Live Forum Tasting

[Muskrat Portage]

Okay, it's Saturday afternoon here at Wooden Lake, about 1:00 in California and around 9 pm in Europe does anyone out there want to participate in a live tasting?
I propose to pour a fairly commonly owned Islay in 10 minutes (1315 my time in Canada) a 10 yo Laphroaig OB and do a tasting. If anyone else is interested, lets see you then...
Muskrat
Here's a simple tasting note form to use:
Nose
Body
Colour
Palate
Finish
Comments

[Muskrat Portage]

Okay, maybe there should have been more lead time but hey! My dram is poured, I've sent out some quick PMs and lets see what happens. Anyone else out there yet?
Muskrat

[Muskrat Portage]

Well, join in later with your comments and notes...
Nose; Smoke first, then a hint of oak and a sweetish hint of barley, and heather which I perceive as a honeyish scent.
Body;Fairly full body, the legs hang on the glass
Colour; Medium gold with reddish hints
Palate; Iodine, smoke, fiery buildup in the mouth while swirled around. Second taste i pick up a hint of sweetness, heathery and a hint of seaweed, then the fiery warming burst hits again and my senses surrender to the fire and just enjoy the after effects - peppery hot there as well.
Finish; Smoke and sweetness on the tongue, as well as salt on the sides and a tingle all around the edge of the tongue. The smoke persists and I sense that I'm breathing it out with each exhalation. Peppery hot finish that hangs on long after the smoke disappates
Comments; An understated malt sometimes that really should be revisited by myself more often.

I'll sit back and enjoy it some more while I cruise the forums.
MP

Musky

[K-Mile]

Sorry mate, that one's not on my list

Still at work though, so the only bottle I have with me is a Highland Park 12yo, and I guess I should not start dramming away (although it's almost 11pm here, and nobody else is left, but still..)

Already had one small dram, though , and a quick tasting with some colleagues yesterday of the same bottle.

[Deactivated Member]

Sorry Musky - only just picked up the post.
I've only a CS and QC in store at the moment. Great idea though.

[Matt2]

Great tasting notes, but you kind of jumped out on us with that one, a little warning next time please. Got Cheiftens 12 and the QC.

I get the image of a whistling wind and tumbleweed rolling past....

[Mr Fjeld]

Good idea Musky I'll certainly see if I can join next time!

[martin grant]

Great idea Musky.
I'll try and join in next time round

What's up for tasting next?

[Muskrat Portage]

Okay, I guess that was a little too quick for a set up but I was sitting there drifting the forums and thought, what the heck, lets see if a spontaneous tasting would work.

I guess we should discuss some terms of tasting for the next one.
1) Set up one tasting at a time for now, so it doesn't confuse the thread. Subsequently, separate threads for each region could be set up if need be.
2) Keep it in "the Bar" so as not to muddle the "What are you drinking now" thread. We can always post there later after the fact.
3) Pick a specific date on Tuesday for a Friday or Saturday tasting and propose a couple of candidate SMs for people to select from.
4) Have people PM you their confirmed intent to join in by Friday morning your time and their choice(s) of malt.
5) On the date and time of the tasting log on early and post that you are ready to go, others will log in as they come on.
Now for the fun/difficult part... what do you think should be done next?
I figure that the "edit" button should allow us enough time to post and edit our personal tasting notes as we go along. Ending up with a complete tasting note on one posting.
In the alternative, we could just post our first comment, ie; colour and then work through the list as everyone else posts their comments. This will end up with a series of disjointed comment threads but would certainly be lively.
Please consider and put up some ideas. I figure that this would work once the "bugs" are ironed out. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's opinions and comments.

Muskrat

[Deactivated Member]

I think this is a great idea and will certainly join in if it is at all possible, time-wise, for me.

Just keep it simple, let each post their thoughts & notes in their own order.
Disjointed maybe, but real and live it will certainly be.

