12 Blends - A blind tasting challenge

Following the hugely entertaining 12 Drams of Christmas organised by Tom Thomson of Toms Whisky Reviews, and while still full of the Christmas spirit, a couple of the drammers decided that another blind tasting should be organised for the Easter holidays.

I pulled out of the Christmas event due to so much going on at the time, but put my name down for this Easter event purely because it looked great fun! @DramStats suggested a blended whisky challenge, the date was set and Tom organised getting the 12 disciples together with the proposed challenge running from the 1st-12th April

We all set out to purchase our secret blend then decant into eleven 35ml dram bottles to be sent to all of the participants. Most of the team were visiting Whisky Live London and so the great sample swap was scheduled for a pre-show lunch time session at the London home of the SMWS, (you can find the photos of our meet up on our Facebook page)

Most of the twelve hail from the UK but two overseas correspondents joined our happy band of blenders, @galg of Whisky Israel and @WhiskyMarks of Texan whisky blog Whisky Marks and by some miracle of blended magnetism we all managed to have a full house of drams in time for the starting date set for Monday 1st April.

Most importantly those wonderful people at Compass Box Whisky who know a thing or two about great blended whisky kindly donated the winners prize of a bottle of their award winning Asyla for winning this competition.

The prize kindly donated by Compass Box Whiskies

The 1st of April is known as April Fools Day in the UK, which seemed aptly appropriate as I sat looking at my 11 numbered blended whiskies. I realised that I would be very lucky if I could even name twelve different blended whiskies that didn't feature the pre-banned Bells, Teachers and the other brands I have heard of, and can be found in most British supermarkets.

With the rules set, requiring our tasting notes and guesses to be submitted to organiser @ifotou by 2030 each evening I decided I should try and get a head start, and lined all eleven mystery drams up on the dining room table on Easter Sunday afternoon.

I had originally planned to set  up for the photo shoot and taste just blend number one, and perhaps a sip of number two, but before I'd even finished setting up the table I had poured small drams of the first four, and following the photo taking, decided I ought to find out if there were any 'doubles' or if anyone had bought the same bottle as mine.

It rapidly degenerated from here, I was having fun! Some of the other blenders were also tweeting that they were making a start due to other commitments during the week. I rattled through them taking notes which seemed to get thinner in useful information as the number on the bottle increased.

To assist my analysis I also had my blended whiskies on the table too, just for comparison, which on hindsight, probably did little to assist.

11 blends lined up for me on Easter Sunday - better than any Easter Eggs!

Day 1 provided by @mynameisgone

12.5 points scored

Colour: Gold

Nose: Upon pouring I got a lovely bread dough note, and moving the glass to the nose this comes across as quite malty. There does seem to be a slight trace of peat smoke and a pinch of white pepper. The nose is not overly sweet, but there is a fruity element within.

Palate: The gentle peat reek is more pronounced on the palate, again the white pepper is there and there is a honeyed sweetness, and the fruitiness come through with some plum jam, some malted milk biscuits

Finish: Quite short, touch of the white pepper to the sweetness and even a wisp of smoke

Empty Glass: Distinct aroma of a wood ash from a previous evenings fire

Verdict: Easy drinking dram, quite light overall with a nice white pepper spice at the very end

My guesses:

• ABV: 40% 
• Age: NAS
• Type: Blended Scotch
• Brand: Johnnie Walker
• Expression: Black Label

Reveal: Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve - I have tasted this before at last years Whisky Exchange Whisky Show (Whisky Discovery #208) I scored points here for getting all but the expression correct and jumped straight into joint first place with a score of 12.5 points!

Day 2 provided by @sjjgo

Colour: Gold (almost indistinguishable from #1!)

Nose:  Opens up quite spicy before settling down. Much fruitier on the nose with some peaches and kiwi fruit? White pepper notes, wood notes too

Palate: Smooth and sweet with honey, fruit has turned more apple like, rosy red ones. A touch of white pepper again, not too much, but enough to let you know it's there, lightly salted too

Finish: Very short and light, malty, touch of pepper and some honey sweetness remains at the very end

Empty Glass: Wood, wet from seawater

Verdict: A very easy drinking dram, sweet, smooth and I like the salty note at the very end

My guesses:

• ABV: 43%
• Age: NAS
• Type: Blended Malt
• Brand: Compass Box
• Expression: Oak Cross

Reveal: Nikka All Malt - again another whisky that I have tasted before (Whisky Discovery #160) but was way off this time, and only scored points for 'guessing' the age correctly slipping back into second place.

Day 3 Provided by @rodbodtoo

Colour: Gold (almost indistinguishable from #1 & 2)

Nose: Very gentle nose, takes a while to tease out. Got a lovely flash of liquorice before it settles down, toffee, vanilla, soft orange note. Quite sweet and creamy

Palate: Sweet initially with building spice which remains as white pepper on the sides of the tongue while the centre returns to sweetness, honey, apricots, light clove note too

Finish: Quite a spicy kick at first which settles down to a dry-ish sweetness

Empty Glass: Malty

Verdict: Yummy!

My guesses:

• ABV: 40%
• Age: NAS
• Type: Blended Malt
• Brand: Monkey Shoulder

Reveal: Grants Ale Cask, I have never tasted this before so this has been registered as a new Whisky Discovery (#374) as it was the first time I have tasted this, although I do have a miniature of this sitting on my shelf, so will complete a full discovery review later! I picked up some points for the abv and age statement, which brought me back into joint first place again.

Day 4 provided by @ardbaggie

Colour: Gold (almost indistinguishable from #1, 2 & 3!)

