Yes another Paul John post, however it is such a treat to be able to share this tropical delight from Goa, India in my country of birth – Canada!
We’ve enjoyed more than one Paul John‘s Select Cask Peated:
- 1st bottle graced two tasting occasions – an evening with our original tasting group with partners and then revisited with a mad bunch of friends
- 2nd bottle made its appearance with the Whisky Ladies Goan send-off in December 2015. It was completely memorable and created a fan following amongst the Whisky Ladies…. so much so that one of our intrepid lasses made the trek to the distillery doors to help source further bottles…
- 3rd bottle wound its way from Goa to Mumbai to London to Toronto and finally Winnipeg for a special peaty evening with the lads from The Cabinet
Here’s a few impressions from the Canadian evening with a bottle from the 2016 batch:
- Nose – Fruit, flowers and tropics, raisins, some toffee coffee, then back to fruit… dark cherries, berries with curl of smoke
- Palate – Rum… did we mention rum? Exceedingly smooth, smoky yet sweet
- Finish – Smoke tar with a sweet chaser…
Now my companions must have wondered a bit as I kept (annoyingly) going on about “where’s the delicious bacon??” Between the 1st batch and this batch, the gorgeous yummy glazed ham, back-bacon drizzled in maple syrup was… well… notably absent. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a rather good dram but oh… that meaty peaty sweetness I was greedily looking forward to was simply… different.
I returned to India to confer with my fellow Whisky Ladies – sure enough they all had the same reaction. Still a mighty fine whisky, still very enjoyable however…. “where is the bacon???”
My friends at the Cabinet had no such pre-conceived notions. And it was therefore all the more enjoyable to experience afresh through their reactions what Paul John has to offer to the world of whisky!
Here’s what they had to say…
To those of you for whom Indian whisky means Amrut and for whom Amrut is a byword for crap, Paul John is a revelation. Not only is it not crap, but it is in fact very good. Not only is the quality a surprise, but the entire whisky is a surprise. Thank you Cabinet gents for a most memorable evening in Winnipeg! And thank you once again Michael of Paul John for the bottle that made its way from my adopted home to the city of my birth.
Interested in what else we sampled? Read on…
- Rosebank 21 year (1990/2011) 53.8%
- Ledaig 10 year 46.3%
- Talisker Storm 45.8%
- Paul John Peated 55.5% (previous tasting experience)
You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:
- Facebook Whisky Lady in India – https://www.facebook.com/WhiskyLadyIN
- Twitter @WhiskyLadyIN
