Blind Whisky Tasting with John Lamond
Last night saw John Lamond‘s Advanced Whisky Course commence at the shiny new venue of “The Good Spirit Co” in Glasgow.
Bursting with way too much Whisky knowledge for one person, John Lamond began the night with a huge download of Whisky information, focussing on why certain processes when making Whisky lend different flavours and charactaristics to the tastes and aromas, not forgetting why these may differ from distillery to distillery.
Feeling a little dazed and confused (like the first day of school) we moved onto the blind tasting. Below are my tasting notes – NB: we were not told what we were tasting until we had written and discussed all our notes as a group – so there was no cheating.
No.1 Cutty Sark
Nose: lemon fondant, cream vanilla slice, nice biscuit, fresh barn floor, yeasty, citrus burst
Taste: yellow starburst chews, lemon lolly, honey drop, bread in honey, crackers in honey
No.2 Isle of Skye
Nose: soft caramel cup, vanilla oily church candle, dried orange, singed crust of toast
Taste: burnt orange skin, lemon rind, marmalade on burnt toast, popcorn
No.3 Tomatin 12
Nose: fresh green apples, lemon drizzle cake, green melon balls, vanilla
Taste: fruit loaf, peach, dry wood, honied, oily/waxy, sherbet fizz, waft of peat smoke
No.4 Scapa 16
Nose: apples, apple skin, strudel, pear drops, bitter grapefruit tang, cloves, musk, sandal wood, wet wood, fresh barley
Taste: walnut whip, milky chocolate, toffee sauce, baked sponge, soft spice, toffee covered coconut
No.5 Kilchoman Machir Bay
Nose: meaty and peaty, acetone, glazed melon, parma ham and melon, salt crystals
Taste: salted fish, fresh sea shells, ashy, cured meat, fatty oily
No.6 Bowmore Legend
Nose: banana bread, light cheesy spread, toasted crumpets, old school sink, heather
Taste: salty sea air, lavender, beach sand, drying tarmac, bitter bertie allsorts, new balloon
An excellent start to the course – more to come over the next 8 weeks…