A week or so ago, Will went out to a nearby country house hotel to give a whisky tasting to a large corporate group as part of their weekend 'get-together'. He led them through a range of malts from the different regions - Lowland, Speyside, Highland and Islay - showing a wide range of flavours and aromas. Grouping these whiskies in taste 'clusters', makes it easier to identify the styles that people like from the sweet honey end to the medicinal peatiness of the Islays. Some of them were un-chillfiltered (chillfiltering being the widely used process which results in the whisky not clouding when ice is added) so showing a more authentic flavour and some were cask strength and some were from now sadly closed distilleries. Bladnoch 1992, Banff 1980, Glen Elgin 1991, Edradour 1995 (Scotland's smallest distillery) and Bunnahabhain 1997 were tasted with Glen Elgin being the star of the show. It's 59.8% so a certain respect was duly shown! Will treated them to some 15 year old Somerset Cider Brandy at the end of the tasting just to reassure them that we could make fantastic spirit down here in the southwest.
It seemed to go reasonably well(!) so we are holding our first general Whisky Tasting evening on the 28th June at the Tasting Rooms. Spaces are limited and tickets are available at £25 per head.
If you can't wait that long, we'll be at the Bath and West Show next week with a few.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment