Monthly Archives: September 2016

TWE Covent Garden Reserve Edition No 1 – Speyside

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Next up in our miniatures session was the 1st of The Whisky Exchange‘s Covent Garden Reserve collection…

TWE Edition No 1 Speyside

Edition No 1 – Speyside 10 year, Sherry Butt, Bottle No 240, 51.6%

  • Nose – Lemon zest, wood, malty, complex with a dry spice like allspice and clove, sharp and then kept changing.. crisp pear, fresh tart apple then morphed into stewed fruits, almost wine-like quality, then musty compost, sweet toffee salt
  • Palate – Initially hits the upper palate, very robust, chewy sweet, spice, toffee pudding
  • Finish – Medium dry, sweet cloves… a big finish
  • Water – Brought out a tasty sourness and peppers, with a spice kick, liquorice,

What a treat!! It has been some time since we enjoyed such wonderful shifts in aromas, it has a ‘kick back’ but in a beautifully well-rounded way.

We gave it time and found with the revisit the sherry dimension was even more pronounced full of ripe plums, prunes, dates, mince pie. Delicious!

Wanting to know more, I wrote to the gentlemen over at the Whisky Exchange.

Most amusingly, they came back with a teasing clue…

a famous speyside distillery in Ballindalloch that does everything in sherry casks….

Pretty obvious which distillery…

Other miniatures sampled recently include:

*Tasting notes coming soon!

You can also find Whisky Lady (in India) on:

MacPhail’s Orkney 8 Year 43% (Highland Park)

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Next up in our miniatures tasting session was a Highland Park…

The MacPhail’s Collection is a small range of single malt whiskies bottled by Gordon & MacPhail.

The focus of this collection is the quest for younger, quality drams at affordable prices. You won’t find a rich mature complex aged marvel here, instead a younger, better than decent dram for a reasonable cost.

Macphail's Orkney 8 year

MacPhail’s Orkney 8 year 43% (Highland Park)

  • Nose – Banana, apricot, lemon zest, butter toast with sugar sprinkles, woodsy, vanilla, citrus soft, wet cloth with a bit of brine
  • Palate – Peat, malty cereal, a little pepper spice, smooth
  • Finish – Enjoyable finish, like a puff of smoke then dry, bitter ending sweet

Overall a drinkable dram… much more so than the Highland Park 1998. Light balance between sweet and smoke, coming together so smoothly.

Here are the official tasting notes:

  • Nose: Soft fruits – peaches/mangos, heather/earthy notes and a touch of saltiness.
    With Water: Fruity (green apples), subtle sherry influence and touch of floral.
  • Palate: Rich, mulled fruits with a touch of smokiness.
    With Water: Sherry wood with smoky notes (charred oak). A vanilla sweetness emerges
  • Finish: Long with a delicate sweetness.

Check out what other’s have to say too:

Other miniatures sampled recently include:

You can also find Whisky Lady (in India) on:

Tomatin Legacy 43%

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First up in our August miniatures exploration was a no age statement whisky from Tomatin.

The Tomatin Legacy expression is dedicated to the legacy of the distillery’s relationship with its community, as the village became a town when accommodating the workers required to build the distillery… and remains today.

Tomatin Legacy

Tomatin Legacy 43%

  • Nose – Quite a kick with bit of varnish, bananas, sweetness creeping into dry wood, light peat? some resin, sweet sour overripe fruit, a vegetal element
  • Palate – While bold it also is curiously ‘thin’, bitter sour khata then caramel sweet
  • Finish – Initial burn then just sits there with subtle dry ash, bitter

Overall left impression of sticky toffee pudding.

We then compared the Legacy with a sample of Tomatin 12 year.

Here’s what the folks over at Tomatin have to say:

Time in Bourbon barrels and Virgin Oak casks brings a light sweetness to The Tomatin Legacy, which boasts aromas of vanilla, marshmallow, pineapple and lemon. On the palate gentle flavours of candy, pine, lemon sherbet, apples and sponge cake emerge ahead of a light, clean finish. 

Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2015 – 94.5/100

BTW… if you are in the US, just substitute “Dualchas” for “Tomatin”

Here’s what others have to say:

Other miniatures sampled recently include:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Whisky nosing…

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The old sniffer is critical to enjoying a good whisky.

Which means if I’m down with a nasty cold, the last thing I would ever do is waste good whisky. As I know a stuffed up nose = missing 99% of a whisky.

As whisky tasting groups, we’ve experimented with various methods to discover different elements in a particular whisky.

Once, we tried a test with first tasting a vial of an unknown substance with our nose tightly plugged. Then we slowly unplugged our nose to utilize our sense of smell to appreciate how critical smell is to what we perceive as ‘taste’ – it makes a tremendous difference!

This is why it is critical when tasting whisky to not ‘cross contaminate’ scents by having flowers, perfumes, cooking smells in the same room.

PS I won’t tell you the punch line but you can read more here – “Taste Test!”

Mystery vials

Mystery vials

Then we met with an ‘expert’ (whisky tasting session with Jim Murray) who walked us through his ‘technique’ of sniffing by ‘dabbing’:

  1. Lift cover off glass and take the first fresh whiff – dabbing against an imaginary moustache both right then left nostril
  2. Cup glass with both hands to seal the whisky in and warm it against your body for approx. 5 – 10 mins
  3. Hold covered glass away from body, lift hand to let alcohol evaporate while drawing close to then nose again
  4. Take a tiny sip to rinse mouth – the ‘mouth wash’ step – and spit
  5. Then a few seconds later take another whiff right and left nostril followed immediately by a large sip – the 1st taste – roll it around in your mouth, chin up, opening and closing your mouth like a fish, then spit it out
  6. ‘Listen’ to the whisky to ‘hear’ what it tells you about its character
  7. After a few minutes, take a 2nd taste… again whiff, sip, tilt head back, open and close fish style, then spit out or… perhaps… if so inclined… swallow
  8. Again ‘listen’ to what the whisky ‘says’
  9. Repeat steps 2, 3, 7 and 8 as required…
Sample setting

Sample setting

And more recently, a young fellow crafting unique spirits in Michigan, introduced another technique – ‘mouth breathing’.

He shared that while yes… Traditionally one does a careful ’sniff’ for whisky, when it comes to the range of spirits he deals with, nothing beats a good ‘mouth breath’ to help discover elements beyond a civilized ‘sniff’… And at times, this technique works well with certain whiskies.

So… during one of our sessions, the Whisky Ladies of Mumbai experimented with the ‘mouth breathing’ approach to see if it garnered a different range of descriptions! (And anyone watching us would have been in splits laughing!)

Our conclusion? For more powerful whiskies, it can bring a different dimension. But it is quite useless with more nuanced notes that need a more delicate whiff to wind its way into our senses.

Any other nosing revelations you have discovered in your whisky adventures?

Related posts:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Nordic Explorer #4 – Sweden’s Box The Festival 2015 54.5%

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Our Nordic exploration continued with a special whisky created for The Box Whisky Festival 2015… available ONLY to attendees at the festival! (or those kindly given a sample from one such coveted bottles).

Box Whisky The Festival 2015 54.5%

  • Nose – Quite organic, fresh, sweet caramel, bananas, pear, hint of cinnamon, woodsy
  • Palate – Oily, deeper elements, spice at the back of the throat, while not complex, quite solid like firm planks of wood providing the foundation, chilli chocolate spice, swirling smoke
  • Finish – Long, caramel chocolate
  • Water – Super sweet aroma and spice on the palate, though would not recommend as it dampened the more unique qualities

I had kept aside just a smidge in the wee 20ml bottle and revisited the next day… so glad that I did! Much of what I enjoyed came from the 2nd round which was sublime.

