"Keep the Peat Logs Burning" January Live Tasting

[pkt77242]

"Keep the Peat Logs Burning" January Live Tasting

January 28th-30th

About...
For those of you who do not know what these are about, they run for generally 12+ hours (or in some cases for a couple of weeks) and we all sit down (at various times) to taste a range of whiskies and share our notes and comments on the forum. Have a look in the Live Tasting forum for past events.

They are a great way to meet people on the forum, chat about your experiences and learn something new about the whiskies you have, and we all end up having a good time.

Please feel free to join in and post any comments or tasting notes you have. Tasting notes can be added using the Tasting Note tab on the postings page. (Note, the Age field on the tasting must be a number such as 7,9,10,18)

[pkt77242]

Mccarthy's batch W08-02

N: Sweet peat, pears, and light smoke (from wet leaves). Barley and a hint of salt.
P: Pears, sweet peat, and light smoke. Some salt, and a little apple peel.
F: short on smoke (again from wet leaves), peat, and pears. some white pepper as welll.

Very nice and a great whisky for a 3 year old.

[pkt77242]

Laphroaig 18

N: sweet vanilla, granny smith apple, peat, nutmeg and oak.
P: vanilla, and sweet peat. Some apple and oak.
F: shortish on sweet peat, vanilla and polished oak.

Ok but nothing special.

[pkt77242]

Laphroaig 10 CS Batch 001

N: Peat, smoke, tar and seaweed. Some lemon and seafood (oysters and mussels). Salt and more peat.
P: umm, prettty much the same as the nose. Peat, lemon, and smoke. Tar, seaweed and salt. Big and bold.
F: long and powerful. Peat, tar, smoke and mussels/oysters. Brine and just a hint of lemon.

I really like this whisky. Damn good

[dramtastic]

DL Double Barrel Bowmore/HP 46%

Nose: Pear, apple, honey, peat, sawdust, hint of diesel. Quite a light, refreshing nose.

Palate: Creamy mouth feel, but also like sucking on a honey lemon cough drop.

Finish: Is warming, mouth coating, medium length and a little drying. After about 20 minutes I note some spearmint.

I'm not really a fan of HP or Bowmore but this works well as a combo. Not the most complex whisky but very moreish and hard to stop at just one. Good price for the quality as well.

[dramtastic]

Talisker 18 45.8%

Nose: Brine, peat, yeast, red grape, oak, varnish. Quite subtle.

Palate: Is smooth, basically follows the nose but also some nuttyness, coconut and peppery spice.

Finish: What can I say, it's long! Adds mint and a little ashy dryness as well. Gotta love the coconut!

Just an excellent whisky. Quite some breadth of talent!

[Willie JJ]

Lots of great notes guys. I'm going to join in later on.

[Ganga]

I'll be checking in now and then this afternoon as I work on a report. Very nice notes thus far.

[Willie JJ]

Evening all. If there's anyone else here that is

[Fscott]

Talisker 1992 Distillers Edition

Nose: Smoke, orange peel, almond, vanilla
Palate: Hot, sweet, molasses, pepper
Finish: Long, spicy, lingering smoke

A great whisky for a snowy winter day. I've only got about two pours left in the bottle.

[Willie JJ]

Hi Fscott. The Talisker sounds nice. I seem to recall having a bottle of that once. I'm going to start with a few Caol Ila's. Standard NAS CS OB first.

[Fscott]

Bowmore Mariner 15-Year-Old

Nose: pear, damp wood
Palate: cinnamon stick, hint of smoke, ash
Finish: mince pie, salt caramel

I can get a liter bottle of this expression at a good price. This one is almost gone, but I'll replace it quickly.

Can't wait to read others' notes.

[Ganga]

Good afternoon gents. I'm about 1/2 way through the report. Then I'll join in with a couple.

[Fscott]

Hello, Willie

I need to pick up a Caol Ila one of these days. I've only tried the 12yo. I look forward to your notes.

[Willie JJ]

Good afternoon gents. I'm about 1/2 way through the report. Then I'll join in with a couple.

Afternoon Ganga. It's taking a wee while to do the first note because everything is freezing cold. Almost there.

[Willie JJ]

Caol Ila NAS OB 59.3% (2005 bottling)

Nose: Mixture of peat and coal smoke, lots of iodine, faint citrus, fresh seaweed.
Palate: Massively intense, sweetness and smoke, lots of heat, citrus and fizz. Very exciting.
Finish: Sugar and coal dust, long and fizzy.
Comment: A typically enjoyable CS OB. Youthful and exciting.