Nose: Sweet, honey, gentle clove note, gentle citrus notes too, chalky

Palate: Sweet, light spice, ginger

Finish: Short sweet and gentle spice

Empty Glass: Chalky, malty

Verdict: Quite quaffable but comes across as quite a simple drinkable dram

My guesses:

• ABV: 40%
• Age: NAS
• Type: Blended Scotch Whisky
• Brand: Cutty Sark

Reveal: Ballantines 17 Year Old Another new Whisky Discovery for me (#375) but I was so far out in all of my guess I scored no points in this round. Unwisely I had decided to start the first six mystery drams on the Easter Sunday evening (originally I was planning to run through all 12!) and so as the afternoon wore on my notes started to wander as I was comparing the blind blends with each other as well as some of the other whiskies on my shelf. This dram fooled most of us and only two of the twelve blind blenders scored points which meant I kept my joint first place position!

Day 5 provided by @dvdbloke

Nil points this round too!

Colour: Gold (almost indistinguishable from #1-4!)
Nose: Fudge, toffee, malty
Palate: Sweet, rich, fruity, leather, pepper spice
Finish: Short, white pepper
Empty Glass: It is now
Verdict: Gone too quickly :(

My guesses:

•  ABV: 40%
•  Age: NAS
•  Type: Blended Scotch
•  Brand: Grants Sherry Cask

Reveal: The Tweeddale Blend 12 Year Old, 46% abv and another new Whisky Discovery and #376 of my liquid log. Firstly I must apologise for these random guesses, my notes for this one were far from complete having tried to write them while thoroughly enjoying tasting as many of the 12 blends as possible. For the second time I scored no points, and slipped back into joint third, however this round provided a winner.  @mynameisgone correctly identified this whisky, and his ability to 'guess' the batch and bottle number left me thinking that their was a conspiracy going on (I'm joking, there was no batch and bottle number discussed).

Day 6 provided by @ifotou

Just 2.5 points from this

Colour: Gold (slightly darker than 1-5, hooray!)
Nose: not sure if this has been contaminated, but got a whiff of cabbage water at first, which put me off nosing this at first. However it settles down to give sweet honey notes, barley water
Palate: barley vanilla light toffee notes, citrus
Finish: some bitter citrus pith with the lasting taste of barley
Empty Glass: Toffee popcorn

My guesses:

• ABV: 40%
• Age: NAS
• Type: Blended Scotch Whisky
• Brand: The Bailie Nichol Jarvie

Reveal: Johnnie Walker 18 Year Old Platinum, 40% abv and I was correct in my thinking that I had tasted this before, Whisky Discovery #165, was enjoyed during a Colin Dunn Masterclass at last years Midlands Whisky Show

Ok, this was another of the blends I enjoyed 'in session' however I was convinced I had gotten this one right, and felt certain the barley notes were the clue to the BNJ I thought it was. Fortunately I wasn't the only one, with lots of other BNJ guesses, and so the 2.5 points I scored here, along with everyone else, maintained my joint third position. I wish I could say that my next round of guesses will be more educated, however I did go on to taste all eleven on that Easter Sunday evening, but fortunately I retained half a dram of each for re-evaluation.

Day 7 provided by @DramStats

Great value blend!

Colour: Gold (very similar to the other 11)
Nose: Gentle peat reek, sweet burnt toffee, buttered sweet corn, slightly smoky, medicinal, 
Palate: Smoky peat reek comes through at the forefront on the palate, charcoal, malty, salty butter, cereal grains with a creamy sweetness
Finish: Fair to good length, Gentle smoke and black pepper
Empty Glass: Sweet charcoal notes
Verdict:  I love some peated notes in my Whisky!

My guesses:

• ABV: 40%
• Age: NAS
• Type: Blended Scotch Whisky
• Brand: Johnnie Walker 
• Expression: Double Black

Reveal: Smokin' 40% abv, a relatively new release from Duncan Taylor and which none of the other 11 'blenders' had heard of either! I knew from the start that @DramStats would have picked something a little more difficult to find due to his confidence that no one would have the same bottle as his! However I could only find three smoky blends that fitted the profile, Double Black, Black Bottle and Black Grouse and I knew it wasn't Black Grouse having had a bottle previously. So another new Whisky Discovery, #377 in the Liquid Log, and from what I remember a damn good one. Still I managed to accrue five points for the abv and no age statement, which put me back into joint second place, with @mynameisgone still well ahead with his correct identification of Dram No.5

Day 8 provided by @galg

I picked up a few points with this Irish blend

Colour: Gold (almost indistinguishable from #1!)
Nose: Grainy initially but settles down, heather and lavender notes, perhaps even a little rosemary bark, fruity with ripe green grapes,
Palate: Smooth with sweet ripe grains, grapes, kiwi fruits and a faint orange note, spice comes with light white pepper,
Finish: Quite short, sweet, drying nuttiness with a light salty note
Verdict: Lovely easy drinking dram
Empty Glass: Those green grapes are still there

My guesses:

• ABV: 40%
• Age: NAS
• Type: Irish Blended Whiskey
• Brand: Feckin Irish Whiskey

Reveal: Clontarf Irish Whiskey, 40% abv, and a new Whisky Discovery, #378. This is a triple distilled Irish whiskey produced by the Clontarf Whiskey Company, a subsidiary of Castle Brands Inc. The whiskey takes it name from the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, and no one had heard of this one! When searching through the Irish blends, as I was certain that I had an Irish blend when I first nosed and tasted this sample, I found the brand Feckin Irish Whisky, and was certain Gal would have picked this one!

So I picked up a few points, certainly for the abv and possibly for identifying it as an Irish blend, and maintained my joint second position with @ardbaggie, but still trailing @mynameisgone by 10 points. With only three point scoring opportunities left for me I really needed to play my trump card out on one of them if I wanted to win the bottle of Asyla!