The problem may come in trying to select drams to sample.
We are a world-wide community and what may be easily found in one country, may be impossible in another.

From my own experiences of drams over the last few months, I would love to hear other people's opinions and thoughts on the following:

Glenlivet 15y French Oak
Macallan 10y Cask Strength
Ardbeg Almost There
Milford 10 (New Zealand)
Scapa 1993-2006 G&M (NOT Connoisseur's Choice!)
Glenmorangie Cotes de Beaune (a limited release from a few years ago)
Glenfarclas Quarter Casks
Benrinnes Flora & Fauna (Currently available)
George T. Stagg (any release)
Glen Garioch 8y

I am sure that I could come up with many more suggestions, but this would suffice for now.

[Muskrat Portage]

Maybe anyone interested in doing a live tasting could post their OPEN stock on the "Show off your inventory"
thread here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2212&start=630
in the Whisky Collecting Forum

We could then browse the offerings and set up a simple test tasting of two-three common bottlings.
I'll go down into my Lair and prepare an updated version as I've been "draining the dregs" lately

Again I'm looking at not cluttering up one thread with duplication which is in another thread. Making use of the raw materials we have at hand.
Christian and I have been discussing timing as well so I think looking at a world clock map may be in order. I'm easily confused now the forum clock is playing games with us.
Muskrat

[Muskrat Portage]

In preparation for a Live tasting on the Forums, I've listed my open stock in the "Collectors Corner" Forum; "Show Off your inventory" thread (page 20)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2212&p=105651#p105651

If you are interested in trying this out, please take a look to see if you have similar/same whiskies to those listed. Then post your choices for an upcoming tasting, date to be arranged. To keep it simple, maybe an Islay tasting should be considered. Any comments or opinions?

Also...what dates are good for those interested? I would assume a Friday or Saturday would be best due to the global nature of the forum and time variances.

Muskrat

[les taylor]

In preparation for a Live tasting on the Forums, I've listed my open stock in the "Collectors Corner" Forum; "Show Off your inventory" thread (page 20)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2212&p=105651#p105651

If you are interested in trying this out, please take a look to see if you have similar/same whiskies to those listed. Then post your choices for an upcoming tasting, date to be arranged. To keep it simple, maybe an Islay tasting should be considered. Any comments or opinions?

Also...what dates are good for those interested? I would assume a Friday or Saturday would be best due to the global nature of the forum and time variances.

Muskrat

Hi Musky I've just picked up on this thread, I was not around much at the weekend. Tonight we are away on holiday until the 11th of Oct. So if you are scheduling another opportunity after then I'd be glad to join in.

Les.

[Mr Fjeld]

Les, I'm afraid you have to cancel your holiday
Seriously, this could be fun - as well as interesting! I'm certainly up for it. Would the rest of us europeans agree it would be a good idea to stay up a little longer so the northern americans can stay sober at least untill lunch.....
I wouldn't mind if we started late - say midnight?

[les taylor]

Les, I'm afraid you have to cancel your holiday
Seriously, this could be fun - as well as interesting! I'm certainly up for it. Would the rest of us europeans agree it would be a good idea to stay up a little longer so the northern americans can stay sober at least untill lunch.....
I wouldn't mind if we started late - say midnight?

Mr Fjeld that would be too late for me I'm afraid. Sorry. It is an 8 hour time difference so for instance 10pm GMT would be 2pm in california. Musky doesn't work saturdays.

[Muskrat Portage]

Yeah, and I'm off Monday this coming weekend too as we celebrate Thanksgiving! So Friday afternoon, Saturday or Sunday, even Monday would be good for me normally.

However, this weekend I'm running down to Minnesota for a visit so if anyone wants to set up a tasting for the weekend, feel free and I'll bring a sampler dram with me in case I can log in from down there.

