Last night I headed to another of the monthly whiskey tastings put on by Glengarry’s. The focus was Bruichladdich, an Islay distillery I am not too familiar with.

Bruichladdich is the only independent distillery on Islay, getting rescued from mothballing by a group of private investors in 2000. The distillery is highly traditional. Indeed it is almost backwards looking in its strong local focus. For example, it uses Victorian production methods, bottles on site, and is gradually moving towards using only locally grown organic barley. In terms of peating levels it produces the most lightly peated whiskeys on Islay, though it has plans to introduce some products that will out-peat anything else around. The tall stills lend the spirit a light and delicate character. Not being chill filtered, the whiskeys are relatively oily. Supposedly you can test this by dipping your finger in a glass, then waiting for the whiskey to drop off your finger. The idea is that a chill filtered whiskey will form a drop that falls from your finger, while a non-chill filtered whiskey will simply torment your patience. This sounded safe to try at home. Based on my experiments, either I have no chill filtered whiskey in the house or I lack the patience for this type of empirical research.

The brand representative previously having been a barman we started off unconventionally, with a cocktail made from the 12 year old Bruichladdich, vanilla sugar, lemon juice, lemoncello and muddled pineapple, garnished with lime leaf. Very tasty. The whiskey and pineapple combination reminded me a little of the Algonquin, though obviously this was a lighter and fruitier drink.

Seven whiskeys followed:

- 12 year old: Light, citrusy, a bit of honey. This was more an aperitif whiskey. I could not help thinking it might make a good mizuwari. Perhaps it would be too delicate though.

- 15 year old: Finished with 40 weeks in sauterne casks, this was richer and smoother than the 12 year old. It shared many of the same characteristics though, with the extra complexity and depth seeing the honey become honeycomb. A compromise between an aperitif and a sipper.

- 18 year old: Bruichladdich use some unusual wine casks to finish their whiskeys. This one is aged in a bourbon cask (as were the others), then finished in a German red pinot desert wine cask. There were mangoes and tropical fruit on the nose, with this fruitiness mixing with a little peat in the mouth.

- Links K Club 14 year old: The unusual pink color may have resulted from the syrah cask finish. The nose was intensely alcoholic. That gave way to a fragrant winey taste in the mouth, eventually replaced by a little peat. The finish was very long. The addition of some water softened it up and rounded the edges – an improvement given its intensity.

- Legacy V 33 year old: This one was only 40% alcohol by volume, making it the weakest of the evening. I went and messed it up by adding water after my initial tasting. It did not taste like it needed water, but I usually taste a whiskey first straight and then with water. The addition of water (usually just a few drops) typically opens up the flavors, changing the dimensions of the whiskey and generally improving it. Water was a mistake in this case though. Anyway, pre-drowning the whiskey was a light, delicate, fruity affair, with a strong apple peel characteristic, reinforced with vanilla-laced wood. Other people reckoned it was seaweedy but I did not really get that. Post-drenching it tasted, well. . . watery.

- Moine Mhor 3D: This was full on peaty whiskey, with a fruity character. While the flavor was intense the finish was kind of short and lacking in complexity.

- Port Charlotte 6 year old: This was easily the most intense whiskey of the night, with 40 parts per million of peat (right up there with Ardberg) and 60% alcohol by volume. Obviously it was peaty, and alongside the peat some medicinal notes, and some of the funky ‘old socks’ taste that characterizes Laphroaig. An interesting whiskey.

The good thing about tastings like these is getting the chance to try a range of whiskeys, sample stuff that would not normally be on your radar, and perhaps learn why what you are tasting differs from your usual favorites. Left to my own devices I would probably keep buying peaty Islay whiskeys like Laphroaig, so trying some of the lighter offerings is very interesting.

Mixology Monday (hosted at Scofflaw’s Den) has suddenly sprung on me, bringing the theme of bourbon. I feel a bit inadequate about my effort this time round. Recently I have hardly been drinking bourbon. Mostly it has all been gin, with occasional detours to explore French aperitifs. This state of affairs is a bit odd now I come to think about it. When I first got into cocktails I drank plenty of bourbon drinks (mostly Manhattans and Old Fashioneds), with rum thrown in for variety. Things seem to have changed, and consequently I am low on creative ideas for bourbon. Mind you, when it comes to bourbon I sometimes wonder how creative you need to be. Isn’t an Old Fashioned about as good as it gets? Posting about the Old Fashioned seems redundant though, so I am going to throw together a new (to me) bourbon cocktail from Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.

My original plan had been to do something out of Charles H. Baker’s “Jigger, Beaker and Glass: Drinking Around the World”. Amazon delivered a copy a couple of days ago and I had thought I would take a leisurely flick through and select whatever unusual and tasty bourbon concoction happened to catch my eye. Alas my plan was torpedoed by the near absence of bourbon drinks from Baker’s wonderful book. Why couldn’t the theme this month have been rum or gin? Or maybe even kummel? Baker seems to be heavily in to that sort of thing. Oh well, never mind.

