low_delta

Last night, we went to a Scotch tasting in Milwaukee. My dad and I signed up, along with Jack and his wife, but she backed out, so my friend Mike went in her place. There was one other guy from St.Andrews, Craig, and then Brook, Leon and John showed up. And five people I didn't know.

The event was all Bruichladdich (pronounced "brook laddie"). We started out with tastes of a Whisky Galore 12-year (independent bottler), and the original Bruichladdich 10. The tasting proper comprised...
The Rocks
The Organic
Islay Barley
The Laddie Ten
1992 Sherry Edition (17-yr)
The Black Art 2 (dark red)
PC7 (peated, 40 ppm)
Octomore 2 (140 ppm)
And we finished up with Bruichladdich's new gin, The Botanist.

I thought The Rocks was dominated by sugars. I didn't much care for The Organic. There was some note I didn't care for, though it wasn't strong. Islay Barley was good. The Laddie was pretty impressive. The Sherry Edition was my favorite of the night. I will be having more of it. Nobody was impressed by The Black Art. It didn't live up to expectations. Granted, expectations were high, given the bottle, the hype and the color, but it was not impressive in any way. PC7 was very good. Octomore was... surprising. Given the over-the-top peat levels, I expected a bottle of iodine, but there was a lot more to it. I bought a bottle, so it will be interesting to see if it stands up over time. I could have done without the gin, after nine Scotches.

It was a good time. We learned some things about Bruichladdie. About how they were mothballed from 1991 to 2001, and the story of how they were purchased and reopened. Forty percent of all the barley they use is organic. They say this is important to them, because it's the traditional way. Organic barley can't be grown on the island, because the plants can't handle the wind. Therefore, their Islay Barley whisky has no organically grown barley.

Fortunately, my dad was driving, so I was able to taste all of these. I got some of my dad's extra, too. I didn't finish all of them, though. Some I left, and a couple were cleared from the table when I turned my back. That's okay, though since I was still drunk when I went to bed at 12:30. And I was not in the best shape today. I had a bit of a headache that didn't go away until after an ibuprofen and a nap, tonight. That was out of the ordinary. I've been way drunker than that, on Scotch, and not had this problem. I blame it on the gin.

Mike liked Jack and wants to invite him to our next tasting (we also talked about disinviting a couple of guys). And we purchased most of the whisky for it, including a Banff 35-year.