Day 9 provided by @steveprentice

Colour: Gold (almost indistinguishable from everything else!)
Nose: Rich sherry notes, Oloroso, there's a rich sweetness with toffee and vanilla notes, spices and berry fruits and a grainy edge too
Palate: Again the sherry comes to the fore and it's well rounded, nutty, creamy, apples, spice
Finish: Rich and spicy, creamy, fruity
Verdict: Fabulous rich sherried nose
Empty Glass: Pine wood sawdust

My guesses:

• ABV: 50%
• Age: 12 Year Old
• Type: Blended Scotch Whisky
• Brand: Duncan Taylor
• Expression: Black Bull

Reveal: The Antiquary 21 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky, 43% abv. and another new Whisky Discovery, #379. This is an exclusive blend from Tomatin and combines fine Speyside and Highland malt with a splash of Islay and the fragrance of Lowland grains. All the whiskies used in this blend are at least 21 years old. So no points again this evening, disaster! Two close guesses from a couple of the blenders picking The Antiquary 12 Year Old as their guess, and others picked up points pushing me back into fourth.

Day 10 provided by @WhiskyMarks

Colour: Dark Gold, at last something different!
Nose: Nail polish remover at first before settling to some lovely bourbon notes reminding me of both Buffalo Trace and Four Roses. There's the obvious vanilla notes, but it's thick and sweet. Green Bananas, baked pears, charred oak and even a slight briny note
Palate: Spicy oak notes, honey sweetness, buttered toast, green bananas,
Finish: Smooth and sweet, slight aniseed, fennel note, good length too, eventually drying with hazelnut and a faint smoky trace
Empty Glass: Smoky charcoal notes
Verdict: Would quite happily have this on my shelf

My guesses:

•  ABV: 41% (82 Proof)
•  Age: NAS
• Type: American Blended Whisky
•  Brand: Firestone & Robertson
•  Expression: TX Blended Whiskey

Reveal: High West Campfire 41% and another new Whisky Discovery recording #380 in the liquid log, and certainly one of my favourite of the blends so far. I certainly didn't pick up the points I was hoping for and @mynameisgone increased his lead over everyone else with some canny guesses, though I remained in fourth equal place.

The High West Distillery of Utah craft Small batch spirits with the owner’s personal touch. Campfire came about during a trip to Islay when proprietor David Perkins was staying in the Bruichladdich distillery B&B. One of the desserts during their stay was ripe honeydew drizzled with a peated whisky syrup. The combination of melon and sweet smoke really worked, so David thought why not mix sweet bourbon and peat? 

So Campfire is a blend of a straight bourbon whiskey (75 percent corn, 20 percent rye, and 5 percent barley malt). A straight rye whiskey (95 percent rye and 5 percent barley malt) and a  blended malt Scotch whiskey (100% peated malted barley). The whiskies are all at least 5 years old.

Day 11 was my blind blend

Here is what the blind blenders thought of it:

@mynameisgone Nose: Chocolate, stewed plums, with a drop of water I get a slight sherberty note Palate: Lovely fruity taste, honey sweetness, a really rounded whisky, I could drink this as a daily dram Finish: Sweet lingering fruit, slightly spicy

@sjjgo Nose: Sherry, baked apples, seaweed(?), ghee Palate: Pine, sherry, pastry, biscuits Finish: Slightly bitter; hoppy, faded wine

@rodbodtoo Nose is a fine swirl of raisins / sherry / malt / smoke (a bit) the palate is thick & rich & sweetly fruity. Malty (like fruit loaf), sherried, woody, & burnt toffee / treacle  now I'm getting a real toffee flavour  Finish is long and uncannily like treacle

@ardbaggie Nose: Sherry fruit sweet stewed apples. Palate: creamy honey hints of sherry with some spicey wood

@dvdbloke Nose: Smoke. Tar. Vanilla. Some berry fruit. Jam. Palate: Watery mouth-feel. Biscuity malt. Berry fruits. Sweet creamy peat. Finish: Sweet peat. Drying cream

@ifotou Nose: Initially quite a large malty nose on this, with sweetness underlying it, the sweetness to me is quite lemony, there's a honey quality to this too. there's some underlying sherried fruit notes and some very nice fresh vanilla pods. Palate: a touch of smoke then it goes very malty, buttery/creamy mouthfeel and soft sherried fruits. Finish: way too easy to drink, easy going a lovely dram.

@DramStats  Nose: Vanilla and sweet smoke to start. Then juicy raisin and milk chocolate. Touch of pine in the background Sweet raisin and milk chocolate (milka style), sultana and clean uncomplicated fruity sherry. Palate: Sweet raisin and milk chocolate (milka style), sultana and clean uncomplicated fruity sherry. Finish: Just lovely fading sherry notes with no spice or oak. Bitter chocolate muscles in on a fruity fade.

@galg: Nose: A lot of butterscotch, vanilla and malt with some bits of citrus and fresh grass.sherry, thick stuff. Palate: malty and mouth watering with hints of smoke, tobacco, sweet sherry and butterscotch, getting dry. Finish: butterscotch and chocolate with a zingy pepper.

@steveprentice Gold gold gold and more gold. Lightly peated nose with other fruits coming forward after, and a fairly spirity alcohol smell. Very smooth on the palate with some oak and spice coming after a while of holding it on your tongue. A smokey.warming and slightly spiced finish of a pleasing medium length.

@WhiskyMarks: So, this one is very much screaming William Grant malt—Glenfiddich and
Balvenie—so, I'm going to guess that it's a Grant's Blended Whisky, probably the 12 year old version. Very fruity, with wafts of vanilla and honey that delight and a finish that warms with a touch of spice. I really like this one, it's easy to drink and has some wonderful notes that I love in the 15yo Glenfiddich.

@LRWhisky Initial notes of honey, rich raisins, damp grass and nutty pecan pie, creamy. Smooth palate, fruity, touch of smoke, peppery tang, rich and toffee-ish. Thins out in the finish but maintains creamy toffee sauce.

