April 2010 'Cask Finishes' (29th)

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Celebrate the wonderfully variety of cask finishes and discover some of the flavours they impart.

[DavidH]

The line-up for this tasting is not chosen yet so if you have a favourite finished whiskey that you feel represents a great example of the art, let's hear about it here.

[JohnM]

Of the Irish ones, I suppose there's a good few Cooleys that would qualify. Jameson 18 is finished in bourbon casks - a different approach to finishing. There's one or two bushmills too.

Bruichladdich have tons.

[JohnM]

The Tullamore 10 Malt is a vatting of a number of finishes, is it not? Or is it? Who knows, maybe one of the Celtic Whisky Shop's finishes will be available by April.

[DavidH]

We tried the Cooley finishes at the Grand Crew tasting. The Tullamore 10yo would be new though, and including a vatting of finishes is an interesting idea.

Within recent memory, we have had Arran and Glenmorangie tastings in Dublin (lots of finishes in both), but I'm not sure how many of the society's members attended them.

[varizoltan]

We tried the Cooley finishes at the Grand Crew tasting. The Tullamore 10yo would be new though, and including a vatting of finishes is an interesting idea.

Within recent memory, we have had Arran and Glenmorangie tastings in Dublin (lots of finishes in both), but I'm not sure how many of the society's members attended them.

4

[JohnM]

We tried the Cooley finishes at the Grand Crew tasting. The Tullamore 10yo would be new though, and including a vatting of finishes is an interesting idea.

Within recent memory, we have had Arran and Glenmorangie tastings in Dublin (lots of finishes in both), but I'm not sure how many of the society's members attended them.

BenRiach do a lot of finishes too. I think they're quite nice. The new Kilchomans were also finished in sherry butts.

It would be interested to get a good range of finishes - port, sherry, tojai (sp? Zoltan will know), various wines...

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Suggestions are always welcome, as is the offer to set aside something you have at home for a future tasting.

As one of the objectives is to continually try new whiskies, I know a lot of members have tasted the Tyrconnell, Glenmorangie and Arran ranges (this does not rule out the inclusion of individual bottlings)

The aim of this tasting is to explore the effects of different finishes and the impact of different barrel types,

so we are looking for bottlings influenced by barrels such as:

Bourbon: Bourbon;
Port: Douro Port, Quinta Del Ruban Port; Ribera Duero
Sherry: Oloroso, Pedro Ximenez (PX), Manzanilla, Fino Sherry, Muscatel;
Rum: Carribean Rum, Dark rum, Golden Rum, Demerara Rum;
Desert Wine: Madeira, Tokaji, Marsala;
Wine: Bordeaux, Sauternes, Chardonnay, Château d'Yquem, Malbec, Burgundy, Chateau neuf du Pape,
Gaja Barolo, Sassicaia, Margaux

As you can see the possibilities are endless, as are the combinations and variables such as time in the barrel.

I can supply a Lagavulin 16 Distillers Edition - Pedro Ximenez finish

[jcskinner]

Is the idea that we taste a whiskey and then a cask-finished version to consider the difference the finish makes? IE we taste pairs of drams?
Or will we just be trying anything that has been finished in one of the types of casks mentioned above? (To which can be added Cognac cask finishes). Because in a sense, all whiskeys are cask finishes.
Tasting them in isolation mightn't be illuminating without the comparison to a more 'standard' version of the same dram.

[DavidH]

Tasting them in isolation mightn't be illuminating without the comparison to a more 'standard' version of the same dram.

Tasting alongside the actual sherry, rum, wine, etc would be illuminating too.

[IainB]

Tasting them in isolation mightn't be illuminating without the comparison to a more 'standard' version of the same dram.

Tasting alongside the actual sherry, rum, wine, etc would be illuminating too.

This is going to be a very long meeting. Should I plan to be there until Saturday?

[jcskinner]

Thursday saw yet another successful society tasting at Brook's.
A number of new members joined regulars and committee members for the cask finishes tasting, which was excellently presented by Martin Bolsinger on this occasion.
Proceedings began when Ken Mawhinney presented the society president with a malting shovel, which will in future serve as the societal sceptre.
And the society was delighted to once again welcome our good friend from Cooley, John Cashman, who was on hand to introduce one of the finished whiskeys in the tasting.
Martin took up a military theme for the evening, detailing firstly how wine casks from Southern Europe 'invaded' whiskey distilleries in the North.
He then argued that the wine casks 'fought' with the whiskey spirit to create the combined flavour of the finished spirits.
We began by tasting the Glenmorangie Port Finish, which was enjoyable but not significantly affected by its 'finishing', despite Glenmorangie being one of the pioneers of the finishing trend.
Next up was the BenRiach Pedro Ximinez Finish, also known as the Heredotus Fumosus. As the name suggests, the peat dominated the delicate spice of the Iberian wine cask, but it was still an enjoyable dram.
Martin kept us well-informed not only about the distilleries but also told us a little about each type of wine used in the casks in which the spirits were finished.
Third dram was the relatively youthful Longrow Gaja Barolo Finish. Uniquely among the drams tasted, it was the only one which was finished in a non-sweet wine cask, Barolo being a ripasso-type red from Piedmonte in Italy.
Despite significant peatiness, as might be expected from a feisty young whiskey, the resulting dram was very well-balanced and ultimately attracted strong support from the society members present.
The fourth in our tasting was an Arran, a young distillery with Irish connections which has excelled at the range and experimentation of its whiskey finishes. This Arran was cask strength and finished in Tokaji casks. The rich sweetness of the Hungarian dessert wine came through strongly in the whiskey, possibly overwhelming Arran's delicate and floral spirit.
John Cashman then took the floor to talk to us about the Connemara Sherry Finish, a whiskey that the society was privileged to be among the first in the world to try when Noel Sweeney presented the Connemara range to us last year.
John detailed many of the 'happy accidents' which led to the creation of this small batch Connemara, and hinted at exciting new small batch versions of both Connemara and Tyrconnell in the near future.
Finally, we tried a Moscatel-finished Caol Isla. The hard-to-find Islay dram benefited strongly on the nose from its interaction with the floral white wine. But its inate smokiness reasserted itself on the palate and finish.
Surprisingly, neither the Glenmorangie nor the BenRiach received any votes in the now traditional society verdict. The Arran was the favourite of four of the members present.
In third place on the night was the Connemara sherry finish with six supporters, while the Caol Isla was in silver medal position with nine votes.
The surprise winner on the night was the youthful Longrow.
All in all, it was a wonderful night, and a good turnout given that the tasting was clashing with European football.
Many thanks to Martin for a fascinating and entertaining presentation, to John Cashman for coming in to talk to us about Connemara, and to all those who contributed to the tasting or its organisation.

[John]

Many thanks for the notes JC.
I would echo the views above in that it was, once again, a great night!
Thanks to all.
Cheers,
John.

[DavidH]

Finally got the bottle pics uploaded:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45040027@N ... 868561593/

Thank you for the talk, Martin. I really enjoyed it. Loved the war theme too