The story started here.
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| There is indeed a second row |
tOMoH goes for the double-dip with a bottling for Whisky-Schiff Zürich, a festival that takes place on ships. He notes that those ships ('Schiff' is German for 'ship', yes?) operate in fresh water and do not count. Instead, he brought it because it is a catam-Arran.
Arran 17yo 1997/2014 (51.6%, The Whisky Agency & Acla da Fans Acla Selection specially selected for Whisky-Schiff Zürich 2014, Refill Sherry Cask, 120b) (tOMoH)
Comment: others cannot see the Arran character, nor much Sherry, but the dram is nevertheless popular. My full notes are here. 8/10
tOMoH gets up again, this time to unveil the group's bottle. It is from a collection named 'The Sea'. Yes, that one.
Ben Nevis 1970/1988 (46%, Brae Dean Int. for Moon Import The Sea, Sherry Butt, C#2913, 360b, b#267) (group)
Mouth: a wonderful shoe polish coming out of a tube, then distant sandalwood. Incredibly powerful at second sip too. Is this really 46%?
Finish: long and all-enveloping, comforting as a rustic chair with a coat of oil. The second gulp has a bitterer dark-wood-bench touch and liquorice, bitter, sure, but breath-takingly elegant.
Comment: phwoar! 9/10
The third cake is served, made by STL's daughter.
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| It does not last long |
STL: "Yeah. So... I don't even want to cut the cake."
ruckus: "I'll eat your piece!"
red71: "She's a hypnotherapist. You have a problem in your life? She'll fix it. Are you constipated?"
adc and ruckus introduce another pair -- a pair of Taliskers. I warn all that it will not be a fair fight.
ruckus brought a Talisker from the Isle of Skye, where they do water Skye-ing. Groan. Laughter.
adc delegates the introduction of her bottle to tOMoH, who explains he got to try the version of Talisker 10yo that comes in a blue fender in a London shop, one day. The staff were cursing Diageo for using Sherry-seasoned casks instead of proper Sherry casks. The resulting whisky was rubbery and rather unpleasant. Still, a fender... tOMoH had to have it, who then gifted it to adc.
Lots of jokes or actual questions about guitars, but a fender is a nautical accessory that prevents damage to vessels and berthing structures.
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| Drat! it is the wrong bottle... Oh! well. |
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| This one is "made by the sea," as adc shouts from the other side of the room. |
Talistill 11yo 1996/2007 (46%, Taste Still, C#5471, 180b) (ruckus)
Mouth: it has a big lick of soft rubber, meaning it is fairly bitter, but it stops on the right side. And there are tons of peppery fruits too.
Finish: a huge slap of fruit and slightly-burnt rubber, a dead campfire on the beach, smoked mussels and halved citrus.
Comment: still delicious. What a treat to try this again. Although a well-known bottle amongst this group, it seems we have not had it since 2013. 9/10
Talisker 40yo 1978/2018 (50%, OB The Bodega Series, Finished in ex-Delgado Zuleta, 2000b, b#1048) (adc)
Mouth: swarf, hot, dusty boilers, baked apples and a pinch of pepper so restrained it could even be overlooked.
Finish: huge, it has cut citrus, a pinch of salt and a whisper of smoke.
Comment: dom666 is ecstatic. It is his favourite distillery and he has never tried this expression before. In fact, he has, but he is right to be ecstatic: it remains a superlative dram. I hope to spend more time with it at some point. 10/10
Psycho gets up to offer his bottle. I interject. This is the worst spot. Nothing could shine after that Talisker (those Taliskers, actually), and it is unfair to leave that spot to anyone else, so I will take the hit. Since, coincidentally, Psycho's bottling is (likely) from the same distillery as mine, we will have them side by side. Which distillery? Loch Lomond -- favourite tipple of Captain Haddock. Well, mine is undisclosed, but with Captain Haddock's cap on the label, there is little doubt as to its provenance.
Highland Region 21yo 2000/2021 (54.7%, Thompson Bros., 2 x Refill Hogsheads, 589b) (tOMoH)
Mouth: bitter and tasteless (kruuk2).
Finish: not bad, fatty (kruuk2), wet cork (STL). Gaija calls it gloriously bad and a capital miss.