So off to pick up Ted Haigh’s book it is. I have had this book for about a year but for some reason I have never got around to making the Derby. On paper it looks a perfectly fine drink. Somehow though it has never excited me enough to get shaking. I blame the absence of exotic ingredients.

The Derby

1 oz bourbon (Bulleit)

1/2 oz sweet vermouth (Martini & Rossi)

1/2 oz orange curacao (Marie Brizard)

3/4 oz lime juice

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a mint leaf.

A tasty concoction, even if it does not quite blow me away. Being a cross between a Manhattan and a whiskey sour, the vermouth provides the interest. I think I remember complaining that vermouth does not always mix well with sour things. It works fine here.

Using a more robust or higher proof bourbon might help the bourbon assert itself a little more. The other solution could be to increase the quantity a notch. That said, it is pretty tasty as is.

I won’t be rushing to make this one again. But if anyone was offering I wouldn’t say no.

Pineau Experiment No. 6 was perhaps the best of the bunch. . .

The next step was to try mixing some drinks of my own using Pineau des Charentes.

Pineau turned out to slightly awkward stuff to mix with, probably on account of it having such a mild taste. My natural inclination was try substituting pineau in recipes that traditionally call for other aperitif wines (i.e. following well worn patterns like Manhattans and Martinis). This approach did not work well.

While I did not come up with anything truly exceptional, several experiments yielded one or two promising results.

Not following any particular plan, I tried the following.

Experiment #1

2 oz bourbon (Bulleit)

1 oz pineau

½ oz suze

1 tsp lemon added afterwards.

This was not a success. First, there was way too much bourbon. Second, I do not think bourbon and pineau are a good match. A spicier bourbon might be an improvement, but rye would be better still, and definitely in a smaller quantity. Calvados might also be interesting. Again a teaspoon of lemon juice proved an easy way of brightening it up a little. The Suze added a little interest but also did not really fit.

Experiment #2

1 ½ oz pineau

1 ½ oz pisco

½ oz lemon juice

¼ oz Cynar

I figured I would try something using pisco, loosely based on the rhum agricole Pompadour, with the addition of ¼ oz of Cynar to give a bitter and complex finish. While I enjoyed this it did not compare with the Pompadour. The Cynar could be toned down and still do its thing. A teaspoon may be adequate.

Experiment #3

2 oz Pineau des Charentes

1 oz pisco (or calvados)

1 oz fresh pineapple juice

2 dashes peach bitters

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

On first taste this seemed almost too smooth and refreshing – like one of those vodka cocktails. I was not sure it worked. Despite an interesting list of ingredients it tasted boring. I made it again using Calvados instead of pisco, hoping for a better result. The Calvados version did not really work either.

Experiment #4

1 oz pineau

1 oz Cruzan Estate Light Rum

1 drop (not dash) Angostura

½ tsp Kummel

This was good, making a very smooth rum drink that reminded me a little of the El Presidente on account of its soft profile fringed with herbal flavors. It needs to be reworked, but is a decent start. This one deserves repeating.

Experiment #5

1 oz pineau

1 oz rye (Pikesville)

1 drop angostura

2 drops peychauds

This drink pretty much built on my experiences from Experiment #1. It is tasty enough but perhaps a bit mild and uninteresting. A bigger, spicier rye might have helped it.

Experiment #6

2 oz pineau

1 oz dry apricot brandy (i.e. a eau de vie, not a liqueur)

½ oz lemon juice

1 tsp creme de framboise

Tasty. . . The honey taste in the pineau plays nicely with the apricots. The lemon juice and eau de vie keep things dry. The creme de framboise adds some sugar to round things out, plus an extra layer of fruit flavor that contributes to an overall impression of fruity complexity.

Experiment #7

2 oz pisco

1 oz Pineau des Charentes

Dash of Orange Bitters

This was pleasant but unexciting.

I was probably expecting better results from messing around with Pineau. The first drink I tried with the stuff, the Pompadour, set the bar quite high. None of my own efforts came close.

Still, I think experiments #4 and #6 have potential. Experiment #6 was quite good, and Experiment #4 hints at a whole world of possibilities using pineau with rum and small doses of liqueurs or bitters. In general, Pineau seems to work well in drinks that are light on the spirits. Small touches of liqueurs also work nicely.

I would like to do more experimenting using Pineau and rums. There seems to be lots of potential there. It might also be interesting to mix Pineau with aromatized aperitif wines, something I did not try.

So that is it. While my experiments were not completely successful I think I showed there are promising possibilities for using Pineau in cocktails. Pineau des Charentes might not be as versatile as vermouth but it is still underrated as a cocktail ingredient. Used in the right way Pineau can make good drinks.

