Following yesterday's adventures, I would be lying if I pretended I feel fine, this morning. But a run and a shower do wonders.
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| This sight helps too |
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| As does meeting this beautiful bird |
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| Especially this kind of breakfast! Brazilian Lemonade, Crème Brûlée, Vegan Cherry Matcha, Tropical Cheesecake |
It is soon time to leave -- in a hurry, even!
A short train ride later, we reach our first stop with a minute to spare and sit down for lunch. It is, of course, our usual spot, l'escargot bleu.
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| Talonmore & Apple (me) |
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| Duck-and-pigeon terrine with onion compote (me) |
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| Duck egg omelette with Comté cheese (JS) |
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| Plaice filet [sic], smoked haddock, mussels with Orkney Scallop (JS) |
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| honey beetroot + tomato salad |
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| Suckling pig roulade with black pudding (me) |
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| Ile Flottante (JS) |
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| Chocolate Némésis (me) |
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| Latte (JS) |
Everything is excellent. The plaice, however, is legendary. Texture, seasoning, sauce, accompaniment, it is perfection in the form of a flat fish. So much so it has me shedding tears each time I take a bite. That is not an exaggeration for comedic effect. Plaice has long been my favourite fish, but this is something else. One of the best dishes I have ever had.
JS: "The fish was cooked to perfection. It had a sense of plaice."
Sadly the meal has to end. We have business across the road and a queue to join (it is much longer than yesterday).
We want to start by tying up loose ends at the Thompsons' stall, but it is busy already. Instead, we stop by Tormore. Before I have the time to ask the lady how she likes working with OC and SSS, she undertakes to tell us the history of the distillery. I do not have the heart to tell her we already know it.
Tormore Timeless (43%, OB, Bourbon + Sherry Casks, b.2026)
Nose: lemon drizzle, madeleine and sponge cake.
Mouth: more lemon-y goodness, muffin, drizzle or sponge cake.
Finish: it has a soft bitterness, here, mixed peel, lemon and grapefruit zest.
Comment: clever wording to describe a no-age-statement. It is a great starter.
Score: 7/10
As we obtain the next dram, someone farts. Several times. We need to flee to the smokers' corner outside to escape the pugnacity of the stench. tOMoH has been known to let some nasty ones rip on occasion (Psycho has a recurrent story on the subject), but this lack of consideration is very difficult to accept. Tomorrow, mine will smell similar and I will have fever. I blame the guy who farted in the tent, at Whisky Fringe 2026, around 14:15 on the Saturday. The NHS is in disarray because of your lack of restraint, Mister!
Tormore 12yo (46%, OB, Bourbon, Cream Sherry + Toasted American White Oak Casks, b.2026)
Nose: darker citrus, blush orange, faint oiled furniture.
Mouth: orange rinds and peels, a bitter bite, mixed peel.
Finish: wine-cured orange, blush orange and a dusting of white pepper.
Comment: very good.
Score: 7/10
Tormore 16yo (46.8%, OB, Cream Sherry + Oloroso Sherry Casks, b.2026)
Nose: orange chocolate cakes (PiM's) and cream.
Mouth: creamy, thick, mellow, it has a lick of chocolate. It turns desiccating upon chewing.
Finish: creamy and dark, it has earthy notes and decaying dark woods.
Comment: good too, if perhaps a little dry.
Score: 7/10
Finally, an opening at the Dornoch duo's.
North British 33yo 1991/2025 An Edinburgh Dram (40.1%, Thompson Bros.)
Nose: bakery scents from a shiny steel pipe. There is honey and jams coming up too.
Mouth: thin and subtle, it has vanilla milk, remnants of marmalade in a metal goblet and sweet corn.
Finish: short, fairly simple, with baking chou dough, marmalade and such. And a touch of metal as well.
Comment: unchallenging, but very agreeable.
Score: 8/10
I go back to Decadent Drinks, where one of the staff is a friend of DH's, who advised last night to go meet him.
A nice bloke alright, though he has fired his best shots already: we had the orange dram and the most-prestigious bottles at his stand yesterday. Today's halftime orange dram is not yet open, so that does not work. Instead, I get to try the Daftmill again.
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| And discover where Francis is! |
Since we are here and have a man on the inside, there are a few less-flamboyant things we have not yet tried.
Highland 30yo 1994+1995/2026 (47.1%, Decadent Drinks, Refill Hogsheads, 250b)
Nose: hay and apricot jelly, baked peaches.
Mouth: crushed peach stones, apricot stones, fruity and drying.
Finish: very fruity, with peach jelly and tinned peaches.
Comment: lovely. Could this be a Glenburgie? So much peach!
