The story started here.
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| Arrrrrrr! |
JS presents a bottle with a dragon on the label.
Chichibu London Edition b.2023 (51.5%, OB Ichiro's Malt imported by Speciality Drinks, 1949b, b#1843) (JS): nose: floral (Psycho). It is rather drier than expected, mostly displaying hay. With time, tropical fruits appear, chiefly timid papaya. Mouth: a little earthy, root-y, actually, with beets, celeriac, sweet potato skins, and chilli flakes on pineapple rings. Finish: long, dry, it has more sweet-potato peels, and a vague hue of tropical fruits in the background. Baked pineapple rings. JS feels it is less impressive than the 2022 edition. I think it is just as good. 8/10
Bishlouk wakes up only to leave. He tells me the link between his bottles (which he leaves behind) and the theme, then blags a sample of one of the bottles.
dom666: "I'll fill it now."
tOMoH: "Psss. Psss. Do you want a funnel, dom666? Oh! no, you don't need it."
Bishlouk, sonicvince and Mrs. sonic disappear in the night. ydc goes to bed.
Psycho tells us that Bruce Lee is now another name for kung-fu, but he also practised karate. He adds that the founder of modern karate is Gichin Funakoshi -- or Fixin Gunakoshi, as he will be known tonight. Boom.
Arran d.1996 (55.6%, La Maison du Whisky Belgique M & H Cask Selection, Domaine Olivier Guyot Fixin Wood Finish, C#96/1372, 144b, b#13) (Psycho): nose: faint shoe polish applied on new leather, cured peach and apricot. Mouth: a bit wine-y, tannic. It has crushed cereals, hay, and baked citrus segments. Finish: hot custard with a splash of vin jaune. This is still not my thing, yet it is not as vile as I remembered it. 5/10
Gaija: "Il a une belle touche de soufre."
dom666: "Il y a surtout une grosse dose de souffrance."
Bishlouk: Exit the Dragon coincides with Enter the Serpent. The unlucky number of the serpent is 6; the lucky number 9. Both are divisible by 3, so Bishlouk brought three bottles.
Ord 15yo 2008/2023 (53.4%, Cadenhead Club Part of a 10th Anniversary Sherry Series, Pedro Ximénez since Sep. 2020, 1125b) (Bishlouk): nose: very earthy, it has grated chocolate, soft coffee grounds, wet mud, then flat cola and carbonyl. Later on, chocolate grows to become the dominant force. Mouth: lively, acidic, it has lots of carbonyl, but also coffee and Dr. Pepper. Earthy and root-y. Finish: sweet and earthy here too, root-y, it showcases a copious dose of root beer and Dr. Pepper. Pretty good. 7/10
Psycho reminds us that Bruce Lee debuted as a character in Kato (The Green Hornet). To celebrate that, he brought a Kato-nhead bottling. Groans.
Loch Lomond 21yo 1997/2018 (52.5%, Cadenhead Small Batch, 2 x Bourbon Barrels, 378b) (Psycho): nose: fruits cut on cardboard, followed by custard and fruit yoghurt. It is that kind of days, innit. Mouth: chalky, it combines buttery mango with a milk-chocolate twang. The tropical fruits that appear are staggering: mango and papaya louder than all. Finish: big and explosive with lots of tropical fruits again. Amazing dram. How it manages to shine after so many others is a mystery. 9/10
The soundtrack: The Old Man of Huy - Exit The Dragon
red71 will provide the explanation for his contribution in a couple of days, since he has left: "We exit the dragon to move towards another Chinese animal -- next is the serpent, but who cares? The one we are interested in is the rooster. Je ne veux pas passer du coq a l'âne, mais du coq a l'oie." [untranslatable expression -- suffice to say 'oie' means 'goose'] "And," he adds, "the valley of the wild geese is the translation of Glengoyne."
Glengoyne b.2012 (58.7%, OB Cask Strength, Oak Casks, B#001, 39583) (red71): nose: hot gunmetal, ground coffee (or mocha), and a spray of furniture polish. Mouth: this is strongly drying, mineral, and also pretty hot, even following the high-ABV drams that preceded it. Finish: balanced, juicier than it was on the tongue, it has plums and prune syrup. This fares really well, so late in the line-up. 8/10
ruckus: "Imminent is playing in Aachen in May."
tOMoH: "To see Barbie? A Ken..."
kruuk2: "Hazewee..."
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| Dessert #4 enters, courtesy of JS, with a little help from Mrs. sonic, who made the shirt, earlier. |
JS presents a bottling that has the word 'dragon' in the title. Surely, that is self explanatory.
128.18 9yo d.2012 Dragon's lipstick (59%, SMWS Society Cask, ex-Bourbon Hogshead + 1st Fill Ex-Ruby Port Barrique Finish, 271b) (JS): nose: host metal, a medicinal haze, paint (Gaija), and then that flips to give fruit turnovers on a hot tin tray. The (acrylic) paint is increasingly laced with tropical fruits. Surely, breathing will turn this into another Welsh fruit bomb (as oppose to a Welsh-fruit bomb, for those who are precise with language). Mouth: mango slices on hot metal trays, and half-baked fruit turnovers, which spells chewy dough and setting custard. Finish: long, full of hot turnovers on worn-out metallic baking trays. This is excellent as is, and will certainly improve yet. 8/10
tOMoH: "No, I didn't."
dom666: "Did you play in l'Île Aux Enfants?"
tOMoH: "I played in a porno, and, being Belgian, it probably had children in it, but I'm not sure."
