24/11/2024 dom666's birthday bash

It started in October, with this email from dom666 (translation courtesy of tOMoH).

• I was born on a 24th November
• Farrokh Bulsara (aka Freddie Mercury) died on 24th November 1991
• Lee Harvey Oswald (JFK's Assassin Creep) died on 24th November 1963 (he allegedly committed suicide, like Epstein and, soon, P. Diddy)
• Mobutu Sese Seko completed his coup in the no-longer-Belgian Congo on 24th November 1965
• Yves Coppens discovered Lucy (in the earth with diamonds (written by Jean-Bedel Bokassa) on 24th November 1974
• American serial-killer Ted Bundy was born on 24th November 1946
• Sorley MacLean, Scottish poet who wrote about Talisker Bay, died on 24th November 1996
• Monique Andrée Serf (aka Barbara) died on 24th November 1997
• Flocon de Neige, white-gorilla resident of the Barcelona zoo, died on 24th November 2003
• Issei Sagawa, Japanese cannibal, died on 24th November 2022

• On 23rd October 2024, I feel really well (at least physically)
• On 24th November 1922, Benito Mussolini gained full powers in Italy, and, thanks to him (*), I can, on 24th November 2024, organise the traditional birthday bash, the sixteenth out of a possible seventeen, since the first such celebration in 2008 (* here, dom666 refers to the fact his grandfather had to flee Italy at the time)

[...]

Theme: there are ten or eleven above. What else do you need? I hope to hear some bad puns in a song. I promise not to bring a Talisker (unless you ask nicely).

So, here we are for this yearly event.

The suspects: adc, JS, ruckus, kruuk2, Psycho, dom666, PSc, STL, red71, Bishlouk, me.

dom666 plays "spot the bearded bloke"

It is an ambitious line-up. No time to waste. We gotta move with haste.

ruckus tells us that, for birthdays, one raises a glass to one's health. He therefore proposes in verre levé (in Walloon, in the original text).

Inverleven 1985/1999 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, IH/CHH): a rare Gordon & MacPhail where the bottling code is not compatible with the bottling date. It is genuine, though, no doubt about that. Nose: dusty fruits (apples and pears), and a whiff of vanilla. Mouth: roasted apples, smoked pears, and a serious level of dust, even if it remains well pleasant. Finish: it has a slight bitterness, here, supplemented by a good dose of vanilla and butterscotch. What an ideal starter! 7/10

dom666 [to Bishlouk]: "You're very quiet, today."
Bishlouk: "The one time I say nothing."
tOMoH: "Record him! We'll play that back later on."

JS tells us that the gorilla Snowflake died on a 24th November. Snowflake lived in the Barcelonach zoo. Barcelonach was also the title of a song sung by Freddie Mercury, who died on a 24th November, and Montserrat Capallerdonich. Boom.

Boom.

Drave Boom.

Caperdonich 39yo 1969/2008 (42.2%, Lonach, Oak Casks): nose: phwoar! What an intensity! Apricots, Riesling (PSc), fruity, dry (PSc), it turns into honey-and-flower goodness in no time. Mouth: dry white wine indeed, with lots of lush yellow and an extremely-faint bitterness. Peach skins, apricot skins, perhaps tatters of fruits still attached to the stone. Finish: extraordinary. Long, fruity, with just a lick of distant wood. It does have a bitter touch to it, but it is mostly lush yellow fruits, with hazelnuts added for complexity. 9/10

Bishlouk [to dom666, who reaches for the next bottle]: "What is the link to the theme?"
tOMoH: "Ten minutes before his train left, he picked up a bottle at random."
dom666: "Pretty much. I thought I would find a link on the train."

red71 brought his famous canelés.
They do not last long.

dom666 then explains that he looked for a connection with Sorley MacLean. MacLean is a clan from Argyll, so that did not work (Carsebridge is on the East side). He found out that Sean Connery was linked to the MacLean clan, through his mother. In Connery's filmography, one may find A Carsebridge Too Far. Boom.