Comment: against all odds, hard-to-please-in-chief Bishlouk finds it not that bad. I giggle at others' reactions. Some notes here. I may do a full review one day, if I muster up the courage. Tonight, I do not even try it.
Loch Lomond 21yo 1997/2018 (52.5%, Cadenhead Small Batch, 2 x Bourbon Barrels, 378b) (Psycho)
Finish: waxy fruits blended with wax.
Comment: as it did last year, this amazes. 9/10
red71 announces that the US Navy made a propaganda film in 1994 called Nautical but Nice. He therefore chose a whisky distilled in 1994. He adds that it is a Cadenhead bottling, which is abbreviated as CA on Whiskybase. 'CA' is the hull code for Heavy Cruiser in the hull classification. To make sure we get it, this particular bottle has naval flags all around it.
Clynelish 20yo 1994/2015 (55.4%, Cadenhead Wood Range, Sherry Cask, 486b, 15/292) (red71)
Comment: this is good, but is overwhelmed by the competition, tonight. Notes here. 7/10
The soundtrack: the Old Man of Huy - Exit the Dragon
ruckus brought a bottle from a Port that has a ship on the label.
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| We will let slide the fact that it is a canal boat (hence fresh water). |
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| The boats on ruckus's shirt are sea boats, on the other hand |
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| ...albeit small ones, for atoll-hopping in the Pacific |
Port Dundas 21yo 2000/2022 (62.1%, Keeble Cask Company Fragrant Drops imported by Perfectdram, American Oak Barrel, C#305291, 187b) (ruckus)
Mouth: phwoar! This is hot and numbing. Soon, caster sugar emerges, as does Demerara starting to cluster.
Finish: huge, sweet, crumbly, gritty. It has golden caster sugar by the boatload.
Comment: another cracking grain. Bizarrely enough, the only grain in this monster line-up. 8/10
tOMoH: "C'est comme l'Héliport? [another restaurant dom666 likes to talk about] Où tous les véhicules ont des Sélys?" [I will not translate]
JS: "What?"
tOMoH [repeats]: "You're frowning. You don't approve."
kruuk2: "She's right."
adc disappears as the fourth cake enters.
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| This one is laced with SC 73 10yo b.2023 (58.2%, SMWS The Society Cask, 1st Fill ex-Wasted Degrees Table Beer Quarter Cask Finish) |
Psycho brought another one with a ship on the label.
We pair it with CG's bottle, which is another Bowmore, from the shores of Lochindaal, which is close to the sea (it is a sea loch, so, technically, it is the sea). "Also, the chimney of the distillery looks like a ship's mast," CG tells us.
Bowmore 15yo Mariner (43%, OB, L1284/L1304) (Psycho)
Mouth: French-whore perfume (Gaija), and it does indeed have a clear violet-sweet taste.
Finish: long, it has toasted barley and smoked straw.
Comment: this is never as good as I want it to be. I so want to like it, but the nose is a little disappointing. 7/10
Bowmore 2002/2025 (58.2%, Malts of Scotland Rare Casks handselected & exclusively bottled for The Whisky Dreamers, Bourbon Hogshead, C#MoS25014, 146b, b#50) (CG)
Mouth: smoked roasted apples, a lot of horsepower. Then, tropical fruits rise: cherimoya, Ugli fruit. The second sip has a pinch of chalk that feels akin to licking a plasterboard.
Finish: long and irresistibly fruity, with persimmon and peaches rubbing elbows with embers.
Comment: here is an excellent Bowmore. 9/10
Gaija tells us about an artist he saw at Fuse in the not-too-distant past. Then, Ludovico Einaudi - Nuvole Bianche plays, which STL recognises.
STL: "Not at Fuse, in any case."
Gaija tells us that Caol Ila always has a maritime profile, yet it is always easy and accessible. In other words, it is nautical, but nice.
Mouth: punchy, it rolls out fruits covered in ash. We have prunes and peaches, as well as sauced-up nectarines.
Finish: big, ashy and fruity, it ends on a Merbromin note.
Comment: delicious. I have wanted to try this since it came out; it was definitely worth the wait. 9/10
Psycho: "Depends on the model."
kruuk2: "Yeah, the Majorette [Matchbox] one was cheaper."
sonicvince and dom666 both brought a Laphroaig for the same reason: the drawing on the tube shows the seafront.