The Avenue

1 oz passion fruit juice*

1 oz calvados

1 oz bourbon

1 dash orange flower water (about ¼ tsp of a fairly mild Middle Eastern one – but could have added a lot less)

1 dash grenadine (about 1/4 tsp but could have added more)

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass

‘Perfumey’ seems the best word to describe this delightful drink. There are amazing smells from the passion fruit and the orange flower water. I find the bourbon and calvados blend into an interesting base, with the bourbon giving some simple sweetness in the background and the calvados a spirituous fruitiness that provides a nice foundation for the passion fruit. The taste is still fairly challenging though. It smells like heaven, but the taste gives you a jolt – a pleasant one of course.

Freshly squeezed passion fruit juice, while full of amazing flavors and scents, is slightly astringent. Therefore you can afford to be generous with the grenadine. The grenadine will also give a little body to counteract the slightly thin and grainy quality of the passion fruit juice. Be careful not to add so much that you lose the passion fruit color though!

The Jinx

1 oz passion fruit juice (recipe specifically said sweetened so I added a dash of Monin passion fruit syrup to the juice)

1 oz gin

1 oz calvados

1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass

This drink resembles The Avenue above, with the substitution of gin for the bourbon and bitters for the orange flower water. The gin is a tasty swap. It is not necessarily better, but it is definitely good. I am not sure on the bitters though. I wonder if orange bitters would work better, or even peach. Angostura seems to distract a little from the delicate passion fruit. But maybe I just added too much.

Comparing different drinks made with common products is a very interesting exercise. My first impression of this drink was that some of the taste that I had mistaken for orange flower water in the previous drink was actually the passion fruit. Passion fruit really is that aromatic. No wonder the Chinese word for passion fruit literally means “hundred fragrance fruit” (???).

I think I may prefer this drink to the above. It may be less aromatic, but it seems a touch more robust.

The Melody

1 ½ oz gin

¾ oz passion fruit juice

¾ oz Lillet

1 tsp Cointreau

1 tsp calvados

Here the calvados becomes a mere accent and the Lillet softens the drink up and helps everything blend together. The passion fruit juice might need a touch of sweetening, but this is a smooth drink, smooth to a fault if anything. The passion fruit takes center stage, with the other flavors just providing little touches of color.

The above three drinks were all decent. The Melody was nice but perhaps a touch one dimensional. I rather liked the Jinx.

The last drink I tried was a bit of an oddball and I am including it more for the sake of completeness than as a recommendation.

Sardi’s Delight

1 ½ oz gin

¼ oz lemon juice

¼ oz passion fruit juice (in fact I just added about a ½ oz of pulp)

¼ oz grenadine

¼ oz pastis

1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake over ice and double strain into a cocktail glass.

Like a lot of drinks with a decent dose of pastis this tasted of. . . pastis. There was something interesting in the passion fruit and pastis combination, but for the sake of balance the pastis needed to be toned way down. I think passion fruit and pastis would be better companions in a Tiki drink style concoction that contains a decent slug of passion fruit juice and a dash or two of pastis. Maybe something like a Monkey Gland, made with passion fruit instead of or as well as orange could also be interesting?

* I extracted juice from the fruit by cutting them open, then putting the pulp in a tea strainer resting over a container and pressing with a muddler. You will need to give the juice a few minutes to drip through the strainer, and it is difficult to get a good extraction (the pulp tends to slide away from the muddler rather than give up its juice), but each fruit should comfortably yield up to 1/2 oz of juice. With a better method of extracting the juice you could probably get a little more.

With a name like Seamus, I felt obliged to come up with something to mark St. Patrick’s Day. Thus, in a moment of inspiration, I reached for the Crème de Menthe, Chartreuse and Midori, then got busy carving a clover out of a lime shell. The world was about to be introduced to the Leprechaun’s Abortion.

Don’t worry. . . I realize the world does not need another drink whose only distinguishing feature, besides tasting awful, is being green. Instead, I thought again along the lines of tea, specifically Twining’s Irish Breakfast Tea. Incidentally this tea comes in a green cardboard box that could be cut into fine clover leaf garnishes if required. I elected to leave this aspect of the product’s St. Patrick’s Day potential unrealized however, deciding instead to simply infuse Irish Breakfast Tea in Jameson’s Irish Whiskey. Why not?

Then I thought there was not much point infusing whiskey with tea alone, and Irish Breakfast Tea at that. Does an Irish breakfast not demand bacon? Thus into the infusion went some bacon. Wisdom intervened at this point, quietly whispering that I should leave the eggs aside until the infusion was finished. I obeyed.