[Willie JJ]

Time for a note that I've been meaning to write for some time. Caol Ila Feis Ile 2010 bottling.

[Willie JJ]

Caol Ila Feis Ile 2010 61.9% 10yo: 19/08/99-05/2010 Sherry Cask #305646

Nose: Walnuts, cream and chocolate. Cigar boxes, ginger and creosote. Mossy. Orange and figs. Candied peel. This nose is to die for. Incredible complexity.
Palate: Sugar burst and then a smoke explosion. Orange barley sugars and smoke smoke smoke. Incredibly intense, what a ride.
Finish: It dissolves into an essay on sweet smoke. Utterly amazing.
Comment: There are few things as good as a classy sherry matured Caol Ila. Sadly there are few things as rare too.

[Willie JJ]

That was fantastic. I'm glad I tried it on a fairly fresh palate. Now for some Bladnoch Forum Caol Ilas. I'm going to taste them from the eldest first.

[Ganga]

Ooooh. That just makes me drool. Love young CIs.

[Fscott]

Go Willie, go!

[Willie JJ]

Bladnoch Forum 30yo Caol Ila 54.2%: 15/05/80-26/05/2010 Hogshead #4686

Nose: Butter toffee and vanilla fudge. Condensed milk and very gentle smoke with a hint of bog myrtle. Stewed apples.
Palate: The smoke is much more prominent here as is the fruit, sprinkled with sugar.
Finish: Lots of smoke that emerges from the sweetness and builds to a real peat fire.
Comment: Very nice elderly peated malt.

[Willie JJ]

That was a real change of gear from the Feis bottle. Very nice though. Now for another 30yo from the same batch of casks but bottled 5 days earlier.

[Ganga]

I think I'll join the CI train. G&M 11, 1996, cask 16113 for BevMo!

[Willie JJ]

Bladnoch Forum 30yo Caol Ila 52.6%: 15/05/80-21/05/2010

Nose: Plenty of sweet fudgy notes here, but the fruit is more prominent than it is on the other 30yo. This one is mustier too with a definite hint of bung cloth. More signs of age despite being a whole 5 days younger.
Palate: Barley sugars, citrus, stewed apples, but then dust, cardboard and pencils. The wood has got to this one a bit, but its still enjoyable.
Finish: Sugar and sizzling kippers. What a great finish.
Comment: For the most part this cask has gone a little over the top, but its worth it for the fishy finish.

[Willie JJ]

Good to see you with a pour Ganga.

Going for a slightly younger one now.

[Ganga]

Caol Ila 11
1996-08
Cask 16113
BevMo!
43%

Glencairn
Color: lemon gold
Nose: sour lemons, oak coals, sweet maltiness, creosote
Palate: seaweed and driftwood bonfire, lemon zest, floral, sweet oiliness, iodine/brine
Finish: moderately long, dying embers from the beach bonfire

[Ganga]

Good to pour.

I have the feeling Sean will get me going later tonight.

[Willie JJ]

Bladnoch Forum 28yo Caol Ila 55.2%: 18/09/80-10/06/2009 Hogshead #8154

Nose: Lapsang souchong tea, seaweed, dried fish, lemon, cream and vanilla. Really first rate and very complex.
Palate: Flavour explosion. A wonderful interplay between the sugars and the smoke with a near perfect injection of sweetened lemon juice. fantastic.
Finish: Just keeps on bursting with flavour. sea shells, shellfish and hemp.
Comment: Thank you Mr. Armstrong for this genius cask. It's worth searching through them to find gems like this.

[Ganga]

Shoot, now that you mention shellfish, I started thinking about seasfood with this one. I'm getting something like mussels or scallops.

[Willie JJ]

Is Sean likely to arrive soon?

Going for even younger bottlings now.

[Willie JJ]

I tend to associate shellfish most with Bowmore, but it definitely pops up a lot in Islay malts. Yummy!

[Ganga]

I'd think that he will be along more like early evening out here.

[Ganga]

I love the Laphroaig 10, 43% with seafood. It has that brineness to bring things out in the shellfish w/o over-powering the seafood.

[pkt77242]

Good to pour.

I have the feeling Sean will get me going later tonight.

Who? Me?