Our original Mumbai based whisky tasting club has an unwritten rule – no repeats. We also taste blind so as not to be influenced by brand or pre-conceived notions about a particular whisky or distillery.

Yet after so many years, our obsession with exploring new territories presents a challenge to find something ‘new.’

So why not have an evening that deliberately sets us up to sample whiskies we’ve had (or similar to ones we’ve tried), but each with a twist… being expressions that aren’t necessarily representative of a distillery ‘house style’ – if such a thing even exists anymore!

We also observed that our impressions bore little relationship to official distillery tasting notes… Past experiments have helped provide insight into possible reasons with a range of factors including the whisky temperature, ambient aromas and environment, tasting order which can influence perceptions of the whisky to follow,  conversation and company, and frankly just the mood of the taster!!

What did our host “trick” us with?

• Bunnahabhain Eirigh na Greine “Morning Sky” Batch 5, 46.3% – Provided by our host exactly 2 years ago from Batch 1 – August 2015
• Bowmore Gold Reef 43% – Not sampled by our original club but I tried as part of a Bowmore Travel Trilogy by the Whisky Ladies in April 2017
• Ardbeg Uigeadail 54.2% – I could have sworn we sampled it in our early days before I documented our dramming experiences… certainly I had it kicking around in my cupboard and re-tasted the remaining drops back in April 2015