25/05/2018 Campbeltown Festival 2018 (Day 3 -- Part 2) The Big Cadenhead Tasting

From lunch, we have to walk fast to the warehouse where this tasting is happening. In fact, everyone is there already, although they are queueing outside. The queue is so long that I have more than enough time to run back to meet Hedley Wright (chairman of J&A Mitchell), have a brief but friendly chat with him, and still be on time to find a nice seat.

Meanwhile, BH and BC drink proper stuff

This is a big duel between Jenna McIntosh (JMcI), who is in charge of Cadenhead's own ranges (Authentic Collection, World Whiskies, as well as that range with the closed distilleries and the one with the various cask maturations), and Cameron McGeachy (CMcG), who looks after the international ranges (Small Batch and Single Cask). JMcI is introduced with A-ha - Take On Me, while CMcG walks in, sporting boxing gloves, to the tune of... something no-one recognises. Survivor - The Eye Of The Tiger would have been so adequate, here! Mark Watt (MW) referees the fight, responsible as he is for both those channels.

Risin' up
Back on the streets...

Each of the contestants has brought one bottling available in the shop, one soon-to-be-released bottling for their respective ranges, and one exclusive cask sample.
The tasting is in the remote warehouse where the 175th Anniversary tasting took place last year, and it is fooking hot, inside.

"You don't get this at Springbank," says JMcI, defiantly.

JMcI presents: Macduff 29yo 1989/2018 (55.1%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection, Refill Sherry Butt, 190b): nose: some vinegar, unripe hazelnut, grape stems and grape pips. Mouth: big, boisterous, even, with hazelnut vinegar, raspberry vinegar and some spices. This is anaesthetising. Finish: softer now, with hazelnut paste and raspberry. This is good, but not balanced. Too hot. I tried it in the shop, a couple of weeks ago, and was not more impressed then. 6/10

CMcG presents: North British 32yo 1985/2018 (55.2%, Cadenhead Small Batch, 1 x Sherry Butt, 582b): nose: solvents and paint stripper, as well as wood lacquer. MW says he "would drink this through a shoe." I hope it says more about his taste than it does about his habits. Mouth: glue and rubber mats. It seems hot, though I am now wondering whether that is the pepper from lunch. Finish: it almost redeems itself, here, with blackcurrant and fruity turnovers. All in all, I do not like it much more than when it came out. 6/10

CMcG presents: Glenturret 31yo 1986/2018 (44.5%, Cadenhead Single Cask, Sherry Hogshead, 210b): nose: fresh cork, soft and plump, alongside waxy apricot. Mouth: much softer than expected, it has squashed apricots again. Finish: more apricots with just a tiny spoonful of hazelnut paste. 7/10

MW: "That's a very good Glenturret. It didn't taste like a Glenturret."

JMcI breaks a glass.

CMcG: "Not the first time Jenna's glassed someone."
MW: "Scotland. The only country that uses 'glass' as a verb."

JMcI presents: The English Whisky d.2009 (61.9%, cask sample, C#18/50-1): a peaty expression. Nose: leather and cow stable, dry hay, flames. Mouth: smoke, of course, but it is subdued. Lots of boiled sweets are the centrepiece. Finish: cereals, burning hay and melted boiled sweets. 7/10

JMcI presents: Aberfeldy 22yo (52.2%, cask sample): nose: fresh and youthful, with honeysuckle buds and Virginia tobacco. Mouth: soft, sweet, it has raspberry jam. Finish: honey, caramelised puffed rice (Kellogg's Smacks), and even coffee beans. This works less well, for me. 6/10

MW (to the room): "I'm looking forward to you trying to flip a bottle of Aberfeldy!"

CMcG presents: Bowmore 17yo (54.2%, cask sample): nose dry earth and lovely fruit, in the back. Mouth: big, pungent and elegant, with some smoke and lots of fruit. Finish: long, wide, earthy and well fruity, with whispers of mango and maracuja. 8/10

The tasting finishes. Queues start to form to buy the exclusive whiskies. The Bowmore, in particular, proves popular. I kept a drop of everything for MSo to try, since he could not make it in. When he joins me, he is only interested in the Bowmore, the label-drinker -- what a shame!

A lot of people I meet after the tasting are disappointed with the event and the selection. They feel they were let down. Dicks. Yes, the 2017 edition was more special. Cadenhead was 175 and pulled all the stops to impress the world. It worked: that was a legendary tasting. The company is now 176, hardly a milestone. Someone's forty-first birthday is rarely as baroque as their fortieth. Fact of life. Get over it. It is good to come back to reality, actually. That makes the really special events even more special.
And screw those who complained that, "there was not even a Littlemill, this year." Spoiled brats.

Whilst the lot is queueing for bottles, I sit on the lawn and pour whisky to friends -- Balvenie-Glenlivet 12yo 1979/1992 (59.5%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection 150th Anniversary). That, of course, attracts attention. Someone approaches me and asks if I would pour it to him, were he to give me some money. I tell him to pass his glass and ask where he is from. He turns out to be florian09, who has been looking for me for two days. Once he is done with the Balvenie, we have...

Ardlussa 12yo (40%, Eaglesome Campbeltown Commemoration, b. ca. 1985): nose: honey, hay and soot. Mouth: soft, honey-like, though much more assertive than the ABV suggests (bear in mind we have had cask-strength whiskies for several hours too). Finish: big, slightly drying, with lots of juicy apple and crumbly pear. 8/10

The afternoon unfolds, lazy and comfortable, on the sunny lawn. Life does not suck, right now.
Many (the Swissky Mafia, jazzpianofingers, the French contingent) soon make their way to Islay, though.

I am not attending the closing dinner, tonight, and there will be no after-party either (until tomorrow). The festival draws to a close, as far as I am concerned. Once again, I did not have one drink from the bar, sadly. The one time I considered it, everything was crossed out as unavailable.