I've been meaning to write this post for a while but somehow it skipped my mind. A couple of months ago a friend invited me and a couple of other people to an informal Scotch tasting at his house. He has a collection of almost 200 bottles.
He started with some blind tasting, then brought out the heavy calvary, and finally let us pick whatever we wanted to try. Here are some quick notes I took.
1) Littlemill 12yo: fairly drinkable, not much complexity, good starter for a tasting. I thought this was nothing remarkable, but it was nice to try a now silent distillery.
2) Arran sauterness cask: sherry, perfume and a little camphor on the nose, sweet and peppery on the palate, and a short but sweet finish. I have never liked an Arran before so I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Think of it as a less sweet Glenmorangie Nectar D'or.
3) Mortlach rare old: sherry tones with a little muted flavors. Never liked Mortlachs much, this wasn't the exception.
4) Convalmore 36yo: this is probably the most expensive Scotch I have ever had (~$900). Nose: sherry, wood tones, some camphor and eucalyptus, very complex!. Taste: woody, spicy. Very long finish with sherry and lingering pepper. This was an amazing whisky.
After this I stopped taking notes and went to pick something myself. I didn't want to abuse his expensive bottles so I went for fairly priced stuff that I've never tried. Had the Wolfburn which was very young but fairly smooth and complex for a 3(?) year old whisky. To end the tasting I had the Port Askaig 19, which I heard is sourced Caol Ila. It was excellent! This is one that I'm ordering today, and hence why I remember to write this post.
Happy Thanksgiving, cheers!