2011 Tastings (Suggestions & Offers)

[TheWhiskeyBro]

As we start to plan for our third year, we will be reviewing tastings conducted over 2009/2010 and compile a tentative schedule for 2011 .

I am compiling a list of previously submitted tasting ideas for the committee to discuss, so if anyone would like to add any further suggestions/ideas shout now!

If you want a repeat of a previous tasting or would like to see something different let us know.

Also if you have any views on the balance between the number of Irish and other tastings (Scotch, Bourbon, World etc) we would love to hear from you.

The society always welcomes contributions from anyone has bottles they wish to offer for consideration for the society tastings for a price (cost price, fair price or market price) can they please PM me with the list of bottles and what price you would sell them to the society. This will allow us to better plan, build and put together interesting tastings for 2011.

Cheers all!

[DavidH]

No new ideas, but we should keep an eye out for significant whiskey anniversaries. Did anything important happen in 1961, 1911, 1861, 1811, or 1761?

[Stephen]

Ok, how about tasting some whiskeys from non traditional whiskey making countries .... following on from the recent tasting of the Hungarian whiskey.

Prehaps a night where we sampled some whisky from Sweden (I've recently acquired a bottle of Mackmrya but not sampled it yet), some from Wales, New Zealand and India might provide a bit of a diverse selection that may not be sampled very often.

[JohnM]

I have a bottle of Marlfield Liqueur that might be interesting in a tasting.

[Malt-Teaser]

I did once run a tasting entitled "Around the world in 8 Drams"

It comprised;
Redbreast 15y
Blanton's Gold edition, single barrel
Crown Royal
Amrut
Mackmyra Preludium 03
Milford 10y
Penderyn
Yamazaki

As you see no Scotch for a change and it was a very well received event and especially with the greater selection of higher quality non-Irish whiskeys now available, I'm sure you could have great fun with such an idea.

Malty

[TheWhiskeyBro]

I have updated the list of tastings that we have to choose from for 2011.

If you want to submit any further ideas please do so.

In the list there is a total of 58 different suggestions, too many to list here.

As per previous years the committee will be drawing up a provisional list for 2011 before end year.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

I like the Idea of an alternative night that both Stephen and Keith have mentioned. I'd leave out Scotch, Irish, US & Japanese whiskies as we have touched on those and probably could again.

Some to chose from

Amurut - India
Crown Royal - Canada
Glann ar Mor - France (Breton)
Mackmyra - Sweden
Milford - New Zealand
Millstone - Netherlands
Penderyn - Wales
Slyrs - Germany
St Georges - England

[Malt-Teaser]

I still think you should run with this and if you would like my personal opinion;

Amrut - good, go with it.
Crown Royal - Rather sickly sweet, or at least the standard NAS that I tried.
Glann ar Mor - never tried it, can't comment.
Mackmyra - I have liked all the ones I've tried so far.
Milford - Bonfire night in a glass, or at least for me. I really liked the 10y.
Millstone - never tried it.
Penderyn - I only tried an early one and it's good, lots of juniper, a bit like a Scotch with a dash of gin.
Slyrs - Fine if you have a rubber fettish, not my cup of tea, or whisky, at all at all.
St. George's - It's still young, but I have tried three and liked them all. Smooth, gentle and lots of promise.


Assuming a tasting has 6 whiskies I have emboldened my choices.
Malty

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Thanks a million Keith for your feed back always very helpful. We might give te Slyrs a skip so by the sounds of it ... The Glann ar Mor is not supposed to be too bad and has "great potential" !!! Not sure what the Millstone is like as I've not heard much about it but it is now up to an 8yo and seems to sell well in Holland. I always found Penderyn quite sweet but people do like a variety and it comes across as a nice approachable whisky.

Just while I've been thinking about this I have thought of another tasting while similar has another slant.

A 6 nations tasting That would be Ireland Scotland England Wales & France covered but does anybody know if there is an Italian whiskey being made ????

[DavidH]

We might give te Slyrs a skip so by the sounds of it ...

Or save it for Rubber Night? It was the Jura Superstition we had at the start of the year that was described this way too, if I remember correctly.

[Malt-Teaser]

We might give te Slyrs a skip so by the sounds of it ...

Or save it for Rubber Night? It was the Jura Superstition we had at the start of the year that was described this way too, if I remember correctly.

If someone thought Jura Superstition rubbery then Slyrs should have 'Pirelli' or 'Michelin' on the label

[TheWhiskeyBro]

The committee are currently considering the provisional list for 2011 tastings, input and suggestions still welcome

[JohnM]

What about whiskies over 20 yrs. Or young whiskies.

There might be a few new Irish Distillers whiskeys released, so what about combining this/these with some new Cooley releases. Basically new Irish releases. Might encourage distillers to turn up too.

[IainB]

Thanks a million Keith for your feed back always very helpful. We might give te Slyrs a skip so by the sounds of it ... The Glann ar Mor is not supposed to be too bad and has "great potential" !!! Not sure what the Millstone is like as I've not heard much about it but it is now up to an 8yo and seems to sell well in Holland. I always found Penderyn quite sweet but people do like a variety and it comes across as a nice approachable whisky.

Just while I've been thinking about this I have thought of another tasting while similar has another slant.

A 6 nations tasting That would be Ireland Scotland England Wales & France covered but does anybody know if there is an Italian whiskey being made ????

There are some "Italian" whiskies crop up from time to time on various sites. Whether they're made in Italy or, as is often the case in these things, blended with Scotch I don't know.

[IainB]

And a more boring suggestion than some of the above, harking back to some of the earliest tastings. There's a lot of lesser known Scottish distilleries whcih we rarely get to try, or at least I do, as it can be hard to justify buying a full bottle of something you mightn't like or drink. Say some of the lesser known highland malts? Or speyside?