So there I had my drink. It would be a whiskey sour, that quintessential morning potion of leisured Americans, made Irish for the day with hearty breakfast flavors of tea and bacon, and bolstered with a silken egg. It would be simultaneously Irish and American, a true immigrant success story. Some luck would be required to make it all work, but the Irish are rumored to be blessed in that department.

The above is not a joke. Tea infuses beautifully in gin, so why not in whiskey? Quite a few people have experimented with infusing vodka with bacon, and some have also tried Bourbon, so again why not Irish? Bacon and tea are a popular breakfast combination, and there is even such a thing as tea-smoked bacon, so why not combine them in a drink? Then consider the alternative – a mixture of crème de menthe, Midori and Chartreuse. The bacon breakfast cocktail idea is looking tempting, no? So mutter a Hail Mary and take the plunge. . .

The recipe:

1 ½ oz tea and bacon infused Jameson’s Irish whiskey*

¾ oz lemon juice

½ oz simple syrup

1 egg white

Shake long and hard over ice to froth up the egg. Strain into a cocktail glass. I like to double strain shaken egg drinks (i.e. strain through a sieve as well as with the cocktail strainer) to remove ice shards and possible strands of egg. I find ice shards do not sit well in shaken egg drinks.

The verdict? Not bad at all. The strength of the bacon taste will vary a lot depending on the bacon used, the quantity, the infusion time, etc. I found that the tea dominated, with the bacon occupying the background. The bacon was there as an aroma and some saltiness. This was more or less what I was aiming for, the sense of drinking a cup of tea at breakfast time. Irish Breakfast is quite a tannin heavy tea, being a blend with a high ratio of Assam, so this drink has a little bitterness.

I thought about using maple syrup rather than simple syrup but decided not to, at least initially, because I wanted to see how the flavors worked in isolation before complicating things further. Maple syrup would probably be a nice addition, though perhaps too dominant.

* Make the whiskey infusion as follows. The quantities are small because this was experimental. Put 1 tsp Twining’s Irish Breakfast Tea into 100 ml whiskey to infuse for two hours. After two hours, strain to remove the tea. Now place a rasher of lightly fried bacon in the tea-flavored whiskey (I used a mild and lean Danish bacon). Infuse for at least 24 hours before using. The bacon is slow to infuse compared to the tea. You could probably infuse for several days or longer. You will get some bacon fat on the top of the infusion. Since I used very lean bacon the amount of fat was minimal and I didn’t bother removing it. Small quantities should get either emulsified by the eggs or removed in the strainer. If you have large quantities of fat then simply lift them off the infusion with a spoon. Fat solidifies in the fridge so this is easily done.

Glenborrodale Castle in Argyll, home of Adelphi Distillery Ltd.

On Thursday evening I went to a whiskey tasting put on by The Adelphi Distillery together with online retailer Whisky Galore, and hosted by Glengarry Wines.

The Adelphi Distillery is no longer a distillery as such, having become an independent bottler with a focus on single cask whiskeys. That is, Adelphi seeks out interesting and high quality casks of single malt whiskey and bottles selected casks individually. The whiskey is not chill filtered (a process that removes flavors), and no water is added. A single cask yields no more than a few hundred bottles of whiskey, making each whiskey they release unique. Single cask whiskeys are distinct from standard single malts, which the distilleries blend from multiple casks to produce large volumes of consistently flavored product. These standard products are also often diluted with water and/or chill filtered.

Recently I have started getting interested in independent bottlers and single cask whiskeys. The catalyst for this was visiting the recently opened Whisky Shop in Auckland and buying an amazing bottle of Laphroaig released by a small independent bottler called Jack and Jack. Laphroaig is my favorite whiskey and this bottle was easily the best Laphroaig I had ever had. I had tried distillery bottlings of cask strength Laphroaig before, but this independent bottling was in a different league. The usual eccentric Laphroaig character was there, but more intense than usual. Oddly, despite its intensity, the whiskey was more effortlessly likeable than most Laphroaig, with a honeyed finish that made for extreme drinkability despite its 53.4% alcohol by volume. Following that Laphroaig experience, I was keen to taste more products from independent bottlers.

The remains of an excellent independent bottling of Laphroaig

Alex Bruce of Adelphi led the tasting. He began by going over some of the background history of Adelphi, but pretty soon we were getting down to the business of tasting whiskey.

We started with a “Breath of the Highlands”, a 20 year old whiskey from an unnamed Highland distillery. In cases where the distillery that produced the cask prefers that their name not appear on an independent bottling Adelphi uses the Breath of the Region moniker, with the region from which the whiskey comes giving a clue as to its origin and character. In this “Breath of XXX” range of whiskeys Adelphi aims to select casks whose style represents the relevant region, giving drinkers some idea of what to expect. Getting back to the whiskey, it was matured in a bourbon cask, bottled at 63.5%, and produced by a distillery whose products are generally used only in blends. Apparently all but the most famous distillers of single malts typically get paid more to sell their product to blenders than they can earn selling it as single malt themselves. The whiskey was light, sweet and complex. It had an unusual floral character, reminiscent of pollen or some hard-to-place herb. Alex accurately described it as having a beeswax character. The beeswax even affected the mouth feel, which included an odd impression of a film on your tongue. The taste did not grab me exactly but no denying it was an interesting whiskey.

