FESTIVE PLANNER
HOLIDAYS ARE COMING
It’s whisky season and with it comes the opportunity to celebrate festive times with your nearest and dearest – so don’t be a single malt Scrooge! Share the Society love this Christmas at home with some stunning drams or in good company at one of our Members’ Rooms. Here’s what’s ahead on the Society calendar as we start to count the days
Cask No. 137.17
MEDICINAL CHOCOLATE
£90.00
PROFILE Peated REGION England AGE 12 years ABV 64.0% CASK TYPE 2nd fill ex-bourbon barrel
Sweet aromas of cloves and antiseptic merged with burnt crab, smoked kippers and vanilla pods smouldering in the smoke of wet driftwood in a peat kiln. On the palate, gammon arrived cured in iodine while the aromas of burning sausages wafted up through the thick soot of a chimney and applewood-smoked hazelnuts were made into praline and chocolate truffles. Water brought back clean hospital aromas but now with grilled fish, roasted mangoes and tar-covered ropes at the end of the pier. Smoked almonds, hot cocoa and coconut then mingled with cinnamon buns and a seafood platter on the long finish.
Cask No. 138.23
PANEL PIGGIES' PARADISE
£87.00
PROFILE Juicy, Oak & Vanilla REGION Taiwan AGE 5 years ABV 58.2% CASK TYPE 1st fill #3 char barrel
Our Panel piggies snuffled, gruntled and asked for more. The perfume and potpourri on the nose seemed to excite them; as did the peaches, pastries, muscovado and tobacco leaf. The juicy palate had them slavering at the chops – refreshers, sherbet lemons, mango and cherries; sweet spice put a curlicue in the tail.
The reduced nose had herbal, Mediterranean hillside vibes; one little piggy built a house made of chocolate and wood (orange trees and laundry outside). The palate had coconut macaroons and foamy bananas, peaches, fig and caramelised wood. The Panel piggies went wee wee wee all the way home.
CASK No. G15.27
MINTY MARZIPAN
£50.00
PROFILE Spicy & Sweet REGION Highland AGE 9 years ABV 61.4% CASK TYPE 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel
Enticing aromas of shortbread, ginger biscuits and orange merged with sweet bourbon liqueur and green notes of eucalyptus and herbal stock. Such notes morphed into mint, menthol and heather on the palate alongside lemon, spicy chutney and icing sugar on apple pie. A dash of water released the fizz of orange sherbet and the tingle of fresh ginger before dark chocolate-coated marzipan came wrapped within cake and shavings of toasted oak. On the palate we now found rhubarb and custard sweets with honey on watermelon, and coconut mingling with the gentle spices of cinnamon and dried ginger.
'HERESY' SMALL BATCH DELIGHTS
GASTRONOMIC FUSION
Sometimes you don’t see things coming and they hit you square in the tasting glass in the most surprising way. The latest among such unexpected moments stems from our clear glass ‘Heresy’ small-batch range, Gastronomic fusion.
In many regards, this new arrival is a first for the Society. And whatever you’re expecting, it’s safe to say that this isn’t it! So, what remote corner of whisky’s flavour empire are we exploring this time? Julien Willems finds out