We embark on another entirely-unfair versus.
Laphroaig Quarter Cask (48%, OB) (sonicvince)
Mouth: bold, with lots of smoky roasted apples and quinces coloured with Merbromin.
Finish: there is a loud rubber-camphor duet, coupled with strong cough drops.
Comment: reliable. Dependable. Even this late, it does the job without pretense. 7/10
Laphroaig 31yo 1974/2005 (49.7%, OB for La Maison du Whisky, Sherry Wood Casks, 910b, b#652) (dom666)
Comment: after trying this in 2006 and in 2015, it is clear there will not be a fourth encounter: the bottle is on its last leg. We have this masterpiece just as Tide Lines - Shadow To The Light (Piano Version) is playing. I find it hard to contain my emotions, even as ruckus vocalises his dislike for the song. I make away with a sample, so we will spend more composed time with it in the future. For now, it soars above everything we have had until now. A charged 11/10
tOMoH: "Maporama. Des étiquettes avec des cartes."
dom666: "Viendrai avec des cartes à jouer. Ha! Ha! Une bouteille avec un as de pique sur l'étiquette!"
Gaija and tOMoH [clearly thinking of the Ace of Spades]: "On te regarde."
Psycho explains that Corryvreckan, the famous whirlpool off the northeast of Jura, is clearly nautical, and that the whisky of the same name is nice.
Ardbeg Corryvreckan (57.1%, OB, b. ca 2007) (Psycho)
Mouth: woah! This is punchy. It has peat smoke cloaking poached apples.
Finish: big, smoky. We detect hay, a pinch of ash, and toasted barley, Ardbeg style.
Comment: this is good. Naturally, it suffers from the sequence -- what would not? 7/10
Jocelyn Pook - The Masked Ball plays. People start talking about Eyes Wide Shut (the track is used in the film) and Kubrick.
tOMoH: "Psycho, tu n'aimes pas vraiment les films de Kubrick. Tu préfères les films de Ku tout court."
We survived the full line-up, somehow. Bishlouk, STL, red71, sonicvince, Mrs. sonic and CG take a leave.
The soundtrack: the Old Man of Huy - Another Brick in the Wall
ruckus, dom666, kruuk2, Psycho, Gaija, JS and I have a nightcap. It would not be a proper Burns' Night without a nightcap, now, would it?
SC 73 10yo b.2023 (58.2%, SMWS The Society Cask, 1st Fill ex-Wasted Degrees Table Beer Quarter Cask Finish)
Manages to hold its own. Full notes here.
North British 45yo 1963/2009 (50.7%, Signatory Vintage Rare Reserve, Hogsheads, C#117362 + 117363 + 117365, 290b, b#19)
This sails comfortably, even now. It may have one more outing before the bottle is empty, sadly. Full notes here.
117.3 25yo d.1988 Hubba-bubba, mango and monstera (58.5%, SMWS Society Single Cask, 2nd Fill ex-Bourbon Barrel, 199b)
Phwoar. How can this still fly so high at 7 in the morning? Well, it does. Notes.
We decide against the Port Charlotte, this year again. Some are running out of fuel.
Epic.
Dram of the day:
- adc: Talisker 40yo + Caperdonich 16yo
- dom666: Talisker 40yo
- sonicvince: Ben Nevis + Caol Ila 22yo + Port Dundas 21yo + Laphroaig 31yo
- ruckus: Caperdonich 16yo + Arran 17yo + Caol Ila 22yo + Laphroaig 31yo
- kruuk2: Ben Nevis + Laphroaig 31yo + Clydeside
- JS: Laphroaig 31yo + Bowmore MoS
- Bishlouk: Talisker 40yo
- STL: Highland Region 21yo
- red71: Talisker 40yo
- CG: Laphroaig 31yo
- Psycho: Laphroaig 31yo + Talisker 40yo
- Gaija: Laphroaig 31yo + Talisker 40yo
- tOMoH: Laphroaig 31yo + Talisker 40yo
Those fine people have plans on the Sunday. That means many have left when I get up, and those who have not make a quick exit.
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| More breakfast for the few who do stick around, including espadom |
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