The reveal: The Wine Society 14 Year Old Special Blended Whisky 40% abv and this was a new Whisky Discovery for me too, #381

Scanned copy of my book with kind permission from Ian Buxton

Some great notes and guesses included; Hibiki 12 Year Old, Whyte & Mackay 13 Year Old, Whyte & Mackay 19 Year Old, Sheep Dip Amoroso Oloroso, Blue Hanger from Berry Bros & Rudd, Islay Mist, Bailey Nichol Jarvie 8 Year Old, Monkey Shoulder, Compass Box Asyla 

One of Ian Buxton's '101 Whiskies to try Before You Die' and one I particularly wanted to taste on my journey, so this 12 blends competition was the perfect opportunity to not only tick it off of my list, but to allow eleven others to tick it off of their list as well. 

I'd like to be able to tell you that I joined the wine society just to be able to get a bottle of this, but that would be a lie, I joined last year as I like a drop of wine, albeit less than I used to. They have a fabulous selection of wines and sherries (which has been another recent interest) and also have a number of whiskies on their books.

My blend choice limited point scoring opportunities, with only 40% abv points being scored, but the overall consensus was that this was very much enjoyed, but then it came highly recommended by Ian himself.

My notes will follow in a separate blog post for Whisky Discovery #381

Day 12 provided by @LRWhisky

Colour: Gold (almost indistinguishable from most of the others)
Nose: Quite similar to Blend no.9 at first with bright sherry notes before turning more earthy and woody. There's some pepper lurking in the background and the smell of fresh pizza bread dough rising.
Palate: Spicy sherry notes, fruity, sweet toffee, faint wisp of scented smoke behind, green bananas
Finish: That wisp of scented smoke hangs on for a while then leaves drying tannins, hazelnut 
Empty Glass: Butterscotch
Verdict: Another that went oh so quick!

My guesses:

• ABV: 43%
• Age: 12 year Old
• Type: Blended Scotch Whisky
• Brand: Mackinlay

Reveal: Master of Malt 8 Year Old, from their secret bottlings series, 40% Another new Whisky Discovery at #382 on the Liquid Log, but no points at all with my guess. I changed my mind  a number of times before settling on my guess, but none of my choices were anyway near anyway.

We have a Winner!

With the final scores added up the runaway winner of the 12 Blends Challenge was @mynameisgone who scooped the Compass Box Asyla prize. My points tally remained static in the last few rounds and so finished in equal sixth place, trailing the leader by a massive 25 points!

The last 12 evenings have been an absolute blast and we're already talking about the next blind challenge! Not one duplicate amongst the twelve chosen, although two from the Johnnie Walker range featured. Of the twelve, nine were new discoveries and three of the twelve chosen feature in 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die, as does the competition's prize, Asyla from Compass Box.

My blend highlights have been Smokin' and Campfire and will be looking out for them as well as making sure I investigate The Tweeddale Blend too, but the fun and twitter banter over the last couple of weeks have been a great experience, I thank you gentlemen!

Glenrothes Vintages Tweet Tasting

Three generous vintages from The Glenrothes arrived at Whisky Discovery HQ

Tweet tastings seem to be very popular these days, and we were delighted to be invited to this Glenrothes Vintage event hosted by Berry Bros & Rudd and The Great Whisky Company just before the Easter Weekend

We've been fortunate in having tasted a number of The Glenrothes Vintages towards the end of last year, starting with their core expressions and working through a flight of five whiskies right back to 1978. That was a wonderful way to spend a cold and wet November afternoon!

When the samples arrived we quickly noted we had tasted two of these previously, but the 1988 Vintage would be a new discovery. For purposes of the tweet tasting we decided we would ignore our previous notes and tweet exactly as we found them at the time, so our notes for the 1998 and 1995 vintage may differ between each session, but that's the wonder of the senses, changing depending upon so many variables!

We were amongst some very established whisky reviewers and were excited to be part of this event as we kicked proceedings off with the youngest of the three, the twelve year old distilled in 1998, the year we all settled in the UK.

Whisky Discovery #230

The Glenrothes 1998 (43% abv, OB, D 17/12/98, Bottled 2010)
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Circa £42.00 70cl

We first tasted this last November and you can read what we thought about it then, here. 

The notes below were taken directly from our tweets:

Kat: On the nose it started with stone fruits, dates, and honey salted cashew nuts. After a little while cereal notes started to come through and a cake mixture type note and sweet gorse blossom. On the palate there was caramel, zingy orange zest with a hit of bitters that's nice here. Short finish but tingles left for a while.

Dave: The nose opened with sherried fruits, vanilla cream, and a touch of salt. It was quite gentle on the palate, there was a struck match element, a slight orange tinge to the creamy vanilla notes along with some white pepper and stewed plums too. After tasting for the first time the nose seemed much sweeter. The finish was quite short.

So what did the others think?

@EdinburghWhisky: A real mix of stuff here-marzipan, vanilla and tropical fruits. Reminds me of birthday parties when I was a kid
@TheWhiskyBoys: NOSE: Sweet sugar syrup, concentrated vanilla, marzipan, sun drenched passion fruits
@KirstyChant: I'm getting vanilla, pineapple and marzipan on the nose
@WorldWhiskyDay: Palate: with water more peardrops and tutti-frutti sweets. More sherry in finish with water
@DramWhiskyMark: Light butterscotch, white pepper & salted almonds. caramel held together with vanilla & tannin. Linseed & liquorice

Whisky Discovery #231

The Glenrothes 1995 (43% abv, OB, D 26/10/95, Bottled 2011)
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Circa £45.00 70cl

We first tasted this last November and you can read what we thought about it then, here.