Overall it had an understated quality despite its initial boldness, with a harmony between nose, palate and finish. This is a whisky that requires you to sit, sip and savour. It cannot be ‘speed dated‘… it needs time to get to know you a little before it reveals its nature as quite an interesting dram.

Box Distilleri is very  distillery has to say:

For the Box Whisky Festival in 2014, we presented the world with our first festival whisky. This year’s edition is similar to its predecessor, with a distinct peat flavour and evident character of charred oak. One huge difference, however, is that all the casks are sized between 100 and 130 litres and that the age is somewhat higher – on an average four years. Two out of five casks are made from Swedish oak.

Recipe

61% of the whisky is made from peated malt (31–45ppm).

The bottling consists of whisky from five casks made from new American and Swedish oak.

The Festival 2015 is neither chill-filtered nor coloured.

*** Whiskies courtesy of  from Whisky Saga ***

For more information on BOX distillery whiskies, do read Thomas’ posts on Whisky Saga. Specifically:

More Nordic whisky experiences coming soon!

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Nordic Explorer #3 – Sweden’s Box Whisky Shareholders 2016 52%

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Our Nordic exploration continued our Swedish journey, shifting from Smögen to Box Distilleri.

Box distillery, is located in Ådalen, in buildings that previously housed a power station and sawmill, previously used to make wooden boxes for England. Like Smögen, it was also founded in 2010 and was founded by two brothers – Per and Mats de Wahl.

Their focus is on using Swedish organically grown barley and their whisky takes advantage of the climate range with its range of hot summers and cold winters. As Hasse Nilsson shared in an interview with Dominick Roskrow in Connosr:

“One of our goals is to be the whisky friends’ and connoisseurs’ distillery. Whisky made by experts for experts is something different than whisky made to be ingredients in big brands blending.”

Sweden - Smogen + Box

Box Whisky Shareholder 2016 3 year 52%

  • Nose – Banana, organic sweet, lots of overripe fruits, some stewed fruits and spice, very fruit sweet…
  • Palate – Pepper spice, subtle smoke, some ginger, a bit bitter, fruit, candied lime sweet
  • Finish – Medium dry
  • Water – Brought out a cologne like quality!

Overall quite minimalist in approach, very fruity on the nose and smoky spice on the palate with a dry finish.

As we read up about the whisky post tasting we were most amused to discover the wee kerfuffle over it originally being intended only for shareholders… then details being leaked so that anyone quick on the draw had access!

As for us? We felt indeed rather fortunate to be part of the rare coterie to try such a dram.

*** Whiskies courtesy of  from Whisky Saga ***

For more information on Box whiskies, do read Thomas’ posts on Whisky Saga. Specifically:

More Nordic whisky experiences coming soon!

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Nordic Explorer #2 – Sweden’s Smögen Sherry Project 1:4 57.2%

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Our first session exploring our Nordic whiskies sample set began with a rather terrific 4 year old whisky from Sweden’s Smögen distillery.

The Smögen Sherry Project was intended to explore the increasing influence of a sherry cask on a young whisky.

  • 1:1 had a 4 months sherry finish
  • 1:2 had 8 months sherry finish
  • 1:3 had 14 months sherry finish
  • 1:4 was fully matured in 1st fill sherry quarter casks (cask #25-27, and 29)

Our benefactor shared with us the last instalment in the Smögen Sherry Project… here is what we found…

Photo: Master of Malt

Photo: Master of Malt

Smögen Sherry Project 1:4 57.2%

  • Nose – Clear sherry stamp, spice, in some ways quite direct, in others not… as though there were two distinct layers – a lower one with sherry and an upper note that was fresh, light with hints of pine. After it aired further, became significantly sweeter like an icing sugar drizzle over cake, marzipan, vanilla
  • Palate – For such a layered nuanced nose, the palate initially seemed a bit flat, a bit malty, wood, strong, pepper, nuts… settling into a sherry
  • Finish – Sweet spice

Overall a range of elements – sooooo sweet on the nose, bitter on the palate and a dancing spice finish. In some ways this whisky is a bit ‘hard’ yet not in the least harsh.

