Sunday, February 28, 2010

2010 Inaugural Whisky Tasting

Hooray! Whisky tasting season is upon us again after a loooooonngg two month break.

What:      Whisky Tasting - Freshest Islays
When:     Monday 22nd & Wednesday 24th February
Where:    Regional Wines & Spirits, Wellington
Who:       60 highly motivated and enthusiastic whisky fans (both nights)
Why:       Because Single Malt whisky tastes damn good

Kicking off our 2010 campaign was a very special tasting! Freshest Islays included some very young malts from Kilchoman and Bruichladdich (Port Charlotte) and of course our mystery malt.

I was asked to say a few words about the whisky making process at Kilchoman due to my recent pilgrimage to the holy land.

It was a full turnout as usual with the following array strange folk in attendance.

The whiskies were some of my all time favorite drams. You cannot beat young peat ridden Islays, especially of the cask strength persuasion. By the gods they were good. Alcoholic, smoky, peaty, throat constrictingly, liver throbbingly good!

The awesome selection of whiskies were as follows -

Malt: Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 7, 61.0% Non-Chillfiltered & Non-Colored 12460\240000
Score: 9.17

Malt: Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 8, 60.5% Non-Chillfiltered & Non-Colored
Score: 8.75

Malt: Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 6, 2001-2007, 61.6%
Score: 8.74

Malt: Kilchoman Autumn 2009 Release, 46%, Non-Chillfiltered & Non-Colored
Score: 8.32

Malt: Kilchoman Inaugural Release, 46%, Non-Chillfiltered & Non-Colored, 3y Bourbon finished, 3mth in Sherry
Score: 7.47

Malt: Kilchoman New Spirit 18\7\07-16\12\08 (17months), Optic barley 50ppm, 62%, Fresh Bourbon Cask# 63
Score: 6.52

Malt: Kilchoman New Spirit, 9\12\08-16\12\08 (7days), Optic barley, 50ppm
Score: 6.06



Favorite Dram: Kilchoman Raw Spirit 7 day old. Delicious! Better warm though.

Least Favorite Dram: Kilchoman Inaugural Release. Hard to pick but just because of the excellent company it was in, this just lacked a little punch. Bloody good though. 

You might not necessarily agree with me, but you'd be dead wrong. Plus I've actually made the stuff so 
SHUT UP!! That said, there are some awesome upcoming tastings including Japanese, vertical Laphroaig and the upcoming 'Evening With Charles Maclean, Master Of The Quaich'.

All in all this was a salubrious tasting that will be very hard to beat. Using my awesome storehouse of whisky knowledge I scored a brilliant 2\7. Damn I'm good. DON'T LAUGH! 

That said though, something was missing. Can't quite put my finger on it, but it just wasn't quite the same!

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