for one of his boxes, all can be tried blind but tasting notes are included!



Thursday, 23 February 2017

Blind Twitter Tasting with Wishky

Last night I spent a very enjoyable #wishkyhour drinking whisky with no one! Well that isn't entirely true.... Let me rewind a week or so!

I'm a huge fan of Twitter and follow a whole load of people in the #WhiskyFabric exchanging news, thoughts and sometimes dram samples. A post from one of these was an invite to a Twitter Tasting, I immediately signed up and a week or so later a bottle appeared in the post!

Beautiful bottle

What I failed to realise at the time, but did once I'd looked at the bottle, was that this was going to be a blind tasting, we didn't know in advance what the whisky was! I was both intrigued and worried: how was I going to identify the dram, what if I didn't like it?

As the night grew closer a few messages were exchanged with other testers about the colour and possible source, but we all managed to avoid opening the bottle before the night!

Concerning the bottle: I've received many different ones in the samples I've received from companies and the #WhiskyFabric but none have been as nice as this. It was a little 50ml glass bottle with a lovely cork stopper and sealing sticker labeled "Hand Filled".

So on to the night: I connected to Twitter and set up a window showing the agreed hash tags #wishkyhour and #wishkyone and waited for the fun to start. Most of us were ready for the 8pm start time and we all eagerly poured a dram.


Ready to pour!
Appearance: lovely amber colour with slow falling legs when swirled around the glass, quite oily.
Nose: Winey, honey and lemon - later vanilla with a little pepper?
Palate: Loving the taste - coating my tongue - it's floral - cut grass? But no honey in the taste
Finish: Nice lingering finish - vanilla
Overall: Not peaty (like a normally drink) I detect maybe a little sherry?

My guesses were that we were trying an unsherried, 8-10 year old Speyside, I also suggested maybe an Arran. Other suggestions included Ballantines, anCnoc or Glengoyne.


All done - but what was it?

We all agreed that we enjoyed the dram and we're eager to find out what it was! Right at the end one of the group @jonpearcewhufc guessed correctly!

If you haven't guessed what dram we were drinking yet from my notes - have a look over at the wishky blog.

Many thanks to Neil @wishkyco at for organising and @jwbassman_ @richinspirit @B_R_Drams @bgmearns @GentlemanGrimm @TheAndrewCarr and @mgilberties for making it a really enjoyable evening by myself!

There's another great write up here.