A recycled theme that has never been done with this group. cavalier66, OB, JS and I meet up to celebrate visions of a bleak, distorted future. After saying he would not attend, PS actually does. "For one or two drams," he says, then stays for most of the afternoon, unable and unwilling to walk away from our wonderful company. :-)
The soundtrack: Black Lung - The Great Architect
PS explains that most dystopias have a role that one is supposed to call 'Excellency'. Also, allowing a cask to hit such a low ABV is dystopian.
Spirit of North of Scotland 48yo 1973/2021 (25%, Bartels Whisky His Excellency): nose: soft and mellow, fairly neutral, even, without that being a negative trait. With a little breathing, it gives a touch of honeysuckle and light custard. Mouth: this screams Fino sherry, dry, fruity, and a little nutty. OB finds Comté, and that is fair enough, seeing as "nutty" is a word that recurrently comes up in descriptions of that cheese. Finish: this is stunningly close to a Sherry, down to the strength. Palomino grapes, flor, rehydrated sultanas. It has an almost-vinegary aspect, and is at once dry and rather sweet. 7/10
tOMoH: "You're getting married!"
cavalier66: "No."
PS: "You're getting divorced!"
cavalier66: "No. I have had lunch."
tOMoH: "JS! Stop cutting bread!"
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| Biltong and artisan bread |
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| Morbier, Lancashire and Bergkäse |
PS: "If you had a 50yo Glen Grant, the taste would be about how good it is. If you had a 50yo Macallan, the taste would be all about how lucky you are to have it."
OB presents a whisky as black as dystopian polluted skies, as the intention of our leaders, and as the state of the world.
PS: "I'm pretty sure the first time I had Loch Dhu was in a Weatherspoon..."
Loch Dhu 10yo The Black Whisky (40%, OB, Charred Oak Casks): ahhhh! The famous bottle of caramel that happens to have some Mannochmore in it. Nose: Covonia cough syrup (JS), liquorice and ebony splinters. It stabilises over time, and settles for wood patina. Mouth: paxarette, cream sherry blended with cold coffee and Salmiakki. Finish: cavalier66 finds it a "disgusting" bitterness, while I have ground nigella seeds and charred ginger powder. As JS points out, it is reminiscent of Beluga Vodka. This is not good, but I expected a lot worse. 5/10
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| PS [about Loch Dhu]: "I should have brought some cola to lighten up the colour!" |
cavalier66: "Believe me, it is worse in the mouth."
PS: "Something you don't normally hear him say."
cavalier66: "Two drams down and you're already at that stage?"
tOMoH: "He's leaving early. He's got to get [the jokes] in presto."
Since we are having bad whisky, OB adds one to the line-up.
Highland Region 21yo 2000/2021 (54.7%, Thompson Bros., 2 x Refill Hogsheads, 589b): nose: rotten wood (OB), greengage and pear (PS), those fruits stuck under cling film (PS), woodworm-ridden wardrobes. Mouth: "an acrid note I am not happy with" (PS). Wow! This is so weird. Predigested nuts, Kluwak nuts, nuts eaten and defecated by a monkey of some kind -- civet coffee comes into the conversation, which, amusingly is also known as kopi luwak, that I will abbreviate as k. luwak. Ha! Finish: lingering dusty bitterness (cavalier66), civet coffee, digested coffee beans, macerated Kluwak nuts. An earthy, bitter number indeed! Also the worse thing I have had since the Glen Scotia that smelled like dead rat and tasted like monkey's arse. The Tintin-related items on the label suggest a Loch Lomond, but we find it closer to a Ben Nevis gone wrong. 4/10
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| cavalier66 recreates that Black Bowmore pose with Loch Dhu |
tOMoH: "Welcome to my world!"
PS: "The palate is like someone built a pinball machine with all the wrong flavours in it."
tOMoH: "Have you had another bicycle accident, or what?"
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| Speaking of blends... PS blends Loch Dhu with that undisclosed Highlander |
PS: "We call them Bell's."
The soundtrack: Phil Thornton - Alien Encounter
tOMoH introduces a whisky bottled by Kirk Douglas Laing, who starred in Planet of the Apes.
tOMoH: "If he was wearing an ape mask, I did not recognise him."