When I say lesser known I don't mean obscure, just some of the one's we rarely try in Ireland, eg. An Cnoc, Aberfeldy, Glengoyne, Longmorn, as opposed to Taliskers, Glenlivets etc.

[jcskinner]

No new ideas, but we should keep an eye out for significant whiskey anniversaries. Did anything important happen in 1961, 1911, 1861, 1811, or 1761?

Dunno about the others, but 1811 is a famous year for Cognac. It was the famed 'Comet year', the greatest pre-phylloxera vintage of legend.

At the risk of annoying people, I'm going to re-propose my 'Drink like a Dictator' tasting (previously known as 'Whiskey and Politics'). It could perhaps be based around a couple of the higher end Johnny Walker blends, since politicians have tended to have, shall we say, less impressive tastes in the noble spirit.
Here was my original list of suggestions:

1. One of Mortlach, Johnnie Walker (with optional soda), Locke's: Churchill's favourite whiskies, Johnnie Walker also Kim Jong-Il's and Saddam Hussein's tipple of choice
2. Jameson 15 year old pure pot still: The style of whiskey sold by Jameson when Senator Andrew Jameson, the politician, was the company chairman
3. Cutty Sark - Lyndon Johnson's favourite dram
4. Teacher's - Maggie Thatcher's dram of choice
5. Old Grandad Bourbon - President Harry Truman's favourite
6. Old Crow Bourbon - President Ulysses S. Grant's whiskey of choice - Lincoln famously asked his aides to find out what brand he drank so as to give some to his own generals!
7. White Horse - the whisky Churchill sent to Stalin
8. I.W. Harper Bourbon - the whisky Nixon shared with Kruschev
9. King of Scots blend, Douglas Laing - Idi Amin's whisky - he used to buy 200 cases at a time to dispense to his men via the infamous 'whisky run' from Kampala to Stansted weekly.
10. Michael Collins whiskey.

Lots of good yarns to be told about whisky and politics. Could make for an interesting evening. And the drams aren't viciously expensive either.

Another possible tasting is 'Whiskey as it used to be'. Let's rattle everyone's cupboards and see what falls out. A Bush or Jameson or Powers from a few decades ago don't cost too much, after all. And I think a lot of people might be really interested to see whether whiskeys have changed much in the intervening decades. We could even perhaps try cross-tasting the old against the new.

[IainB]

Did Churchill really drink Locke's?? Now that I didn't know.

[jcskinner]

Did Churchill really drink Locke's?? Now that I didn't know.

Lockes, Mortlach, JW, among many others.
A better question is probably what whiskey DIDN'T Churchill drink!

[IainB]

Did Churchill really drink Locke's?? Now that I didn't know.

Lockes, Mortlach, JW, among many others.
A better question is probably what whiskey DIDN'T Churchill drink!

True - Hanky Bannister was one I think I'd read before - I was just surprised at the Irish whiskey. And given the times the Mortlach is surprising - there weren't a lot of single malts freely available in those days. Then again if you're the prime minister the fact that something isn't freely available probably isn't an issue.

Woudl rationing have applied to government ministers?

[jcskinner]

We're talking about the British Houses of Parliament. They have their OWN whiskey!
In any case, Winston made sure that there was ongoing distillation throughout the war and during rationing afterwards as he was well aware of the lengthy lead-in time to allow whisky to age.
Twas the BBC who said that Winnie's fave dram was Mortlach, by the way. Though he seems to have been fond of whatever he was given. Drank plenty of scotch blends and a touch of Lockes too!

[DavidH]

I really like this one (the Michael Collins and Jameson 15 stretch the concept a bit far, IMHO). It has my vote!

We can hand around the Quality Street with Saddam's dram

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Did Churchill really drink Locke's?? Now that I didn't know.

In Andrew Bielenberg's book "Locke's Distillery: A History" he mentions it but I must dig it out again and see how it was referenced for you.

[JohnM]

Peter the Great loved Irish whiskey, although I don't know which brand. He may have drank it with coke.

[jcskinner]

I've been doing a bit of digging and it appears that Peter the Great may have actually been referring to Bushmills (or in any rate, some North Antrim distillation).
He was here on his European tour in 1697, and visited the North Antrim coast (allegedly visiting a distillery there) and stayed at Donaghadee in Down. He is thought to have drank whiskey in both locations. Later when asked, he made his famous quote about 'of all the wines [sic] Irish is the best."
I've also tracked down Hitler's favourite single malt, and discovered that dictators vary in which Johnnie Walker is their favourite.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Okay trying to figure this out in my head and am bereft of the 40 odd ideas I had about 18 months ago Not saying they were great or anything.

The Old favourites

All ready mentioned ... Todays big sellers matched against it's counterpart from 30 years ago.

The Four seasons

whiskeys matched to the seasons ... Spring = fresh , Summer = light, Autum = rustic ??? Winter = robust and warming... totally subjective of course

Or we could just do a single season at an appropriate time

Irish 12yo's

Jameson flight - Nas, 12yo, Gold, Jameson 15yo (PPS), Jameson 18yo, RVR

Tullamore Flight - Nas, Black 43, 10yo Blend, 10yo Single Malt, 12yo blend & 12yo Heritage blend.

Tyrconnell Flight - Tyrconnell nas, Tyrconnell 10yo Madiera, Port & Sherry, and a couple from Tyrconnell 13-17yo single casks.

Knappogue Flight - 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1998 & 12yo

Lost stills ... I've a few strange ones like Old Irish Gold and Black Eagle both PPS. Also the likes of Willie Napier ... could be included.

I'll try for a few more later.