Would it be better to plan a simple Islay tasting next week sometime? It doesn't necessarily have to be on a weekend either, due to the global nature of the forums and ourselves, we can dram whenever we're not required to work, well some of us don't get to dram at work and even fewer of us get PAID to dram at work...
yes, be you two at WM. (and I'm so very jealous)

So pick a dram and date that's good for you and post it here, lets see who can "attend".

Muskrat

[Ganga]

Mr Fjeld that would be too late for me I'm afraid. Sorry. It is an 8 hour time difference so for instance 10pm GMT would be 2pm in california. Musky doesn't work saturdays.

Noon, 1, 2, whatever. I'll participate when I don't get roped into something on Saturdays.

I currently only have a few Islays open but I could go get a Laphroaig 10. Or we could have Macallan (12 or CS), Balvenie12, Highland Park 12.

[Muskrat Portage]

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
This is a website for figuring out times, which will come in handy for the tasting.
Here's another one which breaks down time zones + or - GMT;
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/global.htm

At present it's 2145 Tuesday Winnipeg Time (GMT -5 Canada is in DST): London is 0345 Wednesday: Copenhagen is 0445 Wednesday; Melbourne is 1245 Wednesday; Los Angeles is 1945 Tuesday.
I'll try to keep this in mind when organising an online tasting.
Muskrat

[Di Blasi]

Great idea and initiative Muskrat Portage! I'd love to join in, so I'll keep checking back to see when. Hope I'll be able to join too.

[Ganga]

"I am seeking where are you hiding?"

Anything up Saturday?

[Muskrat Portage]

Ganga:
"Tag, you're it!"...
Okay, I'm hiding in the Large country south of Canada, in the Great North Woods of Minnesota, somewhere close to "Land O Lakes".

I'm thinking of a tasting next week with three options for people to choose from, a Laphroaig QC or 10 yo, a Lagavulin 10 and an HP 18 yo, either the old round cannister or the new oval one.

These are generally SMs that many forummers seem to have acquired at least one of. As for a date, what is good for the rest of you? I'm looking at Friday or Saturday next week but as it's only three drams total, can be any afternoon (here) from 4 pm on.

Muskrat

[Di Blasi]

Good easy choice, which I'm sure most of us can get our hands on. I'm wondering about the "Lagavulin 10" though, and if it's gonna be the weekend, I'll be working unfortunately. But I will check and see how it goes. Enjoy.

[Ganga]

Ganga:
"Tag, you're it!"...
Okay, I'm hiding in the Large country south of Canada, in the Great North Woods of Minnesota, somewhere close to "Land O Lakes".

I'm thinking of a tasting next week with three options for people to choose from, a Laphroaig QC or 10 yo, a Lagavulin 10 and an HP 18 yo, either the old round cannister or the new oval one.

These are generally SMs that many forummers seem to have acquired at least one of. As for a date, what is good for the rest of you? I'm looking at Friday or Saturday next week but as it's only three drams total, can be any afternoon (here) from 4 pm on.

Muskrat

Thief River Falls? I personally may not be available next week as I have an invitation to join some others in the LA area.

Here are a couple of thoughts I've had regarding the possibility of tastings.

1. Set up a monthly schedule of distilleries to be sampled. Nov 4 - Lagavulin, Nov 11 - Glenfarclas, Nov 18 - Talisker, Nov 25 - Auchentoshan. This could also be set to specific whiskies instead of distilleries or could even be a small flight of whiskies.
2. Set to distinct times when tastings should occur. I'd suggest one based for the Old Worlders and one for the New Worlders.

In setting up tastings like this, people know when to show up. Also, it gives someone advance notice so they pickup something for tasting should they not have it in stock.

Any thoughts?

[Di Blasi]

Good ideas Ganga, and this way we can see what's coming up, and "book" it as a normal tasting, plan, stock what's needed, etc. Time is next, so perhaps 2 different times to accomodate more people, if you can't make one time, perhaps the other, or both even!

[Muskrat Portage]

Ganga:
Nope, Outing Mn, but close, very close.

