Jim Carhart and I attended the 12th Annual Single Malt Scotch Whisky Extravaganza last Wednesday evening in downtown Washington. It was a jacket-required affair that turned out to be rather run-of-the-mill as far as whisky selections went. I was hoping for a chance to try a few Scotches that are normally out of my league or unavailable here, but that wasn’t the case. Still it’s hard to find fault with an evening spent sipping good Scotch and raiding a buffet filled with cheese-stuffed pastas and a million other foods not normally on my menu. And did I succumb to the buffet? You bet!
Tasting Notes:
After all was said and done, old favorites shone brightest.
Laphroaig 10 year old – Imagine trying to eat a live wolverine, but you’re wearing silk jammies and smoking a pipe on a wharf on the North Sea at the same time. A combination of claws and ferocity mixed with silky pampering and seaside tastes and smells. I have no idea why one would try to attempt to eat a live wolverine, or lounge on a wharf in Hef’s get-up, but you (perhaps) get the point. There’s a lot going on here, and not all of it is safe and good – which is the way I like it. Laphroaig is still my co-favorite, along with…
Talisker 10 year old – Not as aggressive as Laphroaig, it’s assertive nonetheless. You won’t come away bloody, but it will put up a fight. Talisker is rich and smoky. It evokes everything good about a rugged seashore – it’s like watching the perfect storm, waves crashing all around, wind howling, sea salt smell up the nose – but from the shore, where it’s safe. And warm. By a fire, perhaps. In jammies.
To sum up the difference between Laphroaig and Talisker – An evening with Laphroaig is an evening with a leather-clad German dominatrix, while an evening with Talisker is an evening with Angelina Jolie in her freaky stage, c. 2002. Both have a place in a man’s life, but guess which one I would rather take home to mom?
Other Tasting Notes from the Extravaganza:
Ardbeg 10 year old – Rather like being clubbed by Guatemalan gangs armed with baseball bats. All of the ferocity of Laphroaig with none of the subtlety. This one doesn’t have a “safe word”. Not my style.
Balvenie Single Cask 25 year old – Light and citrusy and full of skipping and playground fun! Lacking richness, fullness, and KAPOW! Exactly what I’m not looking for in a Scotch.
Castle Brands – Somehow the Irish snuck in with their good stuff and got a table amongst the Scotches. While the Irish whiskey was good - much more slippery and syrupy than the Scotches - it confused me. You know how your mouth goes awry when you bite into something expecting it to taste a certain way and discover you’ve bitten into something tasting wholly different altogether? That was Castle Brands. They probably didn’t get a fair shake. Then again, they were the Irish among Scotch. There’s a football joke in there somewhere, but I can’t find it.
Talisker Distiller’s Edition – A tasty caramel nose with a smooth, complex, and very yummy flavor. The Distiller’s Edition is slightly smoother than the Talisker 10, but every bit as good. It’s the kind of thing you break out fireside on Christmas.
Talisker 175th Anniversary – This one disappointed me. Granted, it was a good Scotch – it’s Talisker – but I thought for all the hoo-hah that my socks would be blown off.
Nope. Socks still intact.
Glenrothes 1972 – I tasted this after Laphroaig and Talisker. It’s a smooth unassuming Scotch – even, with a light scent of orange peels – it butters up if you let it sit in your mouth a bit. But all in all, it was a lot like eating a Mounds bar after a big chunk of rich dark chocolate.
Highland Park 18 year old – This one bored me. It stung my nose in an unpleasant way and smelled a little like those old plastic models of WWII planes I used to build when I was a kid - right after you open the box for the first time. Thank God they left out the modeling glue. Sits on the tongue like a soggy dishrag.
Laphroaig 15 year old – Smells evoke all sorts of seaside foolishness. I enjoyed this much more than the Quarter Cask (see below) by far. The exact quote from my tasting notes: “Full, rich, full of seaside carnivals & air & seagulls & stuff – you know that smell when the sea air blows in? This tastes like that.”
Laphroaig Quarter Cask – Distilled in a cask ¼ the size of a normal cask, the effect is to expose more of the whisky to a greater surface area of the wood that makes up the cask, therefore imbuing the whisky with the flavors and subtleties found in the wood itself. It was good, but it wasn’t like licking an aspen or anything.
Macallan 15 year old – The 15 is distilled in a bourbon cask and is an easy going Scotch. A good starter Scotch, or final resting place for those worn out by my friends Laphroaig and Talisker. Smells a bit like damp straw on a crisp, cold day. (Yes, I have been to a farm once or twice – I’m not pulling this out of my butt.)
Scotch Whisky Society’s Code #3.97 – The Society sneaks around distilleries at night and, after subduing the gun-toting guards and lashing them to the pilings of piers, absconds with casks of precious whiskys, which are then sold to members of the Society under top secret names like Code #3.97. Although we didn’t know the secret handshake, Jim and I were allowed a peek behind the veil and, having done so with empty glasses thrust forward, we sampled Code #3.97. “Bowmore,” said Jim immediately. I wouldn’t know. Code #3.97 was not bad - sharp and citrusy, thin and straight-ahead like Jimmy Page’s guitar solo in “Whole Lotta Love”.
By the way, they gave us cigars, too. I’m waiting for The Debra to invite some asthmatic friends over before I light those up.