Carsebridge 41yo 1976/2018 (49.1%, Cadenhead, Bourbon Hogshead, 144b): nose: custard, vanilla (PSc), crème brûlée (Psycho). In the long run, we have a little varnish, as well as butterscotch and toffee. Mouth: a bitter, squeaky attack, in a rubber-glove way. Chewing gives a fruity custard, though it does not shake off the rubber entirely. One could liken this to some sort of cleaning agent. Finish: long and warming, we have crème brûlée again, butterscotch and toffee. The second gulp even gives some shy tropical fruits and Tonka beans (STL). Boss! 9/10

red71 brought a blood sausage as a birthday gift.
dom666: "Ah! It's a regular."

STL brought a Japanese whisky bottled in 2022, the year Issey Sagawa died, on the 24th November.

Bishlouk: "Je ne suis pas très attire par les Japonais."
all: "Tu l'es plus par les Japonaises."

Ichiro's Malt & Grain World Blended Whisky 115 (46%, OB imported by Number One Drinks / La Maison du Whisky, b. ca. 2022): nose: cherry (PSc), dead leaves, nutty custard. The second nose has a whisper of tobacco too. Mouth: sweet (dom666), round (PSc), inoffensive. It is creamy and nutty, very mildly drying. Finish: peppery (PSc), it has some wood spices, such as ginger powder, and sawdust.  It is fairly moreish, we all agree -- the more one drinks it, the better it is. Sneaky stuff! 7/10

adc: "And the link to the theme?"
STL: "I explained it earlier. You were not listening."
JS bursts in laughter.

PSc: "tOMoH; you're writing all this?"
tOMoH: "I cannot follow. We need Copilot, or another AI to help capture."

Food enters.

Boudin de Liège

Boudin à la Curtius

Boudin aux choux et lardons

Boudin aux poireaux

Boudin aux raisins

Saltuffi
Pâté au foie gras

Paté Pommes / Poires / Raisins

Mousse de canard au Sauternes

Mousse de canard au Porto

Pate aux chanterelles

Calvados-cured Camembert

Epoisse

Truffle Brillat Savarin

Pecorino Toscano

Reblochon Fermier

Whisky-cured Cheddar

Chimay

Reblochon

Régal à la moutarde

red71: "Do you know why cucumbers are wrapped in plastic? So we can eat them afterwards."

Psycho reminds us that, on one fateful 24th November, Ted Burgundy died.

Glenmorangie Burgundy Wood Finish (43%, OB Wood Finish, American Oak Casks re-racked into Côte d'Or Burgundy Barriques, L5 010, b. ca. 2005): nose: a little woody at first (in a rather-elegant way, I might add). After thirty minutes of breathing (we are eating), it turns into a sweet number, with chou dough, a blend of red wine and Bourbon, which I find very pleasant. Mouth: generous, fairly sweet, still, we have peaches, apricots, and a drop of red wine. A slight tannic dryness appears, as does a surprising amount of pepper -- or is it the Port-cured duck pâté? That one is well peppery! Finish: the wine influence is more prominent, here, heavier and headier. Burgundy and tobacco pouches, at once oily and woody. 8/10

tOMoH introduces a Glenturret bottled for La Maison du Whisky, a house set up and headed by the Benitah family, which brings us to Benitah Mussalini. (It is just a pun. Do not send the lawyers, yeah?)

Glenturret 35yo 1977/2013 (47.5%, Berry Brothers & Rudd for La Maison du Whisky, C#25): despite a lukewarm welcome from Bishlouk, this is a fruity masterpiece with a mildly-drying finish of lingering spices. Full notes here. 9/10

PSc consulted the oracles, and predicts Arnmagibbon on the 24th November 2030. Boom. Again.