Whiskey number two was a 17 year old from Glen Garioch on the east coast of Scotland. It was bottled at 55.8% after maturation in a bourbon cask. This one had a resiny nose, and was sweet and full with some light vanilla tastes. Apparently it was lightly peated, which I am ashamed to say I just couldn’t pick. I think I have drunk too much heavily peated Islay whiskey and not enough non-peated whiskey, making me desensitized to peat. I just taste peat as ‘whiskey’. After adding water this one became a little too light, even to the point of becoming uninteresting.

Number three was a Linkwood 16 year old, from Speyside. The whiskey was matured in a bourbon cask (despite being uncharacteristically dark for a bourbon matured whiskey), and bottled at 49.3%. As in the case of the first whiskey, the products of this distillery are primarily used in blends and only rarely seen as single malts. I really liked this one. It was toasty and malty, with a little vanilla and caramel, plus some bitter undercurrents making everything interesting. There was some fruitiness too, with something like apple peels going on. Obviously it tasted of whiskey, but at the same time I could not help being reminded of calvados. This was very nice stuff.

Whiskey number four was the piece de resistance, “The Whiskey that cannot be named”, a 50 year old whiskey distilled in 1953 and bottled in 2003. It was matured in a sherry cask. The aroma was resiny again, with some perfumed wood, a hint of peaches, and heavy Christmas cake. The taste was sweet and lightly winey, with a dried fruit and citrus finish. It was extremely rich. Again there was some light vanilla. While this was delicious stuff, for me at any rate it was not the be all and end all of whiskey. Although it is a nonsensical apples and oranges comparison, I think I’d rather drink a nice Laphroaig. That said, simply tasting such old whiskey was extremely interesting.

The fifth whiskey was a “Breath of the Isles”, and was 13 years old, matured in a bourbon cask on the island, and bottled at 52.6%. This one was fruity, sweet, and fiery, with plenty of peat taste. I really enjoyed this one, finding it a refreshing contrast to what had gone before. Probably my jaded palette was latching onto the familiar peat taste. The guy sitting beside me reckoned that this was from Talisker. If he was right then I should give Talisker another try.

The sixth and final dram was a “Breath of Islay”, and was 14 years old and bottled at 56.8%. I found it did not have much peat in the aroma, which seemed to be more of caramel, resin and a little mint (not unlike Orval, a Trappist beer). On actually tasting it was lightly fruity with a delicate peaty taste. While I enjoyed this one, the previous one made a bigger impression.

My notes on a couple of these probably sound a little negative, but make no mistake they were all excellent whiskeys. The problem is that when you taste so many really nice whiskeys together you easily lose perspective and become quite picky. It would have been nice to have spent more time on the 50 year old. Maybe that one could could have been better appreciated in isolation from all the others. Overall though the Linkwood and the Breath of the Isles were my picks.

Alex passed on an interesting piece of information. While I realized that climate differences between Kentucky and Scotland have major implications for the maturation process, I was surprised to hear him say that the process of alcohol versus water evaporation from the cask tends to be reversed between these two places. In the cool climate of Scotland alcohol tends to evaporate from the cask before water does, causing the strength of the whiskey to reduce as it matures. Meanwhile, in Kentucky the opposite tends to apply, meaning whiskeys tend to increase in alcohol as they mature. This alcohol evaporation phenomena is especially prevalent in Islay, and so many Islay whiskeys are matured on the mainland.

1 oz Italian vermouth (Martini)

½ – ¾ oz Irish whiskey (Jamesons)

½ oz lemon juice

¼ oz Kummel (Wolfschmit)

1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Regarding the quantity of whiskey, the Savoy suggests ½ oz while Ted Haigh’s CocktailDB suggests ¾ oz. I went with the latter suggestion. You can never have too much whiskey.

This is a very odd drink. It smells mostly of vermouth. The taste is an interesting mix of caraway and vermouth. There is something worthwhile happening in that combination. The whiskey is a little lost but I guess it helps give the drink backbone. The lemon juice is the part that doesn’t quite work for me. Maybe this drink would be better if it wasn’t a sour? Personally I find the sour aftertaste too much of a contrast to the herbal-caraway flavor. It’s an interesting drink and might work for a few people. I am not one of them though, despite usually enjoying herbal tastes.

If you want a caraway and herb flavored sour this is just the thing.