PS: "If Burt Lancaster had been in it, it would have bombed."
tOMoH: "All jokes aside, it was Charlton Heston, not Kirk Douglas. Woops! Ah! well, too late to change, now."
OB: "Even better! It is dystopian."
Tamdhu 14yo 2007/2021 (67%, Douglas Laing Old Particular Exclusive Bottling especially for Dram 242, Walter Bellis, Windels, Sherry Butt, C#DL14835, 391b): nose: some caramel and fruit (OB). Caramel indeed, coffee and cola (cavalier66). Mouth: warm cola alright. It has an undeniable sweetness, yet also a fierce heat. Finish: without defect (OB). A lot of cask going on (cavalier66). Liquorice (OB), a very-faint violet note (cavalier66), Demerara sugar, and molasses. It is unbelievable how easy to drink this is. When asked, everyone reckons it weighs 55-60% ABV. Ha! Ha! Full notes here. 7/10
tOMoH: "I'll give you one."
PS: "What about a pipette?"
cavalier66: "This tasting, so far, has been the most dystopian I've ever been to."
OB: "Did he?"
PS [about JMcC drinking gin at a tasting]: "He looked like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle."
JS presents a dram distilled in 1985, bottled in 2015. Back to the Future's present is 1985. In Back to the Future Part Deux, they travel to 2015. In 2015, Biff Tannen finds the time machine, and goes back to 1955 to give his younger self a sports almanach. When Marty goes back to 1985 from 2015, Biff has become very rich and powerful, thanks to said almanach, and the world that Marty comes back to is a dystopia -- inspired by Trump, according to this article. We already had this for a similar reason not long ago.
Glen Keith 30yo 1985/2015 (41.9%, Lombard Jewels of Scotland, C#12299-12302, 389b, b#170): nose fruity and floral (OB). With breathing, it becomes an explosion of buttercups, yellow tulips and honeysuckle. It also has cut nectarines sprinkled with confectionary sugar. Mouth: silky and mellow, unctuous, it has lovely yellow fruits (including the stones). There is a gentle lick of oilskin that gives it a soft bitterness too. Finish: incredibly present, considering the 25% climbdown in ABV from the Tamdhu. Love it. Full notes here. 9/10
PS: "Two letters too many."
The soundtrack: Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Akira - Original Soundtrack
cavalier66 presents two bottlings: one that has a fairly-dystopian picture on the label, the other that is linked to Fahrenheit 451 -- its ABV is 45.1%.
tOMoH: "You can leave it here. I'll review it."
OB: "Decant it in tOMoH's mouth."
tOMoH: "Did you say: 'dick-ant it in tOMoH's mouth?'"
Ireland 27yo 1988/2015 (49.5%, The Nectar of the Daily Drams joint bottling with La Maison du Whisky): nose: yellow passion fruit, peach, nectarine, scented lipstick, berries... In few words: this is excellent! The second nose is more metallic, in the way pastry sticks to the tin mould. Mouth: the bitter bite of maracuja, then the ridiculously-fruity wave one would expect, simply obscene. A pinch of chalk, rubber so dry it crumbles apart. The second sip is a little drying, as well as sweet, in pure rum style (this is allegedly a rum cask). It is not quite Demerara, but blond caster sugar, certainly. Finish: it has changed dramatically, since last time, now much bitterer and chalkier than it used to be, I dare say rubberier. It remains very fruity, yet that fruit is no longer the unchallenged dominant note. But with time and repeated sipping, I end up upgrading it back to where I had it last time. cavalier66: "You can relax with your dram, rather than having to fight it." 10/10
vs.
