X-Radiation

I met Ed Kohl last year at a Signatory tasting hosted by Travero’s in Santa Rosa. He’s got a really great presentation, a winning personality and a deep knowledge and appreciation of whisky. Signatory tastings  present expressions of great single malts in ways that the consumer would otherwise never taste. We invited Ed to join us the following week at The Hamilton Whisky Society for a casual get together. We had a wonderful time with some great drinks including a Highland Park 25 OB, Signatory Highland Park 24yo 1977, Signatory Caol Ila 13yo 1990, Signatory Caol Ila 6yo cask strength, Signatory Tamnavulin 24yo 1978 and Signatory Clynelish 29yo 1974. The Clynelish is a sublime whisky. The 6yo Caol Ila is a favorite of mine, all fire and peat with just a little hint of grains and cereal showing through from it’s young age.

Ed was kind enough to gift us with a brand new Signatory expression from Blair Athol, a distillery that is new to me. It’s a wonderful light and fruity whisky with hints of citrus and stone fruit. I recall apricots but I’m going to go back and taste it again at this weeks meeting. This bottle was fresh off the boat and we were fortunate to taste it as a preview before it hits the shelves. Notice the bottling date of 8/5/2009. That’s just about 1.5 months prior to our tasting. Thanks Ed!

In July of 2009 the Hamilton Whisky Society was fortunate to host Robin Coupar from The Glenrothes. He brought an excellent presentation on the history of The Glenrothes and Berry Bros. and Rudd as well as a deep knowledge and appreciation of whisky. It was a smashing evening. The group favorite was The Glenrothes 1975. The Glenrothes 1973 was very interesting with perhaps a note of anise on the back end. The Glenrothes 1985 and The Glenrothes 1991 are excellent and classic expressions of this fine Speyside malt. The Signatory bottle was delicious but uncharacteristically smoky for The Glenrothes which is why I so often enjoy independent bottlings of my favorite whiskies.

Here are representative pictures of the whiskies we enjoyed:

A group of friends got together for a whisky pairing tasting menu this evening. Each guest brought a dish to share and a bottle to pair with their entree. We started with a bit of Finlaggan just to wet our whistles before diving into the tasting menu. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge.

The Kitchen and the Lineup

The Lineup

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This 1978 Ardbeg is even better. Casked before the shuttering of the original distillery which was subsequently bought and reopened by Glenmorangie. There is actually a very clear taste line between the Still Young Ardbeg and this 1978 expression, though the 1978 has much more iodine than the younger whisky. What a great night of tastes. Thanks Michael and Tim!

Heaven in a bottle!

At my friend Michael’s house for an Ardbeg tasting! Michael’s fiend Tim brought over a vertical set of Very Young, Still Young, Almost There, We’ve Arrived! and Renaissance bottlings of Ardbeg. All were delicious however I really enjoyed the fire of the Very Young and Still Young bottles. The Almost There and We’ve Arrived fell a little flat for me, lacking some the the interesting qualities of the younger expressions. The Renaissance was smooth, refined and delicious.

This week is the Malt Advocate WhiskyFest in San Francisco. There are events all week long leading up to the WhiskyFest at the Marriot on Oct. 10th. I’ve got my VIP tickets and I can’t wait to taste drams from all the distillers. I’m posting a list of all the tastings after the jump. It should be a heck of a time! Let me know if you’ll be there.

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My friend Carly occasionaly passes through Bangkok so he stashed a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label at the Big Mango bar down the street from Nana. Stephen and I stopped in after dinner and hung out for a while on Carly’s bottle. It was a nice low-key scene and the hostesses were friendly and helpful. It was really cool to have a drink from my friend’s bottle on a random Thursday in Bangkok while he was still in California.