1. Set up a monthly schedule of distilleries to be sampled. Nov 4 - Lagavulin, Nov 11 - Glenfarclas, Nov 18 - Talisker, Nov 25 - Auchentoshan. This could also be set to specific whiskies instead of distilleries or could even be a small flight of whiskies.
2. Set to distinct times when tastings should occur. I'd suggest one based for the Old Worlders and one for the New Worlders.
In setting up tastings like this, people know when to show up. Also, it gives someone advance notice so they pickup something for tasting should they not have it in stock.

This is something I'd considered, the setting up of a monthly tasting but hadn't considered going to specific distilleries, rather I thought of just asking the forummers to PM/message what sort of dram they'd like to try and select two or three from the messages/postings.
As for timing, a 2-4 hour spread for tastings would possibly allow a large turnout of forummers. If we started at 4 pm Central Canada time and ran until 8 pm, people could log on, post their notes, interact with whoever else was on the forum at the same time and then go on their merry way when they were finished.

I had also considered starting a dramming thread for each region just to centralize the tastings in "The Bar" then you'd visit whatever thread the tasting was going to be in each month.

Good ideas Ganga, and this way we can see what's coming up, and "book" it as a normal tasting, plan, stock what's needed, etc. Time is next, so perhaps 2 different times to accomodate more people, if you can't make one time, perhaps the other, or both even!

I actually really like the idea of setting up two different times for the same tasting, maybe 10 hours apart which would allow "old world" and "new world" to interact if one was either an early riser or an insomniac. I'll mull this over a bit and post a guideline for tastings to use as a reference. It will be more for the neophyte taster to use so everyone can contribute equally in the forums, but the format wil be handy for the seasoned drammer to reference as required.

I propose that we have a live Forum tasting on Friday the 12th of October starting at 1600 hrs (4:00 pm) Winnipeg time and running until 2000 hrs (8 pm). This means it will be a 2200 hr (10 pm) start for GMT and 1400 hr (2:00 pm) in BC/California. Please, check this website for the GMT + or - for your specific location.
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/global.htm

Would anyone be willing to commence an earlier tasting start time say at 1800 hrs (6pm GMT) for "the Old World"? In this manner you could be well started when North Americans start logging on.

I look forward to everyone's comments shortly and will firm up the tasting date and time on Wednesday when I log on around 4:30 pm.

Muskrat

[K-Mile]

I would be more than happy to start at 6pm GMT. I am in Amsterdam, but I don't mind a late afternoon/early evening dram.

[Di Blasi]

Unfortunately I'll be working til about 1am Saturday the 13th. Oh wait, looks like with correct calculations this tasting will go til 3am my local time. What are we tasting??

[Deactivated Member]

I'm not working on Friday evening and could possibly join the tasting sometime around 11pm.
MT

[Muskrat Portage]

I'm not working on Friday evening and could possibly join the tasting sometime around 11pm. MT

Okay, that would only be 1700 hrs Winnipeg time for MT and 2100 hrs for Di Blasi. Since I don't have to work in the morning on weekends (as Les T noted) I'll be around.

Ideally, I'd like to get down to 3 malts for the tasting but would like to have plenty of interaction so, these are some of the Islands/Islays that I have open...
Highland Park 12 yo &
Highland Park 18 yo,
Laphroaig QC &
Laphroaig 10 yo;
Lagavulin CS 12 yo &
Lagavulin 16 yo:
Ardbeg 10 yo &
Ardbeg Uigeadail;
Bowmore 12 yo
And as Ganga noted, he has a few more Speysiders available which would round out the choices to 12.
Macallan 12 or
Macallan CS
Balvenie 12 (Double wood?)

I've tried to select some I've noted worldwide, without trolling all the threads for confirmation. If you would be able to narrow these down to 3-4, we could all enjoy morning the next day, or in the alternative... dram any of the 12 above and we'll see what jells out!

