“I’m in a room full of men and scotch” – my Facebook status last night. Jealous? You should be. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, is exactly what you think it is; a club for lovers of high-end scotch, who also enjoy expanding their knowledge and refining their palates.
Did you know that scotch comes off the still clear, and you can usually tell whether it has been aged in a bourbon or sherry barrel by its colour? You do now.
Last night was all about tasting single cask (which means there is only a cask’s worth of bottles of that particular scotch in the world) whiskies. Most scotch one buys from a bottle shop is around 40% in alcohol, these babies were coming in at 60%… yet, the alcohol level doesn’t necessarily translate to the “kick” one feels from each specific dram. The scotch with the highest alcohol level consumed last night, happened to be the softest and most delicious. She was an Arran ten year old, but there was nothing harsh or zippy about her. She was nubile, and delicate and dark. Her colour was a glorious chestnut, thanks to her being aged in a sherry barrel (she is second from the right) and she caressed your lips as only a beautiful woman can… I had to possess her. There will be big smiles in a few days from now when she arrives and makes herself at home on my little old liquor shelf.
I write this, hoping that I will open the minds of those who think that they do not like whisky; you have probably just had awful whisky that would thin paint, strip walls and do several other handy jobs. I firmly believe that if you don’t like something, it’s probably because you have just had bad experiences with it… Like all those people who hate chardonnay… You have had cheap chardonnay at a uni BBQ that ended in tears and various forms of dares and various states of undress…. Like, I, who thought Sauv Blanc was the Devil, because the only experience I had had with SB was having a glass of other people’s cheap, nasty, $15 SBs… But, I have learned to appreciate a fine Sauv Blanc, far removed from the turps I once thought it all was, so I am hoping that you, whisky-hater, will learn to appreciate a fine scotch. If you see a scotch tasting advertised, why not try it out?
