January 2009 Live Tasting – Final Poll

[Ryguy]

Ok Everyone, it's time to select the distillery for the January 2009 Live Tasting. Please vote for 1 distillery and 1 date.Some interesting choices up there, all sound good to me.

As far as the date, I've left off Jan 24, because we'll be hosting a SMWS Tasting here on the Forum that day.

[LagaDrinker]

Come on Talisker you can do it.... (its the only one I have some of )

[Gilles Deleuze]

I voted for Ben Nevis on the 23rd, but I'd be happy with Talisker as well. I can't do any date before the 13th.

[Ganga]

Hey, so long as it's whisky and I can get some.

16 and 17th are no good for me. That's Ardbeggeddon!

[MacAttack80]

Talisker, the only one I have on the list

January 17th, I have to work the other days listed

[Willie JJ]

Hey, so long as it's whisky and I can get some.

16 and 17th are no good for me. That's Ardbeggeddon!

[pkt77242]

I voted for Talisker and the 23rd but I don't really care about the date.

Sean

[Ryguy]

Ganga, don't forget to vote, as my vote can be the tiebreaker this time. Looks like Jan 10th is the favorite of the date so far. But the choice for distillery is very close, with Talisker in the lead so far.

[Ras Mazunga]

Ben Nevis.

Had three sofar and all were great.
Can't wait to taste some more of this distillery.

[Ganga]

I voted. Would like to chat with you at some point on Live Tastings.

[Ras Mazunga]

Voted the wrong date. Voted for 10 but should have voted for any after 10.

[Ryguy]

Looks like Glenfarclas is making a comeback!

[Dram fine idea]

Talisker (because it's freezing and that's when Talisker should be drunk). Any date is ok with me.

[Ryguy]

Please make suggestions for February here. Thank you.

[mikeymad]

Come-on Ben.... big finish....

Cheers,

[pkt77242]

For Feb. I nominate Bowmore, Glenfarclas, and Bunnahabhain.

Sean

[Ganga]

There may be some changes coming soon as to how we will be determining the monthly distilleries. There is discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=8107 Please join in the discussion and give your opinion.

[Ryguy]

Talisker it is for January 10th, or the weekend of January 10th, whatever works best for everyone.

I only have the 10yo at home, so I'll be dramming lots of Tali 10. I have 6 different glasses so......

[Dram fine idea]

For February, how about Rosebank and Scapa?

[Ganga]

Matt has suggested that we setup a schedule for 2009. To accomplish this, I think it should be the list of distilleries and let everyone choose 11 (January already chosen). Distilleries to exclude would be those that were tried in 2008. Order to be chosen based on number of votes-most votes=February, etc. I'd suggest that distilleries that are difficult to get samples should be moved to an alternative tasting (Brora springs to mind here).

What's everyone think?

[Ryguy]

I agree Ganga, closed distilleries should be reserved for "Other Tastings". I think the biggest thing is to determine whether we vote on the first 6 months, or do the entire year at one time. Either way I am fine with it.

Any suggestions or comments Matt?

[Gilles Deleuze]

I agree Ganga, closed distilleries should be reserved for "Other Tastings". I think the biggest thing is to determine whether we vote on the first 6 months, or do the entire year at one time. Either way I am fine with it.

Any suggestions or comments Matt?

If Rosebank is out, because of its relative scarcity (although it seems much more accessible than Brora or PE), what about a Clynelish tasting? I didn't see one of those in my glance at the Past Tastings thread.

[Gilles Deleuze]

So where do you draw the line?

Rosebank is closed but not hard to obtain at a decent price (IMO).
PE is closed but relatively common.

So if we do "hard to get" distilleries, who defines it?

I'm not against the idea - in fact I think it's a good one - but what are the boundaries?

I agree, and I was making my suggestion with the assumption that people felt any closed distillery would be out of the question. However, I agree completely that it's not as black and white as all that. Rosebank is, IMO, much more affordable than PE (for me and many others, I'd suspect), and yet we have had a PE tasting. Quite tricky, indeed!

Off the top of my head, I can think of two quick ideas: First, we could simply have a price "cap", where we could discount any distillery whose cheapest bottle exceeded a certain price (at mutually agreed upon retailers).
By contrast, we could also obviate this obstacle by figuring out a good way to collectively buy bottles from which we could dole out samples for a future live tasting. Such a course of action would make a Brora tasting, for example, much more affordable.

I don't know; I'm just thinking out loud. The more suggestions we have, the better we can include everyone who wants to participate!

[TreacleSponge]

So where do you draw the line?

Rosebank is closed but not hard to obtain at a decent price (IMO).
PE is closed but relatively common.

So if we do "hard to get" distilleries, who defines it?

I suppose from a UK perspective "hard to get" could be any whisky where the most common expression is only available from a specialist whisky shop/mail order/website. So that's anything that can't be bought from a supermarket or off licence. Or possibly Oddbins, although some are better stocked than others.

And of the last 13 regular tastings, 11 have been whiskies we can buy in supermarkets, so I'd say they are easily available.

So for me "hard to get" is more about accessibility rather than cost.

[Ganga]

I'll make a list tonight, check it twice, see which distilleries are naughty or nice.

But for now, some initial thoughts.


Allt-a-Bhaine (over here)
An Cnoc/Knockdhu (over here)
Auchroisk
Banff
Ben Wyvis
Brora (what you can find is very expensive)
Cardhu
Coleburn
Glen Flagler/Killyloch
Inverleven (at least over here)
Kinclaith
Ladyburn

There are some others that people might like to include but to me these are a jumping off point. Also, the PE was not done as the monthly distillery tasting but a planned event. Anything on the above listed could be accomplished in the same way. Buy and split samples.

[Ganga]

Here's a list. (Discussion moved)

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=10357&p=189994#p189994