The Arngibbon 10yo 2013/2024 Speyside Release 5 (50%, Stirling Distillery Sons of Scotland, Bourbon Barrel, C#1793, 222b, b#171): bottled by the folks at Stirling Distillery, while waiting for their own hooch to turn the right age. Nose: fresh, minty, red71 and STL find mushrooms, while PSc and Bishlouk detect spices. kruuk2 notes marzipan, and adc finds something between kaki and parsnip. For tOMoH, it is orchard fruits, hay and herbs, chiefly hawthorn and juniper. Mouth: more orchard-y goodness, and it is also very acidic. Apple peels, quince, bergamot, white-citrus foliage. Finish: apple custard and some spices -- ginger powder, stave gratings. Water changes it dramatically, according to STL, though he cannot say how. I do not add any. 7/10

PSc: "Before the recent Mike Tyson fight, there were women fighting with pillows. They went for it so hard, one got a bloody brow bone."
adc: "?"
PSc: "Not regular pillows, you understand. They were fighting pillows."

Laughter all round.

red71 explains how he did not understand any of the themes, and latched on to dom666's comment of bad puns in songs. He wrote a song about today's event, and sings it to the tune of Hervé Christiani - Il est libre Max -- a proper job he does too. We are all impressed, except for adc and JS, who are in the kitchen and miss it.

Mannochmore 2010/2020 (55.6%, Malts of Scotland, Bourbon Hogshead, C#MoS20008, 299b, b#171): funny that, eh? Two b#171 in a row. How unlikely! Nose: a wall of granite, sprinkled with citrus juice. PSc calls it a whisky de brume (a fog whisky). Water makes it shier before it develops antique bricks, then flour. Odd and interesting. Mouth: quite punchy, would you know? Mineral, industrial, and uncompromising. It feels like licking Verdigris off an oxidised still, or a dusty boiler. With water, it becomes softer and gains toasted almonds. Finish: wood dust, ginger powder, grated lemongrass, ground lime zest. This is brutal, anaesthetising. Water opens it up a little, and reveals aromatic jam -- clementine marmalade topped with thyme or oregano. The tag line from whiskyfun.com was that water turns it into a Rosebank. That is debatable. It is interesting, if fierce. JS loves it. 7/10

PSc brought a second borrowed malt from Stirling Distillery. He does not give a link to the theme.

The Cashly 13yo 2011/2024 Highland Release 5 (50%, Stirling Distillery Sons of Scotland, First Fill Bourbon Cask, C#4416): nose: camphor? (STL, doubting himself). It has something very intense and heavy (STL). Pine tree (red71), hawthorn, oregano, thyme... This is very aromatic too. JS finds it eau-de-vie-like, while I have faded or weathered plastic. Mouth: strangely plastic-y too, teeming with soft plastic and rubber. Finish: long, warming, medicinal. It is decent enough, if not my favourite, today, and not as nice as the Arngibbon from earlier. 6/10

tOMoH produces a Jura bottled for Geoffrey Folley Harvey Oswald, who died on a 24th November (Oswald, not Folley).

Isle of Jura d.1976 (57.5%, Harleyford Manor for Geoffrey Folley, b.1980s): industrial (Bishlouk), sulphur (dom666), soap (STL). It blows up in all directions (Bishlouk and STL). This is as divisive as ever, with adc, Bishlouk and kruuk2 in the believers' camp, and dom666, ruckus and PSc not fans. red71 detects "sweat from the arse crack". He does not say if that is a positive thing or not. One thing is certain: it is a unique profile, unlike anything we have had (or will have) today. My full notes are here. 7/10

La bombe au chocolat

For the next offering, red71 recycles the same little song -- though he does not sing it, this time.

