23/04/2012 St George's Day at the SMWS

Where better to meet up with visiting friends than a quiet place where to get good food and quality drinks? Add St George(*) to the equation and it is definitely a night for Scottish drinks. A quick check reveals our friends want to try some whisky too, since they were in the right place for it. A few jokes about manly vs. girly drams later, the weapons are chosen.

The menu:

39.86 (JS)
3.177 (JG)
25.62 (DS)

18.30 24yo Hippie dram (45.5%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 221b): an unusual distillery at the SMWS, and not exactly a regular with most bottlers, in fact. Nose: pharmacy, faded bandages stored in a cupboard for too long, then distant vanilla. Mouth: warming and spicy. Finish: a mixture of vanilla and herbs. It does leave a nice, grassy impression with a bit of flint. This one seems even grassier than the (only?) other Inchgower I have tried. Very nice indeed.

125.60 10yo 2001 Expanding universe of flavour (60.8%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 273b) (JS): nose: ginger bread, orange chocolate. Cracking stuff. Mouth: PiM's (guess Britishers would foolishly call it Jaffa Cakes -- they sometimes lack in the biscuitry department), butterscotch. Finish: here is the weak point, definitely. Not sure if it is the rather high ABV, but something in there does not quite do the trick.

G7.2 (JG)
125.43 (DS)

G7.3 27yo 1984 Fresh toffee and glossy magazines (59.4%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 234b): nose: wood, vanilla (yep, another one of those wood-juice grains), some Cologne or after-shave lotion. A little rounder than G7.2, with some vaguely smoked wood (or is it marinated?) Mouth: oak. Wood juice indeed. It seems to be even woodier than G7.2. A bit too drying though it improves dramatically with water. Finish: long, warming and dry. With water, it turns better and gives out some chocolate. Beautiful. Gets an extra point with water.

28.21 18yo Takes you to sunny places (54.8%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 279b) (JS): dry and winey, yet also quite agreeable. 8/10

Between those two rounds, we had supper: fish & chips for DS, steak pie for JG, lamburger for JS and canelloni for me. Very good it was.

Pleasant night out to kick-start the week. Relaxed and sweet.

(*) For those unfamiliar with the occasion, it is the day them funny Englishers hang Swiss flags on their cars and pub windows to celebrate the Royal Navy's victory over the one Swiss submarine on Lake Geneva in 1287 b.C. After tracking the craft down for seven and a half month on the lake, Adm. Viscount Oakenweedson managed to score a direct hit with an IR torpedo, damaging the Swiss vessel's cheese bay in the middle of a moonless night. The explosion melted the cheese that then clogged the whole lake and forced the Swiss seamen out of their ship. According to eye witnesses, the mass of cheese spread all the way to Saint-Georges, in the township of Vaud. From that night on, England has celebrated the event every year. The dark hour is known in Switzerland as the Nuit Saint-Georges.(**)

(**) All that might be made up, mind.