Ben Nevis 10yo 2010/2023 (53.7%, Cadenhead Club Part of a 10th Anniversary Sherry Series, Oloroso Hogshead since Nov. 2020, 1138b) (Bishlouk): the second of Bishlouk's three-pack (see above). Nose: a lot of black shoe polish. That later opens up to give plum jam. Mouth: yeah, shoe-polish-coated apricot stones, ground black pepper, charred pineapple, mocha cake. Further sips have more prunes. Finish: long, sherried, and pineapple-y -- charred pineapple, see? Mocha-chocolate-glazed pudding. Juicy prunes in syrup settle for good, in the end. This is good, if, again, a better Sherry-matured whisky than a Ben Nevis from a Sherry cask. 7/10
We talk about the meaning of 'cracra', 'crado', 'crade' and 'crasse' (dirty, filthy).
dom666: "À Liège, on était tous BCBG: bien crados pour bien guindailler."
Psycho: "You could have..."
dom666: "I'm not finished!"
dom666 [pulls out a Talisker 8yo from his bag, and reads the description]: "No luck, I ordered the wrong one. So [pulls out another bottle from his bag], here is another one with a dragon on it."
Psycho: "How do you fit any Talisker into the theme? A dragon flies in the Skye."
Talisker 8yo b.2021 The Rogue Seafury (59.7%, OB Special Release 2021 imported by DBBV, Refill Casks) (dom666): nose: farm-y (Psycho), farmyard (Psycho). It is indeed earthy, peaty, with old ropes in addition, tarry fishing nets, and ancient ink, as well as seashells. Mouth: salt water, preserved lemons, brine, crushed oysters shells... This has so much brine it hurts. Finish: it is rather violent, at this stage, full of hot salt water, sea salt, calamansi bathing in rockpools, and smoked mussels. It somehow makes me think of a tequila slammer. On another day, it may score less well for me, but tonight... 8/10
vs.
Talisker 8yo b.2020 (57.9%, OB Special Release 2020 imported by DBBV, Caribbean Rum Cask Finish) (dom666): nose: a lot softer and woodier than its sibling. It is more subtle on all accounts. Mouth: we have oysters and mussels splashed with rum, which is quite surprising, if one does not expect it, i.e. if tasted blind. Finish: long, salty and briny. My notes do not do it justice, but I prefer the 2021 version, in any case. 6/10
Can you believe we skip the mighty Talisker 20yo 1981/2002 (62%, OB Limited Edition, Sherry Casks, 9000b, b#5117)? Not enough energy or time to shoehorn it into the theme.
Caol Ila 11yo 2012/2023 (52.7%, Cadenhead Club Part of a 10th Anniversary Sherry Series, Palo Cortado Hogshead since Apr. 2022, 1059b) (Bishlouk): last of the triptych that Bishlouk left us. Nose: shoe polish, just-polished knee-high hunting boots, with mud from the latest hunt stuck to the sole. It has fishing nets too. At this stage, not much else comes out, but it is well honest. Perhaps some ink. Mouth: super inky -- maybe too much so. It is very drying, desiccating, almost difficult. Challenging, in any case. It walks a tight rope -- a marine rope. Finish: long and inky, coastal (Gaija), and somewhat akin to chewing on an old, inky, tarry rope. It is okay, a little unsubtle. 6/10
Gaija: "You don't understand anything about poetry."
JS goes to bed.
Gaija tells us that Exit the Dragon is the title of an album by Urge Overkill, recorded in 1995, the same vintage as this Lagavulin (and its owner).
Lagavulin 19yo 1995/2014 (54.7%, OB bottled especially to celebrate Fèis Ìle 2014, European Oak Sherry Butts, 3500b, b#0837) (Gaija): nose: initially very mineral, it becomes fairly vegetal, with all sorts of moist mosses, lichens, and other vegetation. Lots of leather too, suede and leatherette, as well as old cigar, swamp (Gaija), and, after a while, chlorine. Mouth: it is super concentrated, hot, ashy as an ashtray. It is big and bold, overflowing with cigarette ash. Finish: lots of cigarette ash here too, and stagnant water. On the late tip, it shows sugar and strawberry jam in an ashtray. This may not be my favourite profile, but it is well made, hard to argue with that. 8/10
Gaija: "When I brought it, I thought it would be in the second half of the line-up, but I didn't think it would be 16:13 in the morning."
tOMoH presents Hergé's masterpiece: Port Charlotus Bleu
The soundtrack: The Old Man of Huy - Another Brick In The Wall
GD: "No, thanks. On est bien, Tintin."
The others (ruckus, Psycho, dom666, kruuk2, Gaija) have kruuk2's Laphroaig.
Psycho departs around 6:00. Gaija goes to bed around the same time. kruuk2, dom666 and ruckus decamp a couple of hours later, quickly followed by GD and ydc, who just got up. It is 8:00. New record.
Tomorrow, dom666 will say: "[...] I can see we are getting older, because we have never had so short an after-party, with only one dram... Of course, we finished the line-up after six..."
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| We have Dessert #5 the following morning, courtesy of Mrs. sonic |
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| Broken corks -- almost all Psycho's |
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