1 oz bourbon (Bulleit)

1 oz French Vermouth (Noilly Prat)

¼ oz lemon juice

¼ oz blackberry brandy (Peres Chartreuse)

1 dash Angostura bitters

Stir over ice, strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

I may never make this one again but it’s really not bad. Maybe it lacks a real focus but it has interesting flavors and isn’t too sweet. Perhaps it could even do with a little more blackberry brandy. The blackberry brandy and vermouth combination is nice, and reminiscent of the way vermouth and Creme de Cassis go so well together.

On Saturday I attended Whiskey Live in Auckland. Whiskey Live is a whiskey event that creeps around the globe dousing various cities in whiskey for the day. The Auckland event was mostly about Scotch, with a single lonely ‘Bourbon’ producer, a little whiskey from Tasmania and New Zealand, and I think some Irish whiskey floating around somewhere. In the U.S. there is probably a little more American whiskey. Maybe the Auckland event could have done with some more American whiskey, but perhaps that might have distracted the focus.

At any rate there was a huge range of Scotch whiskey. All the Scotch distilleries I knew of were represented, plus plenty that were new to me. The range of whiskey was impressive enough, but the venue provided the finishing touch. The Civic Theater is a truly amazing piece of art deco architecture and filling a grand old building like that with fine whiskeys and a crowd gathered specially to sample them made for a somewhat magical occasion.

As I walked in a got handed a bag full of goodies, most crucially a tasting glass and a pile of tasting vouchers. I flicked through the guide book to see what was on offer and found way too much information to actually take in. I tried finding a table and looking through the book in detail. This didn’t work either though. A cocktail competition starting up at the bar across from my table threatened to distract me further, the guide book contained too many possibilities to digest, and time was of the essence. I decided to start by sampling the New Zealand ’bourbon’, and use a random wander trying to find it to get my bearings and see what else was out there.

The show was divided into three levels. The circle level of the Civic seemed to mostly be Islay whiskeys, the foyer level offered a cocktail making competition and whiskeys for retail sale, and the lower level contained the main show, comprising a huge range of Scotch whiskeys plus a few from New Zealand and Tasmania. The New Zealand ’bourbon’ was on the lower level so I started there.

The Old Busman ‘bourbon’ came in two varieties, a seven year old black label and a four year old gold label. I started with the black label. I hadn’t been sure what to expect but it was a pleasant enough surprise. It was smooth to a fault with some vanilla and a little bit of tannin. Pleasant if not not very exciting or complex. It seemed like it could make a nice smooth mixing whiskey. The distiller compared it to Gentleman Jack. It has been too long since I’ve tried Gentleman Jack. However, I remember it as being a pleasant enough whiskey that was too smooth for its own good. There may be something in the comparison. After that I tried the gold label. This one was less pleasant, coming across initially with a slightly peculiar whiff of old sock or similar. An odd taste like that could almost be impressive in an Islay whiskey but in a bourbon it was just odd. After a few sips that smell seemed to dissipate. All in all the New Zealand bourbon was nothing I would bother to seek out again. The production methods were also apparently slightly unorthodox, with the spirit being matured in stainless steel tanks and ‘oaked’ using wood chips. While the result was not unpleasant it lacked character.

Next I tried a couple of whiskeys from Sullivans Cove, a Tasmanian distillery. They were both decent if not especially memorable. The second was the show bottling, and was a very light and smooth whiskey. It wasn’t the type of thing I would normally drink but good nevertheless.

After that I headed upstairs to try some Ardberg. The 10 year old was the only variety on offer. Compared to the Islay whiskeys I am more used to drinking (i.e. Laphroaig or Lagavullin), it was anything but peaty – despite the brand rep (who unlike most of the reps there didn’t really seem to be a whiskey person) talking up that aspect of the taste. Still, I had to agree with her that there was something quite elegant about it compared to others from Islay. It was less exciting as some but definitely nice.

I spent a little while watching the cocktail competition, and by that stage it was time for the first of the two master classes I had enrolled in. The first master class was titled Secrets of Scotland and basically introduced five lesser known distilleries. The class was taken by Dominic Roskrow of Whisky Magazine. The session was a little light on solid information about the distilleries and whiskeys but he was an entertaining speaker. The five whiskeys are summarized below:

- The first whiskey was from the Arran Distillery on the Isle of Arran, which is Scotland’s newest distillery. I found it unusual stuff. It reminded me a little of Chinese Baijiu, with some odd fruity flavors. Unlike Baijiu the effect was pleasant. Dominic described it as creamy, something I didn’t pick up myself. Despite this being an island distillery the whiskey wasn’t peated. I guess that was one reason the fruit flavors were so evident. I was not sure how much I actually liked this but it was one of the more interesting whiskeys of the day and one I would definitely like to try again.

