Presenting…Bowmore & Paul A Young Chocolates

From perhaps the most famous – and certainly most distinctive – of the whisky regions comes the Islay Single malt of Bowmore. One of the oldest distilleries in Scotland, they choose to dry their malt with hot air for 45 hours, and peat for just 15 hours, so it does not have the power or an Ardbeg or a Lagavulin but it does make for easier drinking and a good one to start Islay novices on. Bowmore is also mainly aged in ex-Bourbon casks and these come from just two sources - Heaven Hill and Wild Turkey. So introduction over and our host Phil Nickson (clearly a Colin Dunn fan!) started us off with some tricks when tasting:

        

-     Try to smell the whisky with your mouth open

-          Little sniff first so you do not burn the senses with ethanol

-          Put your hand on top and shake (or pour a little into palm), rub till dry then smell your hands

Our first whisky was Bowmore 12 Years Old (40%) paired with Sea Salted Caramel filled chocolate.

Colour of golden syrup

Smell of bonfire smoke, TCP, BBQ char and vanilla really comes through with a bit of time in the glass

Taste is sweet at front, more of that vanilla with sharp brine on sides of the tongue

The match? The dark chocolate coating finishes the whisky really well adding bitter notes to the vanilla

Then onto Bowmore 15 Years Old (43%) with a Dark Chocolate Truffle

Colour is darker gold from more sherry influence

Smell is liquid caramel with some medicinal notes and a lot of (fresh) fruit

Taste is spicy from extra 3%, deeper sugary richness and has a coffee finish, yum!

The match? Not as strong I do not think but again a nice bitter/sweet match

The third was Bowmore 18 Years Old (43%) with a birds nest type thing of Dark Chocolate and Nuts

Colour was darker again from extra barrel time

Smell was even sweeter, sweet chestnuts roasting and fruit cake – Christmas anyone??

Bowmore and peated malt

Taste was spicier still, with milk chocolate and nuts

The match? I don’t like nuts so…No Comment!

No onto the big boys and Bowmore 10 Years Old Tempest Batch 3 (55.6%)

This whisky is aged by the sea wall in their warehouse so there is a lot of salt on the palate and this is really very much bonfire smoke. There is also a bigger punch at this alcohol level so a bit of water goes a long way to bringing out the complex web of flavours. At around £45 if you are looking for a special present for a whisky fan this may hit the spot

And lastly a whisky that cost £300 a bottle, which only has (now!) 119 bottles available in the UK and sits at cask strength 52.3%: 1985 Bowmore. All I can saw is a heady mix of TCP and honeycomb. What a treat, one to enjoy without tapping away at the tasting notes!

As ever, thanks to Callooh Callay for hosting these awesome tasting opportunities - and for the incredibly tasty mini hot dogs too! 

Presenting...Pisco and Arrack (I know, what?!)

Callooh Callay’s first Tasting Tuesday of 2012 was a little off the cuff, a change from the polished brand ambassadors who know frankly everything you throw at them. But this was new territory for me and as a virgin Pisco/Arrack taster I had no idea what I would find in my glass.

We started with Ceylon Arrack, here are the facts:

-          spirits distilled from coconut appendage sap caught in clay pot

-          takes 5 to 6 tress to get enough sap to distill for one bottle

-          the guys climbing up the tress for your drink are called toddy tappers

-          this version comes from Sri Lanka though there are various national versions

-          it starts fermenting almost immediately with no yeast added due to climate

Ceylon has been in production since 1924 and is produced using the continuous still method. There is no set aging but average is 3 years in Sri Lankan wood. This is dense and impenetrable, similar to using steel. It does not impart anything but allows the product to harmonise and mellow.

Colour: pale straw

Nose: slightly meaty, powerful, almost old claret like, spicy

Palate: slightly meaty, malty, strangely fresh

Mixed with coconut water: palate softens, adds sweetness but nose becomes even stronger

It is not like anything I have had before, almost incomparable, but I am not sure that I will be ordering this at a bar anytime soon but if you fancy trying it mix with ginger ale

Then we moved onto Aba Pisco, this one coming from Chile and alternative versions from Bolivia and Peru:

-          distilled from wine of Muscat grapes

-          Aba is only made with the juice – no skin, no stalks

-          similar to cognac or grappa

-          takes 10 kg grapes to make one bottle

So this spirit is dsitlled twice to 60-70% and is allowed two months to settle and breath; French oak aging is now going on within the Aba brand. It is then diluted (as opposed to distilled like in Peru) down to 40%.

