{"id":1397,"date":"2014-05-01T19:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T00:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2014-05-10T12:22:46","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T17:22:46","slug":"private-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/2014\/05\/private-tasting\/","title":{"rendered":"Private Tasting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/?attachment_id=1428#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1428\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1428\" src=\"http:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/blackbull2.jpg\" alt=\"Black Bull 30\" width=\"200\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/blackbull2.jpg 200w, https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/blackbull2-73x100.jpg 73w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>A local fellow whiskey enthusiast invited me to his home for a tasting and I enthusiastically accepted. This was a small gathering, including a local pub owner, liquor expert, another enthusiast, the host\u00a0and me. I was honored to even be included and the lineup was incredible.<\/p>\n<p>We started off by sampling\u00a0a couple of beers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout &#8211; nice coffee stout with notes of dark chocolate.<\/li>\n<li>Prairie\/Evil Twin Bible Belt &#8211;\u00a0this is Evil Twin&#8217;s Even More Jesus imperial stout that is spiced like Prairie Artisan Ale&#8217;s Bomb! with coffee, vanilla, cacao nibs and chile&#8230; this is far less peppery and less complex than Bomb!, but it&#8217;s still good with a nice thick, dry dark chocolate flavor along with bitter coffee&#8230; the other infused flavors don&#8217;t really make much of a showing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Up next was my first Armagnac and probably my first good brandy:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chateau du St. Aubin Bas-Armagnac &#8211; dry, fruity, dark fruits, light wood, sherry finish, beautiful nose, refreshing (per our expert and I agree)\u2026 Excellent!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, it was time to sample some whisk(e)y:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mackmyra Special 06 Summer Meadow 2011 &#8211; wintergreen, ginger, white pepper, sea salt, white grape, green apple\u2026 very nice&#8230; may have to look for a bottle next time I&#8217;m in Stockholm<\/li>\n<li>Glengassaugh The Spirit Drink That Dare Not Speak its Name &#8211; this is new make spirit (i.e. unaged) and it was pretty bad stuff&#8230; notes of barnyard on the nose and palate\u2026 on a positive note, it did give me an idea of what the wood was working on for all that time<\/li>\n<li>Bruichladdich The Organic &#8211; earthy and sweet with a pure,\u00a0natural malt profile&#8230; notes of dough, spice, ginger, pepper, lemon with a mildly leathery finish\u2026 different and very interesting&#8230; Excellent!<\/li>\n<li>Old Potrero Single Malt Straight Rye &#8211; dough, swamp oak (per our host and I agree&#8230; thanks for naming that flavor for me), mild spice, honey and sweet tobacco\u2026 a different kind of rye&#8230; supposed to be old school<\/li>\n<li>Glenmorangie 12 Year Sherry Wood Finish 2005 &#8211; grape, nice spice and sweetness, long finish, dark fruit, full malt, mild dry cocoa\u2026 Excellent&#8230; best Glenmorangie I&#8217;ve ever tasted!<\/li>\n<li>Black Bull 12 Year &#8211; bitter caramel, cigar box, white pepper\u2026 bold and flavorful&#8230; at $45, this is a great buy!<\/li>\n<li>Black Bull 40 Year (3rd Release, 41.6% ABV) &#8211; grain, more refined, balance of fruit, leather, mild ginger, bitter orange, very mild\u2026 I was expecting a lot more&#8230; disappointed<\/li>\n<li>Black Bull 30 Year &#8211; lots of sherry influence, fruity, mild spice, dark fruit, apple, pear, cherry&#8230; Best blend I&#8217;ve ever had by far!