- Whiskey number two was a Bunnahabhain from Islay. This one was mildly smoky, rich and sweet. It was extremely drinkable stuff but somehow not a favorite with me. Dominic reckoned it was great stuff for a session. He is right but I found it a little one dimensional.

- Number three was a rare one, a discontinued 15 year old Longmorn from Speyside that had been couriered over specially from Scotland. Apparently Pernod Ricard now owns Longmorn and decided to discontinue the 15 year old and replace it with a 16 year old at twice the price. The result has been that the 16 year old has failed to take off while the 15 year old has become a collector’s item. This one was delicious stuff. It was smooth and rich with caramel flavors, but simultaneously sharp and full of citrus and orange notes. Definitely a stand out. Longmorn shares warehouses with Benreiach, who make some unusual peated Speyside whiskeys (e.g. Authenticus).

- Number four was an independent bottling of Caol Isla. Caol Isla is widely used in blending, especially by Johnny Walker. Apparently Caol Isla only recently started getting promoted as a single malt, in response to the shortage of Lagavulin – supposedly caused because of a miscalculation of barrel sizes when planning Lagavulin’s inclusion in the malts of Scotland whiskey pedestal you see in bars and bottle stores. The whiskey was peaty but pleasantly smooth at the same time.

- Whiskey number five was Ledaig (pronounced le-chig), a peated whiskey produced at the normally non-peated Tobermorey distillery on the Isle of Mull (same side as Islay). Two peated whiskeys in a row may have been too much for me and this one did not come over as pleasantly as the previous one. Once again it was peaty but beyond that it did not make much of an impact.

With the master class finished I went and did some more exploring. I tried one of the Benriach whiskeys. I meant to try the Bunnahabhain Islay on the neighboring stand but somehow forgot to do it. I also tried the Tullibardine port wood finish and didn’t like it that much. It was kind of heavy. Obviously when you taste too many whiskeys in quick succession your perception starts to get a bit out of whack, but I think these dark whiskeys finished in richly flavored barrels are just a bit much for me.

I watched some more of the cocktail competition and saw an English bartender from Sweet (a bar I have been hearing a lot about but have yet to visit) making an interesting drink using Famous Grouse, homemade blueberry liqueur, rosemary flambéd in Grand Marnier, and possibly some other ingredient I have forgotten. It looked impressive and the result had an interesting rosemary flavor. I was not sure if the whiskey carried through very strongly but my taste buds had probably been pretty much desensitized by that point. Upstairs I tried some Laphroaig Quarter Cask and got chatting with a guy who had had been in the previous master class, visited the distillery, and spent the next couple of years flavoring his BBQs with a chunk of peat he cut out of the ground there.

By this stage it was time for the next round of master classes so I headed back for another session with Dominic Roskrow. This session was on the influence of wood on whiskey and was more interesting than the previous one. I guess the nature of the topic lent it to being more informative. In my by that stage somewhat inebriated state, the following bits and pieces struck me as interesting. Apparently around 75% of the taste of whiskey comes from wood. Actually it would have been fascinating to have had the chance to try some fresh, unaged whiskey in this class. That would be the real way to learn the influence of wood on its flavor. I wonder why they didn’t do something so obvious? Apparently wood also takes out of whiskey as well as adding to it, with fatty acids remaining in the wood after it has been used to age whiskey. Interestingly, the ‘ale’ from which whiskey is distilled is a sour ale that is purposefully produced in unhygienic conditions, something like a Belgian Lambic. The strength of that beer is around 7%. Again tasting some of that beer would be a good way to learn more about how whiskey gets its flavor. Never mind. On the subject of caks, apparently Bourbon casks are 1/10 of the price of sherry casks (due to the Bourbon regulations mandating new casks ensuring a continuous supply of used ones). Meanwhile, sherry cask conditioned whiskeys are much darker than bourbon cask conditioned ones. Anyway, on to the whiskeys, of which again there were five:

- Number one was an Auchentoshan Three Wood from Glasgow, matured successively in Oloroso, Pedro Ximenez and Bourbon casks. My notes were getting scanty by this point though I remember enjoying this one.

- I can’t read my own writing to see what the name of the distillery was for number two. It looks like Glenfiddich but that somehow seems wrong. In any case, it was an ‘oak cross’, meaning that it was matured in a mixture of virgin and bourbon oak. I think the ratio was that 1/15 of the whiskey was matured in virgin oak casks and the remainder in the usual bourbon casks. In any event it was tasty.

- Number three was an organic whiskey. It seems I gave up on trying to spell the distillery, though it looks to have been Benromach. This was maybe the most interesting whiskey of the day. I really liked it. It was matured purely in virgin oak casks and as a result had a massive oak flavor. Obviously this made it taste uncannily like Bourbon, but of course it was made purely from barley rather than a corn dominated mixture of corn, rye, wheat and barley. It was like a weird cross-over and was definitely a drink to completely change your perceptions of whiskey. I was so impressed by this one that it ended up being by far the most lasting influence of the whole session. I think I have had a similar whiskey before from Compass Box (or maybe I am thinking of one matured in used chardonnay casks), but in any event this one was a real stand out.