Speyside-Glenlivet 18yo 1995/2014 (62.8%, Cadenhead Small Batch, 1 x Sherry Butt + 1 x Hogshead, 738b, 14/226): nose: mutton droppings (adc), Highland-cow dung (adc). It is filled to the brim with rancio, and has coprolite, as well as rubber. It gets some leather action, after a while, and polished car cockpits (the polyester kind). Mouth: desiccating, this is a sink for moisture, plank-y, extremely powerful, and a challenge, really. Finish: some horsepower, here! Burning hay, tar applied ten minutes prior, hot metal fences. Water calms it down a bit without changing the character much -- only the intensity. Maybe it adds a little chocolate to the equation. Interesting and challenging. 7/10

dom666 [about his brother dating a celebrity]: "They stuck to mouth contact."
red71: "Many things are possible that involve mouth contact only..."
Psycho: "Mouth-to-mouth."

tOMoH presents a Barbarran, for Barbara, who died on a 24th November.

Isle of Arran 3yo 1995/1998 (60.3%, OB, 1000b, b#102): it seems appreciated all round. Notes here. 7/10

Bishlouk tells how dom666 enumerated personalities who died on a 24th November ("des gens morts"). So he picked a(n alleged) Mort-lach.

red71: "And to think I sang a song!"

Undisclosed Speyside 15yo 2009/2024 (54.9%, Campbeltown Whisky Company Watt Whisky, Hogshead, 318b): nose: Indian sewers (ruckus, who is back from the Subcontinent), tanned leather and ashy smoke, meat, chargrilled to a pile of dusty ash. We have some cereals rearing their heads too, then merbromin. The second nose has a big ashtray, and a dash of coffee. Mouth: plasticine-like porridge, ashes, peppermint, salted liquorice. This is hugely powerful. When the heat mellows down, we have hot custard topped with pepper. Finish: long and devastating, this delivers a wave of peppermint and liquorice. Repeated sipping adds crushed stones, marble-quarry dust, soot, and charred chicken skins. This is mineral, chiselled, straight out of a quarry. Another interesting, challenging number. 7/10

The right box.
The wrong bottle.

dom666 stolidly announces that, after promising he would not bring a Talisker, unless someone specifically asked for it, Bishlouk requested a specific Talisker (the famous 20yo Sherry matured). dom666 still has some, so he brought it. This kind act would hopefully stop Bishlouk lamenting that he had never tried it to-date. Well, at best, Bishlouk can gaze at the box, because, inside the box, dom666 brought the 20yo Bourbon matured. An honest mistake, he says, but it is so funny it is hard to believe.

Bishlouk departs (not out of spite, he says, but who will believe that?)

Talisker 20yo 1982/2003 (58.8%, OB, Refill Bourbon Casks, 12000b, b#4096): nose: smoked peppercorns. This is very smoky, today, and takes on a super-earthy side, with coffee grounds and ground black cumin. Mouth: intimidatingly powerful, even after the previous brutes, it is metallic (hot moka pot) and clearly bitter, yet also faintly fruity (dried apricot timidly raises its hand). Finish: smoky chicory, bitter, acrid. Very unusual: I find chicory-flavoured meringue. This is good, if not subtle, a big, beastly, salty and bitter dram roughly in line with my memories of it. 8/10

kruuk2 admits he did not understand the theme, but dom666 said there were ten or eleven of them. So, kruuk2 brought a ten year-old he bought around the time we started celebrating dom666's birthday.

Laphroaig 10yo 1994/2005 (52.5%, Creative Whisky Company Exclusive Malts): ashtray, lit cigarette, and burnt cereal dust. We end up with chewy berries and rye bread that has spent too much time in the oven. Mouth: sweet and mellow, it is still ashy and grey, but also a lot softer than anticipated. It becomes strongly drying with minimal chewing. Finish: immense, earthy-rusty, it is dry and ashy, austere, and ashtray-like. For those who like that sort of things, this is spot on. 8/10

Excellent tasting, full of silly nonsense as we like it. Fairly grivois again, mind. Our friends' mind is in the gutter, no doubt about it.