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…

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.