Kat: Nose: Chocolate covered coffee beans, dried leaves, dried figs/dates, powdered ginger, green apples, white pepper and matzo crackers. On the palate spicy white pepper, and notes of black coffee, dark chocolate, and damp oak. I much preferred the 1995 to the 1998, giving more robust flavours for me.

Dave: The nose opened with soft rosy apples, honey and there was a pinch of cardamom too, more toffee notes appeared after a short while and the orange creams from the '98 too. This appeared more more malty and I really enjoyed how the nose developed with much richer notes. After tasting I returned to nose it again and found a little heather.

On the palate I got a lovely sweet liquorice note at first, there was a little white pepper too. This was smooth and very creamy. On my second sip I noticed a 'struck match' note again, but by no means detrimental, as I really enjoy this flavour.

The finish is quite dry, with coffee grounds, and there is a touch of salt too within the sweetness

So what did the others think?

@DramWhiskyMark: Artist oil paint, glaziers putty, honeysuckle,
@WorldWhiskyDay: Getting a lot of linseed oil on the nose with this. And a bit of burnt toast
@EdinburghWhisky: Nose: Stewed apples, lime zest, cooked pastry and fresh cereals
@TheWhiskyLounge: Nose (without water) big stewed fruit, perhaps plums, lovely cinnamon, slight orange peel. Mouth-watering!
@TheWhiskyBoys: TASTE Dundee marmalade jelly, finish is a bitter sweet joy, thick & creamy with a bitter choc mouth feel
@mynameisgone: Palate toffee, that peppery spicy heat again, a touch of orange in there, and a great mouthfeel

Whisky Discovery #373

The Glenrothes 1988 (43% abv, OB, D 16/12/88, Bottled 2009)
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Circa £45.00 70cl

Kat: Nose: Heather honey, hint of greenness similar to spring greens or raw kale, nubuck leather, red desert apples, and a hint of talcum powder. 

Taste: Sweet, crisp initially of green apples, heather honey comes through, dry oak/timber, slightly roasted quality, hint of all dried allspice berries, and some oily citrus note. 

Finish:  Zesty and sweet, dark bitter coco cuts through this nicely bringing back some balance, and prickly heat and taste of a Jalapeno chili at the end. Med to long finish for me. 

Dave: The nose on this is much richer than the previous two vintages, the orange note is there yet again (house style?) though more of a candied orange now. There's book leather and baked cherry too. returning to nose after the first tasting I got a green banana note that I never noticed earlier, being masked by the cherry

On the palate it is rich and smooth, with fruit cake notes, more cherry, stewed plums, a dusting of pepper. Again the finish appears quite short, drying but more nutty this time, and still getting a slight saltiness alongside the sweetness

So what did the others think?

@DramWhiskyMark: Nose-victorian varnish on hot radiator, suede, green tea, dundee cake & apricot jam. old canvas oil paint, waxy and leathery with a spill of diesel oil
@MasterOfMalt: Massive Fruit on the nose. Absolutely delicious. Apricots, Cherry Compote, Red Apple,
@TheWhiskyBoys: Nose: A sweet fresh cigar lounge, cloves, butterscotch, peaches and apricots, dessert wine
@kristy_kristy: Mmmmm... It's a super smooth mouthfeel, definitely curry bits and bobs and also banana yumminess. Very exotic
@BBRrob: Unsalted plantain chips and hardback-books handed down from a maiden aunt
@mynameisgone: Palate now that's the ticket, syrupy mouthfeel, some wood again oranges, and that sweetness toffee/butterscotch

As with usual Tweet Tastings there was a great deal of tweeting going on and to see what happened search on the #GlenrothesVintages hashtag on twitter for the full story!

Registering just the one new ‘discovery’ this time, but great to revisit two recent discoveries. A massive THANK YOU to Amanda and her team at The Great Whisky Co. @GreatWhisky who organised it all and of course Rob & Adrian from @BerryBrosRudd

As far as I could ascertain this events tweet tasters were:

@EdinburghWhisky @MasterOfMalt @TheWhiskyLounge @TheWhiskyBoys @ifotou @jasonbstanding @kristy_kristy @TwlAmanda @KirstyChant @WorldWhiskyDay @greatwhisky @DramWhiskyMark @MaltMad @BBRrob @mynameisgone @PresleyKa @RichardHerring2 @Rockyajl @TWLJoe @justboy1984 @WhiskyTasting

For more information see: www.greatwhisky.co.uk and www.theglenrothes.com for information about Berry Bros & Rudd visit: www.bbr.com

Whisky Live London 2013

I can't believe it that it's been one year since Kat and I attended our first Whisky show, Whisky Live London 2012. 

The year has flown by and we've attended quite a few since and met some great people along the way. We've also made some great friends on Twitter over the year and this years Whisky Live was going to be the event where we were going to meet many of them for the first time. With so many people to 'catch up' with we always knew it was going to be a two day event for us, and made plans right from the start.

We'd applied for tickets to the 'press' opening of the show on the Friday, which allowed us access from 3 o'clock, and knowing that a number of our Twitter pals were also attending decided that we should all meet up beforehand

We took the train down to London and scheduled it so we could meet up with Tom (@ifotou) of Tom's Whisky Reviews at Kings Cross and guide him across to the London HQ of the SMWS, stopping for lunch on-route and meeting Steve (@steveprentice) of Somerset Whisky before climbing the stairs at 19 Greville Street.

The SMWS lounge was already buzzing with whisky fuelled conversation from Dave (@whiskyrepublic) of The Whisky Dramalista, Jon (@LRWhisky) of Living Room Whisky, Danny (@DramStats) of Dramstats, Andrew (@Ardbaggie), no blog, just an Ardbeg fanatic!  and Adrian (@mynameisgone) again no blog, just an ardent whisky enthusiast. They were already being entertained by Joe McGirr (@SMWSLondon) and the whisky was indeed flowing. 

