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Whisky Lady – August 2017
August was a bit of a catch-up month for Whisky Lady tastings… chock full of notes from July’s excesses with even more from those sessions to come next month.
August sessions were held with each Mumbai based whisky clubs – yet two were of a decidedly social bent!
The Original’s session featured an Islay Trio:
- Bunnahabhain Eirigh Na Greine 46.3% – Interesting to compare notes of our Batch #5 tasting with Batch #1
- Bowmore Gold Reef 43% – What a contrast to our Whisky Ladies experience!
- Ardbeg Uigeadail 52.4% – A proper peat bog, wildfire chilli on the palate and fab long finish (sampled earlier too!)
The Whisky Ladies turned two! With a celebration of whisky women fellowship…
And finally on 31st August 2017, we had our Bombay Malt & Cigar partners night where we explored a trio of single grains:
- Girvan 8 years (2006) Cask 532398 46% (Berrys’)
- Strathclyde 25 year (1990/2016) DL11335 51.5% (Douglas Laing’s Old Particular)
- Invergordon 28 year (1987/2015) DL 11004 56.5% (Douglas Laing’s Old Particular)
Followed by two Indian whiskies:
- Sula’s Eclipse Blended Whisky 42.8%
- Rampur 43%
I shared tasting notes from our July 2017 American Westland trio of:
- Westland Peated 46% – Curiously shy peat, ginger honey, bacon and smoke
- Westland American Oak 46% – Sweet creamy banana split, dangerously drinkable. My current favourite!
- Westland Sherry 46% – Tropical fruits, mocha toffee with a lovely finish!
Our July Monsoon Malts & More evening covered an eclectic range with:
- Eddu Silver 40% – Buckwheat whisky from Bretagne, France
- R & B Distillers – New entrant bottling interesting whiskies
- The Exceptional – Craft Distillers Sutcliffe and Ex Macallan’s Willie Phillips new baby
- Highland Park 12 year 40% – An echo of the old 18 year favourite
- Finlaggan Cask Strength 58% – A most enjoyable mystery Islay
Check out what can be squeezed into just a couple of minutes “Speed Tasting” impressions with:
- Hyde Single Grain 46% – Roasted wood, fruity, clean with spice
- Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye 45% – Piquant, bright, young and sweet like chewing Juicy Fruit gum!
- Pikesville 110 Proof Straight Rye 55% – Vanilla, flowers, fruit, nuts with a clear Rye quality, savoury finish
- House Blend – Amazing balance between sherry sweet and smoky peat
- Midleton Dair Ghaelach 58.7% – Milk chocolate, banana, dash of coffee, spicy swagger, touch of vanilla, though young was a ‘3 in 1’ whisky for its different dimensions
I also published tasting notes from July’s Krishna’s Collection with:
- Glen Grant 60 year (1950/2010) 40% – Old polished wood, delicate perfume, fruits & cream, elegant, nuanced, exceedingly easy to drink
- Bowmore 12 year (1970s/19802) 40% – Absolutely stunning! Restrained, brilliant body, kiss of peat with a joyful host enjoyable quality
- “The Prestonfield” Vintage 1972 43% – Phenolyic, camphor, peculiar… to the point of not being enjoyable
- Glen Garioch 17 year (1996) 55.7% – Orange cream cookies, almost brandy-like, exceedingly smooth
- Caol Ila 36 year (1980) 52.3% (Cadenheads) – Bitter hing, quite vegetal, echo of peat growing into proper peat, sweet with a long cinnamon spice finish
- Laphroaig 19 year (1996) 53.9% (Old Particular) – Chewy leather, toffee, tobacco, beautifully complex, nuanced dram of substance
Naturally with a few odds and ends… including:
Curious to know more? Check out recent Whisky Lady’s monthly missives:
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Whisky Lady – May 2017
May brought adventures around India with trips to Kolkata, Kochi with a nice juicy project in Mumbai. It also brought the heat before the monsoon… shifting from mere heat to drenching humidity.
All three tasting groups also got into the action!
The Whisky Ladies and our original group enjoyed Bruichladdich Peat Progressions with:
- The Classic Laddie 50% – A delightful dram to start an evening… (Whisky Ladies only)
- The Laddie Eight 50% – Nose keeps evolving, following through on the palate (Original only)
- Bere Barley (2008) 50% – Rustic and original (Whisky Ladies only)
- PC 2007 CC:01 8 years 57.8% – Give it time to open, it is completely worth the wait!
- PC 12 Oileanach Furachail 58.7% – Industrial, bursting with character yet oddly also restrained and almost elegant too
- Octomore 07.2_208 5 years PPM 208 58.5% – Absolutely stunning and a cut above!
- Octomore 07.1_208 5 years PPM 208 59.5% – Again, impossible to believe it is so heated yet not overwhelming (Whisky Ladies only)
The BMC gent’s finally had their version of the Undisclosed Distillery session with a bonus:
- Wilson & Morgan “Highland Heart” Sherry Cask 43% – Rich marmalade, incredibly smooth and rounded… a rather regal whisky you simply want to curl up and enjoy
- Sansibar Islay 8 year 52.2% – Fresh muted peat with an evolving character, well rounded
- Port Askaig 19 year 50.4% – Sufficiently complex to to keep it interesting, for a peaty whisky quite elegant
- Finlaggan Cask Strength 58% – Asphalt meets meadow flowers… surprisingly it works!
A return of the Miniatures sessions with:
- Glengassaugh Evolution 50% – Just say no unless you like mouth disinfectant
- Glenglassaugh Torfa 50% – Better than my 1st foray but still a long way to go..
- Inchmurrin Madeira 46% – A nice ‘day drink’ from Loch Lomond
Shared tasting notes from a 2nd Flight at The Single Cask with a lighter touch with:
- Deanston 15 years (1997/2013) Cask No 1958 45.8%
- Glen Moray 21 year (1991/2013) Cask No 9980 46%
- Glentauchers 18 years (1996/2014) 2 casks 46%
- Miltonduff 21 year (1995/2016) 45.8%
- Followed by a single dram – Ben Nevis 19 year (1996/2016) Cask No 871 45.1%
With a few more tastings including:
- The elusive Longmorn 16 year 48% – Slow down and enjoy…
- Royal Brackla 16 year 40% – Pronounced a bar night whisky with food!
Curious to know more? Check out recent Whisky Lady’s monthly missives:
You can also find even more Whisky bits ‘n bobs on:
- FaceBook Whisky Lady in India – https://www.facebook.com/WhiskyLadyIN
- Twitter @WhiskyLadyIN
Whisky Lady – Frolicking February 2017
February was just frivolous and fun! I flew off to Delhi to co-facilitate a conference, home to Mumbai then a few days in Goa where I made a quick trip to Paul John distilleries too!
For the Whisky Lady, February had two whisky industry events:
- Glenmorangie’s 3 country introduction to Bacalta
- International Scotch Day
For our regular whisky tasting sessions, I played host to two!
- A bit cheeky, I twisted our original underground club‘s most sacred of traditions – blind tasting – by teasingly revealing the bottles from three independent bottlers… who did not disclose the distillery on their labels.
- Then even more sneaky, I planned to repeat the performance with our Bombay Malt & Cigar gents to see what they thought of the selection.
My idea was to contrast and compare tasting experiences… alas the BMC night was postponed to April however here is a sneak peak into what the original club thought!
- Sansibar Islay 8 year (2007/2015) 52.2% – Citrus spice & everything nice!
- Port Askaig 19 year 50.4% – Floral, beautifully balanced peat with a long refined finish
- