N from Brighton [who arrives late]: "Too excited to get a cup of tea..."
tOMoH: "You Englishman, you!"
The hosts explain that the exclusive bottlings today are on sale in the Cadenhead tent and are accessible only to those who are present here, which will be verified by way of a wristband.
CMcG: "Your wristbands are high value..."
MW: "I think some of them are already at auction..."
CMcG: "There are no stupid questions!"
MW: "Is Cameron small, or is he just far away?"
We try all blind.
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| To business! |
Dram #1 (CMcG): nose: jammy and fruity, with apricot, peach and rose-petal, honey and dusty books. Good start! Mouth: it turns drier and more leafy than expected (dry leaves), with wood honey and smoked porridge. Finish: long, honeyed, it has dead leaves, gunmetal and ivy. It is a good starter with a nice nose, though it fails to win me over. CMcG reveals a mixture of Invergordon, Glenfarclas and Glenlivet. Blend 45yo (43.1%, Cask Sample) 7/10
MW: "Some 45yo whiskies, you're pretty much licking a tree. If you're going to lick a tree, make sure you go higher than a dog can pee!"
Dram #2 (JMcI): nose: more wood, tree bark, mulch and tea biscuit. JS finds Port in the nose as well. Mouth: bitter, wine-y, it has tannins and a distinct bite -- too much of a bite, actually; I find it unbalanced. Finish: wine-y, this one tastes like dark-grape wine, cherry fruit and unripe blackcurrant. Meh. Girvan 9yo (61.4%, Cask Sample, Pinot Noir Cask) 5/10
I may not like it much, but I appreciate it was daring to serve a red-wine-matured, twelve-year-old grain whisky!
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| Someone confused Moon Import with moon export! |
Dram #3 (JMcI): nose: unripe fruit, including waxy apricot, sprinkled with peach liqueur and even walnut liqueur. Mouth: soft, velvety, fruity, peachy, it presents notes of apricot too, ripe, this time. Finish: a mushroom cave, dunnage warehouse, timidly-tropical fruit. I first guess an Inchmurrin, after AMcR, who is in the room, ventures a Littlemill. In hindsight, it is obviously a Littlemill. The one that came out yesterday. Excellent, and well done JMcI for offering something that 85% in this room will not be able to buy a bottle of. Littlemill 27yo 1992/2019 (49.8%, Cadenhead, Bourbon Hogshead, 270b) 8/10
Dram #4 (MW -- I think): nose: petrolic, with sweet Demerara sugar and vapours of a plastic-manufacturing factory, plastic buckets. Mouth: super cereal-y and plastic-y. This is big and biting (no surprise when you see the ABV). Finish: lots of plastic here too, rubber, dark sugar, oil and all sorts of petrolic notes. It is a rum, which, in hindsight, is also quite obvious; not far from some of the Caroni, Fiji and Venezuela rums that have been released in recent years. This is Dictador. Nice, but not my thing, today. Colombia 26yo (69.4%, Cask Sample, 20y in Bourbon Cask + 6y in Port Cask) 7/10
anonymous: "Is it for sale?"
MW: "It will be for sale... in the future!"
Dram #5 (CMcG): nose: cow dung, muck, dry sands, crusty earth and dried apricots. Mouth: soft and gentle, it showcases fruit and hemp, in stark contrast with the nose. Finish: lots of delicate fruit, hints of smoke, linen and clean laundry, hot cotton. Cooley 11yo 1992/2019 Open Day "Big Tasting" 2019 (53.4%, Cadenhead Malts Festival, Barrel) 8/10
MW [about the counter-intuitive age statement]: "It turns out that, unbeknownst to me, it's illegal to mature Irish whiskey outside of Ireland. It's a fairly new rule... from 1985."
Dram #6 (MW -- I think): nose: mud, earth and clay. It is simply earthy. Mouth: earthy, muddy, with clay and bogs. Finish: you guessed it! Mud, clay, earth, crusty earth. This one does what it does really well, but it is as one-dimensional as a stroke on a chalkboard. Good for countryside boys like myself; to say it is memorable would be a huge overstatement. Bunnahabhain 5yo (unknown ABV, Cask Sample, 3 x Bourbon Hogsheads) 6/10
The tasting finishes. The tent is still relatively busy with people queueing for bottles, but it feels over. Many are flying out in the next hour, even more are scrambling to Islay for the next festival. The French/Swiss(no-sky) pour us a few things to finish off -- two of which I will end up trying tomorrow, after "forgetting" overnight. The one thing I do remember is this.
Springbank 12yo (46%, OB Ceramic Jug, b. ca. late 1980s): a very well-known jug that I cannot remember having actually tried prior. But of course, I do not remember much, at this point. Nose: pickled onions and orchard fruit. This seems to be a typical profile for those ceramic decanters -- Bowmore Bicentenary was also pickled-onion-led fruit. Mouth: I find it soft, fruity and fresh, which is a trademark of Springbank's distillate from that era, I suppose. Finish: soft, fruity and fresh. Ahem. I am drunk, aren't I? I am embarrassed: this is clearly good. In my current state, I cannot do it justice, unfortunately. 8/10 |
| Working on international relationships since... |
Time to bid good bye/farewell, retire for a refreshing shower and a short lie-down. I start wondering why humans drink (merriment? Catharsis? As a social conduit? To enable a spiritual connection?) Yeah, I also only think of those things when under the influence. It was high time I stopped! :o)
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| Quick stop at the shop, as Paul McCartneux wants to browse |
In comes the evening and supper at the Harbourview Grille. And it is...
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| Soup of the day |
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| Grilled-halloumi salad |
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| Seafood pasta for adc |
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HAGGIS F-IN' NACHOS B!TCH3S!
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On the harbour front, the scene is so strange I wonder if I am hallucinating. Huge lorries deliver huge metal tubes. It turns out Campbeltown is no longer the whisky capital of the world, but it has become a capital manufacturing hub for wind-turbine parts -- and timber, as we saw two years ago.
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