Alwynne (@themisswhisky) of Miss Whisky arrived shortly after us and Joe served us three warm up drams, starting with a single grain whisky, the first bottling from a new distillery for the SMWS, G10.1 'Thanksgiving Dram' a 23 year old distilled on 31st August 1989 and just 280 bottles filled at 59.6%. I have been reliably informed that this is from the Strathclyde distillery.

Our lunch-time meeting was also set up for most of us to start swapping samples for the '12 Blends Challange', a 12 day blind tweet tasting featuring 12 blended whiskies starting on April 1st, you can follow the action on the #12blends hashtag on twitter.

Joe served us up two more drams while we were all getting acquainted with each other in 'real life'. First came 24.124 'Close to the Edge' a 23 Year Old from Macallan, bottled at 50.8% abv and our finale dram, and one of my whisky highlights of the day 127.31 'Right of Passage' 10 Year Old Port Charlotte bottled at 64.2% abv, and absolute peat monster!

With the show due to open at 1500 we all bade Joe farewell and made our way to Whisky Live, which once again was being held at The Honourable Artillery Company, half of us deciding to walk the short distance for some fresh air, the remainder, who were more organised than us with travel cards taking the tube.

Our first stop was to check-in at Balcones to catch up with Emily Harris and meet Chip Tate for the first time. We would be helping Chip and Emily out on the Saturday afternoon, and although we had been in touch electronically and recently tasted and reviewed the Balcones range, we were keen to get to finally meet Chip in person. We started our afternoon with Kat's favourite, Baby Blue which was followed by mine; True Blue 100  

We were then treated to a taste of Chip's new five year anniversary Straight Bourbon which was absolutely stunning. It certainly sounded as if Chip had had the planned right from the outset, a true artisan craft bourbon, made by himself from start to finish. This will be a single cask release and so the amount of bottle available will be very limited, and because Chip loves it so much, may be even more so if he takes his share first! We finished off our first meeting with a drop of their Rumble Cask Strength Reserve, something I had tried recently, but Kat had not, before moving on.

From Texas we moved back to Speyside and to The Glenlivet spending some time talking to International Brand Ambassador Ian Logan, who certainly has the best gig at Whisky Live London, spending all of his time sat in a comfortable leather armchair in the Glenlivet Lounge. Ian had the core range out for tasting, but we started our 'Glenlivet time' with some new make. I really like tasting a little new make, and this didn't disappoint with the notes of pineapple jam amongst the gristy cereal notes.

We went on to taste The Glenlivet XXV The premium expression in Glenlivet's range, (why not start at the top?) The 25 has been finished for a couple of years in Oloroso casks and was just magnificent. At around £190.00 a bottle it's beyond my budget, but we both agreed that this was very luxurious. 

We followed the XXV with The Glenlivet 21 Year Old Archive Another superb whisky which at around £100 could grace my shelves soon!

After leaving The Glenlivet we bumped into Billy Abbott (@cowfish) from The Whisky Exchange who had a mystery dram for us to taste, well we had to have a go! We both agreed that it was a young whisky, and that we both thought we had tasted it before. We filled in our entries, both going for something different and convinced we were right (we were about tasting it before, but that's where it ended!)

Making our way down the aisle we spot Stefanie Holt from El Dorado Rum. We first met Stef at The Midlands Whisky Festival last September where she persuaded me to try some rum at a whisky show! Stef then sent us three vintage Eldoro Rums for us to try which you can read about here. I tried their 8 Year Old Rum, before moving across to Penderyn to re-acquaint myself with their Sherrywood, as I was convinced that Billy's mystery dram could be this.

Master Blender Angela D'Orazio sharing something special with Kat

While I was sipping Penderyn, Kat had made her way over to Mackmyra and was chatting to their award winning Master Blender, the lovely Angela D'Orazio while sipping Brukswhisky, (Kat's entry for Billy's Mystery Dram) I joined in with a dram for myself, and ticked off another one on my 101 list. While enjoying Brukswhisky, 'The Swedish Whisky', we met Andy Watts (@ThreeshipsSA) from the James Sedgewick Distillery (Three Ships Whisky) of South Africa. We went to try the recently released Mackmyra white dog 'Vit Hund' which comes packaged in a brown paper bag, which we followed with a Special 06 the 6th release in Mackmyra's Special range, inspired by summer meadows, is delicately fruity and floral, using a combination of bourbon and sherry casks for maturation.

We'd heard a few words of praise for Kavalan whisky from Taiwan, so headed off to them next, meeting the quieter half of Whisky Israel, Richard Barr (@BarrRichard) who took us through a flight of Kavalan whiskies, starting at their entry level Single Malt, and running up through their single cask Solist series up to King Car Whisky. To be fair we weren't fully convinced on all of them, some had a great nose, but lacked something on the taste  and some the other way around. The Vino Barrique cask Solist and King Car Whisky were the best of the five, but would like another chance of tasting these in more relaxed surroundings.

We then ran over to see Cat Spencer (@MasterofMaltCat) at the Master of Malt's That Boutique-y Whisky Company and sampled their Clynelish Batch #2 and Macallan Batch #3 single malts before finding our way to the SMWS where I had a fantastic Laphroaig to finish my show off.

So that was the end of Day 1! We had arrived at a little after three o'clock that afternoon and were there until 10 o'clock, never has seven hours gone so quickly. It was great to meet so many people who we've been conversing with through Twitter, Facebook and our blog, and thanks to everyone that stopped us to say hello - really appreciated!

However we certainly thought the show wasn't as big as last years show. Perhaps it was because we had become used to whisky shows and wern't in awe as we were on our first time. There were lots of people missing, no one from the largest producer of Scotch Whisky, Diageo, no Glenfiddich, no Balvenie and many other big names. However, the show was very well attended, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

We had booked rooms in the Travellodge across the road, and we retired early in order to be at our peak for our first whisky gig, helping Chip and Emily spread the Balcones love during the Saturday show!