Colour:White

Nose: Floral, grapey like a Southern France sweet wine, honey, pear, honeysuckle

Palate: Spicey from alcohol, grapey, melon, honeysuckle, honeyed pear, soor ploom notes

If you fancy trying this one what about a Pisco Sour

3 parts Pisco

1 1/2 parts lemon juice
1 - 2 tbsp sugar

Add all ingredients to a mixer with ice. Shake well (until ice is melted) and serve

Many thanks to http://www.calloohcallaybar.com/ for putting this on

Presenting…Havana Club Rum (photos to follow)

Last Tuesday I returned to the scene of the crime – Callooh Callay – for another of their fabulous Jub Jub member tasting evenings. Actually I have always been remarkably well behaved at this bar; with it being one of my favourites I would hate to lose my privileges! And it remains one of my favourites as I arrived early especially to enjoy one of their fabulous scotch eggs, this time accompanied by surprisingly tasty tomato ketchup popcorn and predictably excellent “Fine and Dandy”, or figgy pudding as described in the menu.

So onto the main event with the glamorous Meimi, a self expressed “Scuban” – a Scottish Cuban. She was keen for us to try not only the different rum expressions but to put them in cocktail context and to add to food to really think about flavour pairings. Some facts:

• Rums are aged in a Solera System, an idea imported from Jerez, Spain
• The barrels go through Wild Turkey Bourbon and Scotch distilleries before arriving in Cuba
• The liquid, when it comes straight off the still, is called Aguardiente – firewater
• If you want to test the quality of dark rum, coat a wine glass with rum and leave upside down on the table for 20 minutes, when you return it should smell of rum, rather than distinct blocks of flavour

Havana Club 3 Year Old

-          in a beetroot daiquiri

-          served with stilton and walnut

It smelt fresh and almost grassy

It tasted like root beer, slightly medicinal and developed caramel notes with time but retained fresh nose

Smooth and good length

Havana Club Especial

-          Cuba libre

-          Plantain crisps

It smelt like caramel and nutmeg

It tasted like vanilla, green apple and spice

It was smoother, heavier and longer retaining grassiness at the end

Havana Club 7 Year Old

-          rich daiquiri

-          grilled tropical fruit and parma ham with spices

It smelt like 1&2 – caramel and fresh grass

It tasted a bit like damp earth (in a good way)

We should be picking up dried fruit, bitter chocolate, coffee, sweet tobacco – I didn’t!

One to drink straight due to elegance, to quiet for cocktails?

Havana Club Seleccion de Maestros

-          straight

-          with an orange flavoured chocolate

Unblended 10 year old aguardiente with needs all 6 blenders to agree on quality and style before it can be released, rare and clearly more expensive

It smells like fresh caramel, coffee and orange

It tastes like fire and has more bite but a smooth finish

Now if you want to go all out, look for Havana Club Maximo Rum at £1500 a bottle. With only 1000 bottles a year we’d all by lucky to ever try this.

Great night had, again. Thanks!

Presenting... Mr Colin Dunn

Tasting Tuesday in Callooh Callay this week brought Mr Colin Dunn, Diageo whisky brand manager extraordinaire, and six whiskies which were almost all new to me. I could spend hours writing down Colin's pearls of wisdom here but I will stick with his first rule when tasting: The Nose, which came with:

"I am very much into foreplay with my whisky"

And onto the palate: Hold the whisky in your mouth 1 second for every year of age. So a 12 year old gets 12 seconds in the mouth...if you can handle it.

We started with Johnny Walker Black Label (a blend of 39 single malts and 1 grain don't you know!) which was sweet vanilla all the way through. Next came a 10 year old Talisker (age doesn't always matter!) which gave us both a mouth of bonfire smoke and a beautiful cocktail from Julien Lafond, Grand Marnier brand manager, which was a twist on the whisky sour:

50ml Talisker
20ml Rhubarb Puree (try the Chase brand) 
20ml lemon juice
20ml Black Cherry syrup
Some egg white and topped with a black cherry spray

The last of this flight was a whisky I had neither tasted nor heard of - Mortlach from Speyside. This was very fresh and almost green with a white pepper finish. And if that was not enough a 19th Century appeared on the table.

30ml Talisker

A bit of Lillet Rouge

20ml Creme de Cacao White

20ml Lemon Juice

The next round compared Lagavulin 16 year old to 12 year old and the colour difference in just 4 years was huge. The 16 year old was firey lapseng tea and notes of caramel and although starting soft it powers through and finishes on a bitter note. The 12 year old is floral but in the mouth rich and almost thick with smoke tearing across the tongue and leaving smokey bacon at the end. 

A special treat ended the tasting - a whisky called Saint Magdalaine. This distillery closed in 1983 so although age is not everything this is a piece of history. From the lowlands, it is unusually triple distilled. And what a burn. An honour to try but my favourite of the night - Lagavulin 12 year old, definitely.

And to finish where we started with Colin:

"Smells like teen spirit, tastes like Nirvana"

Classic.