Score: 8/10
Old Orkney Relics 30yo 1996/2026 (41.7%, Decadent Drinks)
Nose: buttered bread slices that soon morph into hardened leather.
Mouth: mellow, toffee-like, it is rather buttery in texture and old school in taste. Close to what one would imagine an old blend should taste like, in fact.
Finish: more toffee, Scottish tablet and dried peach shavings. Cardboard-y, not in an unpleasant way (JS).
Comment: Decadent Drinks managed to secure Gordon & MacPhail's last cask of Old Orkney, hence the name. It is reminiscent of the one we tried, ahem, twelve years ago.
Score: 8/10
JS comes back with a dram: she rolled the die to get a mystery dram from the Thompsons.
If you read this and are not familiar with the concept, the Mystery Dram series is a collection that bears but a question mark on the front of the bottle. It has the ABV on the back, because that is a legal requirement, but not much else. All bottlings in a batch have the same ABV, by the way. When they release a batch, the bottlers disclose which casks were bottled, how many bottles each cask yielded, and the proportion a certain cask represents amongst the whole batch. One blind-buys a certain number of bottles at a flat rate and fate decides what one receives. One needs to unseal the bottle (remove the foil) to reveal the distillery and the age written on the stopper. At a tasting or a festival, it is a neat way to surprise others and shake their prejudices.
When travelling to festivals, the Thompsons bring six bottles (numbered 1 to 6) and a die. Punters roll the die, which dictates which bottling they try. JS rolls a 4.
Mystery Malt #4
Nose: lemon, lime, grapefruit, pomelo, freeze-dried peach slices.
Mouth: light, creamy and summery, it has plenty of fruits, including citrus zest. And, yes, that means a certain bitterness. it is acidic most of all, though. Pepper appears at second sip.
Finish: more citrus-y goodness, a tad creamy, zesty, zingy, alive.
Comment: solid. Several attempts to identify it (based on the sheet with the list of distilleries used for this batch), none accurate. It is a Raasay. We are dumbfounded.
Isle of Raasay 7yo b.2026 (46.3%, Thompson Bros. Mystery Malt, 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel, B#6, 206b) 8/10
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| The stats sheet |
Daftmill 2012/2025 (46%, OB Summer Batch Release, 5250b)
Nose: super lemon-y, almost a one-trick pony. A lemon-y pony, that is.
Mouth: soft and custard-y, it gains a bay-leaf bitterness upon chewing.
Finish: custard, punctuated with lemon juice. Citrus sweets occur later on.
Comment: simple, but excellent at what it does.
Score: 8/10
Time to strategise. We have not paid attention to the halftime-orange selection of the day and the time is approaching. We go correct that.
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| An inventive way to circumvent the use of a trademarked name |
We have a few minutes left and there so much else to try.
Lindores Abbey b.2026 1494 (46%, OB, Bourbon Barrels, Red Wine Barriques & Sherry Butts)
Nose: slightly herbaceous, it has a whiff of a 1970s kitchen in Continental Europe. Hot cast-iron pipes, stale butter, old bread, lack of ventilation.
Mouth: corn syrup, though not much of the sweetness one would expect of that.
Finish: it has a bit of a kick. Mint lozenges, mint cream supplemented with lime zest.
Comment: decent, if uneventful.
Score: 6/10
Nc'Nean 5yo 2019/2025 Lemon Meadow (48.5%, OB The Huntress Series, STR Red Wine + ex-American Whiskey + ex-Oloroso Casks, 5729b)
Nose: acidic as pine needles, dried citrus zest and Douglas-fir needles.
Mouth: it is strong and desiccating.
Finish: acidic, dry, it has plenty of pine needles and pine cones.
Comment: alright. Will not make me fall in love with the distillery, though.
Score: 7/10
In that time, JS has the following ones too:
- Nc'nean Organic (46%, OB, unknown batch)
- Nc'nean 2017+2022/2026 Malted Teacake (48.5%, OB The Huntress Series, 56% STR Red Wine + 42% Bourbon + 2% Oloroso Sherry Casks, B#5)
- Nc'nean 4yo 2020/2024 Amy (48.5%, OB Quiet Rebels, 63% STR + 19% ex-Maury + 18% ex-Bourbon, 10132b)
We go queue for our respective halftime choices. I am first in line, this year.
tOMoH: "Queueing."
him: "Alright."
A few confused looks, then a modest queue starts to form behind me. What a trendsetter!
They blow the whistle. The exhibitors start to pour. All excited with my newly-poured bounty, I lose my pen. There are many on the floor, so it is only a matter of picking one up. However, it is not the same colour. And I do not like losing my stuff. As the crowd at the stall dissipates, I recover my prized pen, no doubt a free promotional item from who knows what company, worth absolutely bugger all. But it is mine.
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