<\/li>\n<li>Longmorn 17 Year 1996 (The Ultimate, 57.2% ABV)\u00a0&#8211; spicy, needs water, bold and untamed , fruity, mildly bitter, malty, strong sherry influence, very dark&#8230; not too good<\/li>\n<li>Aultmore 12 Year 1991 (SMWS 73.12, 58.4% ABV) &#8211; spicy, fruity, spreads across the palate, fairly hot, tobacco, dark fruit, mildly sulfurous<\/li>\n<li>Glen Grant 17 Year\u00a01988 (SMWS 9.35, 53.9% ABV) &#8211; hot, slightly medicinal, fruity, herbal, probably second fill (per our pub owner), a\u00a0little\u00a0water opens it up<\/li>\n<li>Ardmore 20 Year 1985 (SMWS 66.17, 53.4% ABV) &#8211; mildly peated, fruity, sweet, earthy, ashes<\/li>\n<li>Glen Scotia 13 Year 1991 (SMWS 93.13, 63.7% ABV) &#8211; light fruit, spice, woody, light peat, mildly medicinal, leathery, machine oil (again, thanks to our host for this one)<\/li>\n<li>Springbank 12 Year Recharged Sherry Cask\u00a01999 (Springbank Society, 57.9% ABV) &#8211; mildly medicinal, fruity, mildly spicy, everything is here and with nice balance, mild peat\u2026 Excellent!<\/li>\n<li>Brora 30 Year (6th Edition, 55.7% ABV)- bold fruit and spice, amazing balance and complexity, mild peat\u2026 Outstanding!<\/li>\n<li>Glenlochy 32 Year Refill Butt\u00a01980 (Signatory Cask Strength Collection, Cask #1759, 60.1% ABV) &#8211; pure malt, honey, lots of fruit with moderate spice, leathery finish, water really opens it up, fairly ho<\/li>\n<li>Port Ellen 25 Year 1982 (Chieftain&#8217;s Choice, Cask #1522, 43% ABV) &#8211; mildly peated, lots of balance without any boldness, spice, fruit , mild leather\u2026 Excellent!<\/li>\n<li>Glenfiddich 125th Anniversary Edition &#8211; mildly peated, mild spice and fruit, honey&#8230; different kind of Glenfiddich and pretty good<\/li>\n<li>Laphroaig 9 Year Refill Sherry Butt 2001 (SMWS 29.88, 60.9% ABV) &#8211; bold peat, bold spice and fruit, in your face flavor, medicinal with balance&#8230; Excellent!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Wow! \u00a0What a great lineup of whisky! \u00a0The Brora 30 Year was definitely the standout for me and the best single malt I&#8217;ve tasted. \u00a0Honorable mention goes to Black Bull 30 Year from Duncan Taylor. \u00a0It&#8217;s too bad that many of these are unavailable, but some of the excellent ones still are, such as Black Bull 12, Bruichladdich The Organic and Chateau du St. Aubin Bas-Armagnac. \u00a0These are all worth seeking out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A local fellow whiskey enthusiast invited me to his home for a tasting and I enthusiastically accepted. This was a small gathering, including a local pub owner, liquor expert, another enthusiast, the host\u00a0and me. I was honored to even be included and the lineup was incredible. We started off by sampling\u00a0a couple of beers: Lagunitas &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/2014\/05\/private-tasting\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,161,4],"tags":[176,172,171,62,45,46,168,66,175,63,179,169,167,170,173,76,17,20,177,29,39,166,174,178,25,16,18,100],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beer","category-brandy","category-whiskey","tag-anchor","tag-ardmore","tag-aultmore","tag-black-bull","tag-blended","tag-blended-malt","tag-brora","tag-bruichladdich","tag-chateau-saint-aubin","tag-duncan-taylor","tag-evil-twin","tag-glen-grant","tag-glen-scotia","tag-glengassaugh","tag-glenlochy","tag-glenmorangie","tag-highland","tag-islay","tag-lagunitas","tag-laphroaig","tag-longmorn","tag-mackmyra","tag-port-ellen","tag-prairie-artisan","tag-rye","tag-single-malt","tag-speyside","tag-springbank"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p364aH-mx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1430,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/1430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}