Day 2

Last years show was bathed in warm sunshine, and we were in short sleeves, we woke on Saturday to icy winds blowing sleet and snow around! After making full use of the buffet breakfast, at least three times, we made our way over to to the show with our Olympic medal size exhibitor passes, met up with Chip and Emily and had a crash course in Balcones.

We learnt about the blue corn, the all important casks, and how the wood to manufacture the casks is all yard-aged (seasoned) and that the casks are to Balcones specification. Then Chip told us that one of the most asked questions at whisky shows was how old is this whisky? Balcones don't ordinarily make age statements, none of the seven we had tried mentioned an age anywhere on the label. Chip told us that the Balcones whiskies are released only when he is satisfied with the taste and nose profile, and will remain with no age statement (NAS). 

We had just four Balcones whisky on offer, the award winning Texas #1 Single Malt, and three additional award winning blue corn whiskies, Baby Blue, True Blue 100 and Brimstone, that was the order we would be persuading people to try them in too. Chip had is 'rock star' case with some other 'specials' in, but we'd leave that closed for Chip to decide when that would be opened and shared.

The show started at midday and as our first customers started coming we got into the swing of it, passing on as much of the information as we could remember from Chip when asked about the Texan whiskies. Kat and I have our own favourites from these four, Kat choosing the Baby Blue and True Blue 100 for me, so we were selling our favourites to the crowd.

Our first 'customers' with Chip, Kat and Emily

As the day wore on we got busier and busier! Chip and Emily were scheduled for a VIP tasting mid afternoon, so Kat and I were left alone to man the stand and pour the Balcones.

Both Kat and I have 'manned' show stands before, but this was our first whisky gig and it was none stop action all afternoon, with a crowd up to three deep at times, many coming over to tell us they have been recommended by a friend to taste one or other of the Balcones whisky.

I fairly certain that Brimstone was probably the most requested dram to try, mainly because it is so unique in it's approach to a smoky whisky. However, with our pitch, we persuaded most to start from the Single Malt and work their way towards Brimstone, and of course we were both extolling the virtues of our favourites.

When Chip and Emily were finished with their tasting they returned to take over from us and give us a short break to grab some food, and it was while sitting eating our late lunch Sam MacDonald (@dramforsam) from the SMWS and with bottle in hand, came and sat with us and a lunch time  dram was poured. SMWS 37.54 'A Contradictory Dram' a 27 Year Old from the Cragganmore Distillery bottled at 42.4% abv

With lunch finished we headed back to Balcones to help with the pouring right up until the end when last pours were called at 1645. All but the lunchtime dram from Sam were Balcones on the Sunday. I managed to have another taste of the 5 Year Anniversary Bourbon that Chip has been working on, it is due to be released very soon, but will be extremely limited. 

For my final dram of the day I tried some of the new Balcones Resurrection. I was holding back from trying this earlier as I wanted to retain my taste buds for the weekend! Chip talked us through it when we first met on the Friday afternoon. 

Brimstone Resurrection is a single cask release and the result of a near catastrophic mistake in a batch of Brimstone that went horribly wrong. They severely burnt the corn to the bottom of the still while distilling it, it was so badly burnt that hammer and chisels were required to clean the still afterwards!  Chip went on to tell us that they almost threw out the resulting distillate, but instead, he decided to put the whisky through a special smoking process to add additional layers of complexity. The result is this powerful, and probably never to be repeated Brimstone whisky, aptly named Resurrection

With the show over it was time to pack up the stand and take off for a post show beer at the nearest pub, before heading back home.

We'd like to say a huge thanks to Chip and Emily for letting us help out and to all the people that came by and said hello to us. We had a fantastic weekend, met so many of our 'imaginary friends' as my youngest calls our Twitter friends!

The full dram list with links as and when they are completed!

At SMWS London

• Whisky Discovery #352 G10.1 'Thanksgiving Dram' 23 Year Old 59.6% abv
• Whisky Discovery #353 24.124 'Close to the Edge' 23 Year Old 50.8% abv
• Whisky Discovery #354 127.31 'Right of Passage' 10 Year Old 64.2% abv

At Whisky Live London 2013 - Day 1

• Whisky Discovery #321 Balcones Baby Blue 46% abv
• Whisky Discovery #348 Balcones True Blue 100 50% abv
• Whisky Discovery #355 Balcones 5 Year Anniversary Bourbon
• Whisky Discovery #347 Balcones Rumble Cask Strength Reserve 58.4% abv
• Whisky Discovery #356 The Glenlivet New Make 63.5% abv
• Whisky Discovery #357 The Glenlivet XXV 43% abv
• Whisky Discovery #358 The Glenlivet 21 Year Old Archive 43% abv
• Whisky Discovery #88 Auchentoshan Valinch 57.5% abv (The Whisky Exchange Mystery Dram)
• Rum Discovery #5 Eldorado 5 Year Old 40% abv
• Whisky Discovery #64 Penderyn Sherrywood 46% abv
• Whisky Discovery #359 Mackmyra Brukswhisky 41.4% abv
• Whisky Discovery #360 Mackmyra Vit Hund 46.1% abv
• Whisky Discovery #361 Mackmyra Special 06 46.8% abv
• Whisky Discovery #362 Kavalan Single Malt 40% abv
• Whisky Discovery #363 Kavalan Single Malt Port Finish 40% abv
• Whisky Discovery #364 Kavalan Solist Bourbon Cask 58.6% abv
• Whisky Discovery #365 Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask 57.8% abv
• Whisky Discovery #366 Kavalan King Car Whisky 46% abv
• Whisky Discovery #367 Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique 58.4% abv
• Whisky Discovery #368 Clynelish Batch #2 That Boutique-y Whisky Company 50.6% abv
• Whisky Discovery #369 The Macallan Batch #3 That Boutique-y Whisky Company 43.4% abv
• Whisky Discovery #370 SMWS 29.129 'Leather and Lime in a Smoky Room' 22 Year Old 55.1% abv

At Whisky Live London 2013 - Day 2

• Whisky Discovery #348 Balcones True Blue 100 50% abv
• Whisky Discovery #355 Balcones 5 Year Anniversary Bourbon
• Whisky Discovery #345 Balcones Brimstone 53% abv
• Whisky Discovery #371 SMWS 37.54 'A Contradictory Dram' 27 Year Old 42.4% abv
• Whisky Discovery #372 Balcones Resurrection

E150a Experiment

This is the brainchild of Johanne McInnis, aka @Whiskylassie and one half of The Perfect Whisky Match Blog. 