Ireland 28yo 1989/2018 (54.1%, The Whisky Agency Ten Years TWA, Barrel): nose: much darker in all respects. Here are prune juice and cured-apple wedges. A few minutes later, fruits become relentlessly tropical: jackfruit, papaya, Java plum. It turns headier and more ester-y with time. The second nose is full-on mango beauty, but also has a dollop of pineapple purée. There are pink pencil erasers too. Mouth: juicy as fook, with plum, of course, but also kaki, longan, pomelo, Shaddock, pink-grapefruit peel, and mango peel growing into mango flesh. It is so soft and mellow, juicy and nectar-like. Finish: lots of pastry, turnovers dribbling melted sugars and fruit juices, all licked off the warm metal tray on which they were baked. It has a slight chalkiness towards the death. This is an amazing drop, only in the shadow of the previous one, which was even more to my taste. 9/10
OB [pointing at the almost-empty bottle]: "Not for long."
cavalier66: "I have another bottle of it."
JS [hinting at cavalier66's legendary filing system]: "Can you find it, though?"
JS: "Yeah, we're now at..."
OB: "Boring!"
PS: "You wore that t-shirt two weeks ago."
JS: "He's worn it ever since."
tOMoH [to PS]: "Yup. And to be transparent, I've not washed it since. [To JS] But I have not worn it since either."
PS: "If anyone had to point that out, I thought it should be me!"
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| Y'know, the bloke who has worn the same t-shirt every time we have seen him for the past decade |
The soundtrack: Various - The Rough With The Smooth (Crépuscule Collection 3)
OB explains that, in a dystopian world, all distilleries would be closed -- like Littlemill. Also, in a dystopia, we would have little mills, so we would have a shortage of flowers.
Littlemill 26yo 1991/2017 (52.6%, Cadenhead 175th Anniversary, Bourbon Barrel, 180b): painful to think we last had this seven-and-a-half years ago. Nose: incredibly mellow, it is a pillow stuffed with confectionary sugar. Mouth: thick, nectar-like, this has peach, plum, nectarine, all plump, juicy, and exuberant. We even find a smidgen of blackberry or ripe blackcurrant. Finish: long, fruity, pillowy, it exhibits the trademark crushed Aspirin, then loads of (bitter-less-ripe) fruits. 9/10
tOMoH: "...makes it stronger."
cavalier66: "?"
tOMoH: "Because it doesn't kill it..."
cavalier66: "And what doesn't kill you... makes you stronger."
PS leaves us.
cavalier66: "Classics. Lots of Greek, lots of Latin..."
tOMoH: "Well, she's half Greek, so that should be a breeze."
cavalier66: "She's modern Greek. That's ancient Greek."
tOMoH: "What's the difference? Shorter outfits?"
tOMoH presents Battle Royale Lochnagar.
Royal Lochnagar 10yo b.2006 (57.2%, OB The Manager’s Dram, European Oak Cask, b#1189): I skip this one, because I am falling behind. Full notes here.
The soundtrack: Various - The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto
JS and cavalier66 present a duo from 1984 -- the novel by George Orwell, of course.
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| Durant to the rescue. We had to use the vacuum cleaner too, and we were as surprised as we were relieved to manage to extract the cork. |
Caol Ila 35yo 1984/2020 (47.5%, The House of Macduff The Golden Cask Reserve, C#CM260, 204b, b#128) (JS): nose: fishing nets, ashes (cavalier66). Mouth: oily and woody, we detect smoked cockles too. Finish: long, sweet, it has caster sugar and salty things. I do not give this nearly enough attention. Full notes here. 9/10
vs.
Caol Ila 30yo 1984/2014 (52.8%, The Ultimate Whisky Company The Ultimate Rare Reserve, Hogshead, C#6261, 228b, b#42) (cavalier66): strictly speaking, it may not be a thirty year-old, since it was bottled on the same date as it was distilled. It needs to be three years and a day to be called whisky, so n years and a day to be called n years, surely? Nose: wider than the Golden Cask, broader (cavalier66), it is closer to a fireplace insert than to a campfire. Over time, smoke becomes more and more present, and there is a note of mercurochrome too. In a way, I find it reminiscent of a wine-cask maturation. Mouth: sweeter and fruitier (OB and JS), it is also clearly stronger, in terms of alcohol, more peppery, but also coated in blush-orange juice. It has the same oranges' peels too. Finish: very long, gum-tingling, it is ashier here, all burnt peach stones and charred fruit. 9/10
What a roller-coaster of a tasting! The highs were very high, the lows very low, and we had some in between too. It certainly gives perspective!
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