14/07/2019 All-day breakfast session

You will have noticed we are not celebrating Bastille Day. Oh! no.

PS, JS and CB join me for an all-day breakfast party. JS suggested the theme whilst having breakfast at Café Bluebell, earlier this year. We thought it would be fun to, say, have a cup of tea-ninich with a little-millk.

tOMoH: Toast, Butter, Morels (works better in French, yet: toast, beurre, morilles)

Transferred into this.
See actual bottle
opposite

Tobermory (40%, OB, b.1980s) (me): nose: floral and gently earthy, it has distant honeysuckle and, perhaps, dusty apples. Time brings overripe apples and pear on a pewter plate. The nose turns more and more floral ,the longer it is in the glass. The second nosing pushes forth lacquered wood as well. Mouth: mildly acidic, it carries on with apples, augmented with dried sage (it is a tad metallic) and dried cork. Dark plums arrive next, soft and juicy, velvety, thick. The palate has more softly bitter wood. The alcohol bite is more pronounced than expected too. Finish: excellent mix of dusty fruit, metal-tainted apple, plum skins and nectarine stones. At the death, dry raisins show up, giving an impression between Oloroso and PX. Very nice! 8/10

PS: "It's fresh."
tOMoH: "Exciting."
PS: "It's fresher than Jimmy Saville at a children's ward."

JS says a full-English breakfast always has a baked tomatin on the plate

The Tomatin 15yo (40%, Sestante, b.1980s) (JS): nose: baked berries, dark-cherry coulis, decaying pears, toffee and oranges (PS), candied citrus peel. A super-enticing nose that fills me with excitement! Mouth: peach, dark plum, ripe fig, and an unusual mix of persimmon and carambola. The second sip is more bitter, but treads carefully. It is orange zest, not rubber. Finish: long, lingering, coating. It perpetuates the orange zest, alongside dark plums, figs and juicy dates. Spectacular dram. 9/10

CB: on a Sunday, I like to have a long-morning breakfast.

Longmorn 1983/2014 (43%, Gordon & MacPhail) (CB): nose: the first sniff is muscular and sweaty. As soon as I say that, it turns very citrus-y, with heaps of lemon zest. The lemon zest grows in intensity too, supported by orange blossom and mint lozenges, fragrant honeysuckle and... basil. Superb. Mouth: ooft! Orange nectar, mixed with peach nectar. This is amazeballs. The bitterness of Seville-orange marmalade develops and provides a wonderful balance to the unabashed fruit. PS claims it gets more tannic -- and he is right, I am annoyed to admit. Finish: more marmalade goodness, a pinch of ground cinnamon (JS) and sandalwood (PS). It does become gently woody, though never over the top. Excellent. I had doubts at first (the Mortlach-like sweaty muscle of the nose), but this quickly becomes an all-round winner. 9/10

Sourdough bread
Mackerel pâté
Houmous
Ashen goat's cheese
Italian dry sausage

CB: how do you like your eggs? Card-boiled.

Cardhu 21yo 1991/2013 (54.2%, OB, 6000b, b#4653, L3169LS000 00041606) (CB): nose: boiled sweets -- lots of them! Crystallised fruits, then warm straw and jellied coriander leaves. Much later on, pencil eraser shows up, mellow, marzipan-y custard. Love this. Mouth: a pinch of pepper and apricot, apricot compote, apricot jam, nigella seeds. Peach flesh, squashed mango, even. Finish: big, punchy and super-fruity. This is full-on apricot compote with nigella seeds sprinkled on top of a ladle of custard. We do not get to try many Cardhu, unfortunately -- we even joke that we would pass one, unless it is called Cardow. This one here, proves that we should try more (not that there are many to try, mind!) 8/10

CB: "The only thing flat-earthers have to fear is sphere itself."

PS: "There was a flat-earther conference somewhere, after which they claimed to have had visitors from around the globe."

PS could not find a link with the theme, but wanted to bring the following anyway. After a moment, I declare the full Scottish breakfast to be generally ri(o)ch. We will not find or look for a more suitable pun.

Glen Garioch 1994/2011 (53.9%, OB, North American Oak Barrels, B#32, 118 112172) (PS): nose: leather and dry hay, dried mudflats. After a while, more floral notes appear -- heady violet, purple viola; we talk about FWP, although there is none here. Earth and peat also appear, very softly. A dash of wine vinegar? Check. Water leads the nose towards ink calligraphy on cardboard. Mouth: robust, it has leather and scorched earth, as well as nuances of elderberry and squashed blackberry, sprinkled with mild spices. Water tones down everything but the spices and cranks up the ink instead. Finish: very nice, refined peat, warm straw and hay again, touches of violet and elderberry jam. This is remarkably good and more than a little complex. The nose is not totally my thing, but the palate and finish easily make up for that. 8/10

PS: "You can't get rid of Bell's decanters They're the cockroach of the whisky cellar."
CB: "They're very good for clay-pigeon shooting."

tOMoH: the waitress asked me what I wanted for breakfast. I told muffin.

Miltonduff 15yo 1995/2011 (56.3%, Gordon & MacPhail Reserve imported by Classic Wines Imports for Park Avenue Liquor Shop, 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel, C#9461, 198b, b#120, AH/ABBB) (me): hint: it is an anagram. Nose: oh! metal and sulphur are the first things that spring to mind, unfortunately. It has loads of floral notes, but one has to work a bit to find them, initially. They do overcome the sulphur, eventually, and are joined by jammy peaches. PS finds boiled sweets and barley water; CB concurs. Mouth: pungent and biting, it has iron filings, hot peach jam and wax. No sulphur to note, here, which is much more pleasant. It is powerful, on the other hand! Finish: long, powerful and jammy, it has peaches and nectarines, sherbet, candied and crystallised berries, cut raspberry, with the taste of the steel blade still tainting the fruit. Pity about the initial sulphur-y note. It was not there when I opened the bottle. Other than that, it is a slightly-challenging, but nice dram. 7/10

Once again, PS could not find a connection with the theme for the following dram. JS points out that the label notes read, "maple syrup on pancakes." Very breakfast-y!

G5.4 18yo d.1993 Sweet treats (65.6%, SMWS Society Single Cask, New Toasted Oak Hogshead, 247b) (PS): did you see that ABV? Phwoar! This is one of the very few I have not yet tried in that parcel of casks that produced the legendary G5.2 and G5.5. PS knows me well! Nose: Scottish Bourbon (PS). It is teeming with blackcurrants and blackberries on a metal plate. You can still smell the steel blade on this one too ("there is no place like chrome," says CB). Mouth: the blackcurrant hits immediately, shortly joined by a hint of metal... and a high-horsepower steamroller. Once the delirium-inducing ABV dissipates (a bit), it turns into blackcurrant juice through and through. Finish: huge, but not in a way that it floors you as, say, an old Tullamore would. It has the alcohol kick, of course. What comes out the most, though, is the blackcurrant again. The reader will understand that it might not be the most complex whisky in the galaxy, but it is amazing at what it does. This is totally my style. 9/10

We wrap up. Seven drams seem enough before a school day, especially when the last one is that strong.
Excellent afternoon.

PS's pet wombat was well-behaved