Muskrat

[Mr Fjeld]

I'm working this weekend. But I'm certainly up for it next weekend! I'm looking forward to reading your "log" though!

[K-Mile]

MP thanks for the PM

I do not have that many bottles open for next Friday, but I will happily attend/start around 6pm GMT.

You can have a look at my current open/closed bottles here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kamiel.wanrooij/whisky

I will be happy to buy or open a bottle for the tasting, if there's is sufficient enthusiasm... (presuming that will we taste a fairly standard bottle or flight)

[Muskrat Portage]

MP thanks for the PM
I do not have that many bottles open for next Friday, but I will happily attend/start around 6pm GMT...

K-Mile:
I definitely like what I see, I should set up a picasa account I guess. Nice setting up of bottles for the pictures with the light background and good lighting. I take it you used supplementary lighting?

To get my brain around time zones, I finally found a simple map here: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/world_tzones.php
...courtesy of HM Nautical Almanac Office. Ya just gotta love the Senior Service! (says the 7 mile Pongo sniper with a slight smirk)

Muskrat

[Di Blasi]

Actually, Malt-Teaser and I are in the same time zone, so now I'm really confused with the time zones and schedule. I'll keep checking back to see exactly when.

[K-Mile]

MP thanks for the PM
I do not have that many bottles open for next Friday, but I will happily attend/start around 6pm GMT...

K-Mile:
I definitely like what I see, I should set up a picasa account I guess. Nice setting up of bottles for the pictures with the light background and good lighting. I take it you used supplementary lighting?

To get my brain around time zones, I finally found a simple map here: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/world_tzones.php
...courtesy of HM Nautical Almanac Office. Ya just gotta love the Senior Service! (says the 7 mile Pongo sniper with a slight smirk)

Muskrat

Thanks. I was really a improvised photoshoot, with a couple of table lights and a steady hand. Did try some different things though, so I did think a little bit about the setup. Turned out better than I expected.

For me, since I am fairly new to serious enjoyment of whisky, I would like to try one of the following:

Ardbeg TEN
Springbank 10yo
Talisker 18yo (would have to get this one)
Bowmore 12 / 15 "Mariner" / 17
Bowmore Dusk / Darkest / Dawn

The last two because I have the gift sets here, and I really like to try or compare those to see which ones are worth an entire bottle.

These are probably some signature malts that a lot of people are quite familiar with, but as I said, I still have a lot to discover

Regarding timezones: I will start in Amsterdam at 8pm. Which is 6pm GMT. Here is a nice tool to convert time zones: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

[Muskrat Portage]

(K-Mile, I like the time change tool - neat website! Thanks very much)
From the looks of the responses, I'm proposing to set up a Live Tasting on Friday Oct 12, at 6pm (1800 hrs GMT) with K-Mile, M-T and any one else interested. As I'm working the early shift anyways, I'll be home at that time, which will be noon in Wooden Lake (we're on daylight Saving Time, so are 6 hours behind instead of the normal 5).

At 1800 GMT, I was going to propose a basic, welcoming dram - the Balvenie 12 Doublewood to sip and make polite conversation on until about quarter after at which point the tasting would "officially" start.
I would like to begin with an HP 12 then follow up with a Bowmore or two (I have the Dusk/ Dawn/ Darkest gift pack) as well as the 12 and 17 yo; then Ardbeg 10; Laphroiag QC and a Laggie 16 yo. If someone has a different bottle from the same distillery, they could post their comments on it and we vicariously make note of the similarities and differences. After that, it would be open to whatever anyone else wanted to sample.

I'm considering a second tasting start at 2400 hrs GMT, being 1800 in Wooden Lake, and 1600 in California. Gives me a few hours to get a bit straighter again. This would also let Di Blasi play catchup at 0100 GMT Saturday morning and the sun is over the yardarm at that point for Admiral.

Got any thoughts on this?

Muskrat