Here is what the distillery has to share:

Sherry Project 1: 4 – Fourth and final release in the series “Sherry Project 1”. Bottled day after “1: 3” in August 2015, four years old and 55.7% strong. Matured in sherry casks quarterback (barrel No. 25-27, 29/2011), European oak. Released by Systembolaget in November 2015 with 909 bottles.

This has a very clearly marked character of Sherry and barrels; very powerful whiskey with great depth and tones mainly of crushed peat-smoked malt, nutmeg, black pepper, orange zest and almonds.  

Sweden - Smogen + Box

*** Whiskies courtesy of  from Whisky Saga ***

For more information on Smögen whiskies, do read Thomas’ posts on Whisky Saga. Specifically:

More Nordic whisky experiences coming soon!

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Nordic Explorer #1 – Sweden’s Smögen Single Cask 7/2011 4 year 57.3%

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Our Nordic whiskies were exceedingly well packed and safely made their journey from Norway to Sweden to India.

Our benefactor thoughtfully gave us the option of tasting blind so only labeled the bottles with a number, sharing separately by email the ‘key’ to unlock which whisky was which.

So naturally we decided to go literally in order of 1, 2, 3, 4… to see what we would discover!

Sweden - Smogen + Box

The first two whiskies just so happened to be from Sweden’s Smögen distillery, named after the nearby Smögen island.

A new entry in the world of whiskies, Smögen was founded in 2010 by lawyer, whisky enthusiast and author Pär Caldenby with a vision to produce an Islay-like whisky using heavily peated malt from Scotland and local barley.

Photo: Master of Malt

Photo: Master of Malt

Smögen Single Cask 7/2011 4 year 57.3%

  •  Nose – Initially quite a punch, sweet caramel, a little wood resin, candy sweet, apricot, nutty marzipan… as it aired a quality a bit like a lovely bright wine, smoked wood, vanilla
  • Palate – No doubt this was a cask strength whisky welcoming you with a ‘Hello, I’m here to envelop you, expand your senses further’ Smoked oak like the shadow effect of peat… very much present yet well rounded, hint of bitter nut
  • Finish – Subtle, sweet with a lovely smoke finish
  • Water – A bouquet of fruit, super sweet like a sachet of sweet spices to infuse a dish. On the palate, the bitter element became even more pronounced, flattening the earlier expansive quality.

We greedily went through this sample. This was the favourite of our first tasting session and we both wish we had more! If ever you stumble across this rare bottle, you will not regret making an extra effort to have a sample.

The distillery has this to share about the bottle:

First fill Sauternes Chateau barrique, 429 bottles, filled in a barrel 11
March 2011, bottled March 28, 2015, released August 2015 via Systembolaget, where it sold out in seconds. Peat smoked at least 45 ppm phenol.

*** Whiskies courtesy of  from Whisky Saga ***

For more information on Smögen whiskies, do read Thomas’ posts on Whisky Saga. Specifically:

More Nordic whisky experiences tasted that evening….

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Whisky clubs revealed

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As some may know, I’m part of three whisky tasting groups in Mumbai. Each has its own format and approach…

I’m often asked how do we do it? What is the recipe for success?

We certainly do not have any ‘magic’ formula, however found a few key factors:

  • Core group of very dedicated people who value quality over quantity – drinkers would be bored silly & chaff with impatience at our slow process of sniffing, sipping and discussing small samples
  • Ability to source unique whiskies from outside India and go well beyond standard duty-free fare
  • Keep it small – too many people and it becomes a party vs an opportunity to share a focused discovery of a specific whisky
  • Typically needs at least one ‘ring leader‘ per group that rallies the ‘troops’ and keeps things on track in terms of participation, fairness in contributions, planning dates/places, etc
  • None are ‘commercial’… there are no membership fees, no one is trying to make money and instead we each contribute in kind and mind!