- Number four was an 18 year old Glenmoragie. It was very nice but didn’t leave an especially deep impression.

- Number five was another whose distillery I ended up not noting. I think it was called something like Bira Boonah. The whiskey was very strong (67% I think), very dark, and was heavily influenced by the cask. Despite the intense dark color this one was not at all cloying, perhaps partly because of the high alcohol.

This second class evolved into a pretty lively question and answer session, perhaps another reason why the last couple of whiskeys didn’t get quite the attention they might otherwise have done. Then was some discussion after the class, a little time to race around trying a couple more whiskeys before the show packed up, and then it was time to stagger home. To get more out of the tasting side of things it would probably be sensible to spit the whiskeys out rather than finishing every sample. You just can’t drink that much whiskey and stay focused. On the other hand it seems like a waste to pour the stuff away. I think there were a few spittoons scattered around. I didn’t see too many people using them though. More water stands for rinsing glasses might also have been good.

It was a good event and I’d definitely go again. Next time round it would be good to get hold of the program a little earlier and have more time to read through the material and plan what I really want to sample.

Incognito

6 parts Lillet

3 parts Cognac

1 part apricot brandy

1 dash Peychauld’s Bitters

Stir over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

This is excellent! It is a nice smooth drink that should show off a good apricot brandy very well. It is also a nice drink for showing off Lillet. As a fruity and summery aperitif wine Lillet makes a great partner to a flavor like apricot. Lillet being slightly bitter means you have to pick the apricot flavor out in this drink, but not every apricot brandy drink should taste assertively of apricots. The Cognac adds some backbone and richness, and the Peychaud’s Bitters give complexity without the heavy spicy notes of something like Angostura. Not being an especially strong drink it is also suitable for the oversized cocktail glasses that are favored these days. My only reservation is that since the formula of Lillet changed in the 1980s to become less bitter, this drink must taste a little different to how it was intended.

Culross Cocktail

1 ½ oz gold rum (I used Cruzan Estate)

½ oz Lillet

¼ oz lime juice

¼ oz apricot brandy

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

This drink has tons of potential. It was a tad light bodied and watery, but I colder ice and a different rum might improve that. Maybe the proportions should also be reworked a little. There are several versions of this drink. This drink deserves to be looked at further.

Peck

1 ½ oz gin

½ oz dry vermouth

½ oz apricot brandy

Stir over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

This is a simple but very tasty drink. There is a similar drink that uses Crème de Cassis in place of the apricot brandy. I think it is called a Parisien or something similar. Anyway, this one uses the same principle but with a different liqueur.

Maidens Prayer Variation

¾ oz gin

¾ oz Lillet

½ oz calvados

½ oz apricot brandy

Stir over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The addition of calvados makes this one very interesting. However, as it stands I think it comes across as a little confused. Some tweaking around with the proportions might really improve it. It could deserve a second look some time.

Mayfair Cocktail

1 1/2 oz gin

1/2 oz orange juice

1/2 oz apricot brandy

1 dash of pimento dram

optional pinch of cloves (I didn’t bother – but in retrospect I should probably have added a dash of Angostura Bitters since that has a clove taste)

Shake with ice and strain into a glass.

I was excited about this one. It isn’t often I get a chance to break out my homemade pimento dram. Sadly it didn’t do much for me. The apricot brandy and orange juice combination is just not exciting. This might work better with a tarter citrus juice.

Charlie Lindbergh

1 ¼ oz gin

1 oz Lillet

¼ oz apricot brandy

1 dash orange bitters

Stir over ice and strain into a glass.

Tasty but average.

Prohibition

1 oz gin

1 oz Lillet

¼ oz orange juice

¼ oz apricot brandy

Shake over ice, garnish with a lemon twist, and strain into a cocktail glass.

Given the excellent name and the list of ingredients I had been expecting to enjoy this one. Unfortunately it was a bit of a let down. It looks good on paper but somehow the orange juice-apricot-Lillet combination does not work very well. Orange juice with Lillet tastes slightly insipid.

Barbara East Cocktail

1 oz bourbon

¾ oz grapefruit juice

½ oz apricot brandy

¼ tsp sugar (I left this out)

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

This was pleasant enough but not especially exciting.

Shrapnel

1 ¼ oz bourbon

½ oz sweet vermouth

½ oz dry vermouth

¼ oz apricot brandy

Stir over ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange slice.

This is really just an apricot accented Manhattan. Neither unpleasant nor very exciting.