The idea originated way back in February, when Johanne, who has a  background in chemistry, announced her intentions on our Whisky Bloggers Facebook page,  after reading an article on the Whisky Science blog. Johanne asked for ten interested bloggers to step forward. Overwhelmed by the response the number of participants has increased to around two dozen of us now.

Johanne got hold of some E150a from an undisclosed source that works in the "brewing" industry, and then went out to purchase two identical bottles of known naturally coloured whisky from her local liquor store. Then based on a equation and information from a distillery "source", Johanne calculated how much of the colourant to add. One of the two bottles has 1.2g/700ml or roughly 1 drop of Caramel for every 15ml of Whisky.

These formed the basis of the kits that have been sent worldwide. Each kit also included a small vial of neat E150a and a small pipette so we too could conduct our own experiments, and I will be trying this again later.

I'll start this post with a brief introduction from Johanne:

The majority of single malts and virtually all the blends from Scotland are coloured with E150a. The SWA regulation of 2009 states that “plain caramel" (E150a) is allowed. HOWEVER, this is just a guideline. In fact, UK and EU laws permit the use of their definition which is “spirit caramel”. Which means any of the four caramels E150a-d can be used by the distillery.

Four different types (a-d or from class I to IV).

E150a (distiller’s caramel) is made by a process involving a controlled heat treatment of a carbohydrate. Mostly used are glucose, syrups, sucrose and/or dextrose. Although each manufacturer protects their trademark, most use the same process which involves adding acids or bases to promote the caramelization of the CH (carbohydrate) compound. This colouring agent is used in very small quantities. Fructose based E150a produces the darkest range of colours. It starts to caramelise at 110C. E150a is the most stable of caramels as it can tolerate high ABV’s (75%) and it is also the most resistant to fading.

How much do they use?  Again, it seems to be a guarded secret with most distilleries however on average we know it’s about 1.0 – 5.0 grams/Litre (that translates to 0.1 – 0.5 %)

So the question was can you detect a difference in your whiskies?  You will clearly see there is a difference in the colour of the whisky but can you truly detect on the nose and/or palate in a blind taste test?   Let’s find out:

All set up ready to start the first E150a experiment - I can do science me!

First of all what does neat E150a smell and taste like? You can see the small black bottle in the photo above, with the pipette alongside it. I can assure you that the glass vial is clear. The E150a liquid is a rich, viscous dark brown in colour, has the smell of burnt sugar, almost carbon like, the burnt sugar carbon note is clear on the palate too, and it starts to leave a bitter after-taste in the mouth, similar to the pith of a grapefruit, but a little more more unpleasant. 

A single drop in a glass of water is enough to make it look like a glass of whisky is in my hand. In hindsight, perhaps it would have been better to had  properly nose and taste the E150a first before conducting the tests, as it was I rushed headlong into conducting the blind whisky tasting tests without actually establishing what I would be looking for!

With shrouds constructed for the two nosing glasses and my youngest daughter in control of monitoring my blind tasting results, 10ml of each whisky was poured into separate nosing glasses. My first test took place in the afternoon. I correctly identified the darker whisky first time around, and to celebrate I pushed the boat out, had a cup of tea and a piece of cake. The second nosing occurred afterwards and I identified the incorrect whisky. Around thirty minutes later I revisited and was able to pick out the darker whisky correctly. The glasses were mixed up again for the taste test, and although I could detect a notable difference, I picked the sweeter whisky, which was incorrect.

The second test took place later the same evening, and interestingly finished a cup of tea before the first nosing and getting it wrong again. The next two nosing tests followed where I correctly identified the coloured whisky. I was still unable to pick the correct one on the taste test, choosing the sweeter tasting whisky again.

The final test took place the following morning, no tea in the morning for me this time, and I had a clear run through, identifying the coloured whisky by nosing correctly each time, and then picking the correct one on the taste test too. I think however by this third test I had learnt the differences and was able to correctly identify the taste immediately.

So what does this all mean? I haven't a clue apart from I am noticing a difference! I have questioned why brands feel it is necessary to colour whisky in some of my blog posts before,  as have previously been told that it is not noticeable.

The darker of the two samples smells richer, with more caramel flavours. The citrus notes are more lemon/lime in the lighter sample and more orange like in the darker sample.

However on the taste test the darker coloured whisky tasted bitterer - I was associating the darker richer notes found while nosing with the sweeter tasting whisky and was wrong on the first two taste tests. On the third taste test I remembered that the less sweet tasting whisky should be the coloured one and was correct.

The 'score sheet' from Whisky Discovery

And so concludes the results of the Whisky Discovery 'I can do Science Test'. My results have been sent off to our guru Johanne for collating and I'm looking forward to reading her blogpost on The Perfect Whisky Match once all the results have been analysed and her conclusion has been reached.

In the meantime, I will be 'doctoring' a small sample of naturally coloured whisky at home and repeating this experiment with Kat, more later!

All very orange! E150a samples being prepared in at The Perfect Whisky Match HQ