Want to know more? Here is a quick guide to what works for us with a warning… these are ALL closed groups.

That said, if you are part of a whisky tasting group, would love to learn more about how you go about it. Maybe there is something you do that we would love to try!

Whisky Ladies of Mumbai

  • Who – Core group of ladies supplemented by guests if ‘spots’ in a particular session available
  • Where – Rotate venues at different members homes, limiting ‘spots’ by number of ladies that can be comfortably accommodated in a single discussion space (typically around 8-10)
  • When – Monthly, mostly 3rd Tuesday but bounces around too
  • What – Different approaches… we try to source in such a way to achieve themes yet sometimes simply mix it up to have some fun
  • How – At times the contributor tells a little about the whisky before we sample, other times we just dive in… so far we have not sampled blind

Bombay Malt & Cigar Club

  • Who – Select set of guys and one gal (guess who that is!)
  • Where – Two venues (a/c for summer, outdoors for winter) where glasses and more stored, cigars acceptable plus always fabulous food… why mess with a good thing?
  • When – Sporadically with an aim of every month or so
  • What – Rotating whisky ‘curator’ who collects whiskies in advance to share plus another who takes the lead on ‘curating’ the cigars
  • How – Generally not blind however initial tasting of whiskies strictly without cigars then followed by discovery of another indulgence – cigars!

Original & Underground 

  • Who – Small group of fellow whisky adventurers who devote a serious evening to exploring whiskies, running since 2011
  • Where – Rotate at members homes with each hosting at least once a year
  • When – Monthly except monsoon or sometimes December, strictly 3rd Thursday and planned up to year in advance (I kid you not!)
  • What – Host curates completely! From selecting the whiskies to the dinner that follows… sometimes even special whisky food pairings
  • How – Blind tasting before the reveal

There are other whisky tasting groups around however one of the challenges we in India face vs other countries is limited access to quality, unique whiskies beyond duty-free fare. India may be one of the worlds largest consumer of whisky – however that is predominantly cheap blended whisky – the quantity over quality kinda stuff that doesn’t interest our groups.

So it requires dedication, commitment and creative planning to source whiskies. Hence our groups are all ‘private + closed’ as there is a careful balance between interest, aligned approach and ability to contribute. With our original group, it isn’t unheard of to start collecting for a theme years in advance.

Whereas groups like Winnipeg’s Cabinet or my aunt and uncles’ Fort Frances Whisky Club, have access to a reasonable range through their local Liquor Store, with friendly arrangements to import interesting bottles plus supplement acquisitions from member’s travels.

My uncle was treasurer for years with his group – membership comes with a price and entitles to attend so many sessions / year plus the chance to win the lucky ‘draw’ to take home the balance of a bottle at the end of the evening. It is all fair, square and again completely non-commercial in nature.

Personally I really enjoy tasting with others – I gain so much having different voices and reactions not just my solo impressions.

Would love to learn more about other whisky tasting groups both within India and outside!

Related posts:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Whisky Lady – August 2016

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Carissa Hickling's avatarEveryday Asia

Mumbai monsoons are a time to curl up with a hot cup of chai and crisp pakoras…

With cooler temperatures also comes most enjoyable conditions for a dram or two… which this Whisky Lady indeed did!

Whisky Ladies 1st Anniversary - Padmini

Our original club took a hiatus however the Whisky Ladies of Mumbai celebrated our 1st anniversary in style! We went ‘potluck’ – both on the whiskies and nibbles, inviting friends to join the merriment. In honour of our anniversary, I also launched a new “Whisky Ladies Corner” to feature a few special Whisky Ladies posts.

Imperial, Benrinnes, Linkwood, Blair Athol

Our Bombay Malt & Cigar lads were back at it in August with some remarkably “Affordable Adult” whiskies:

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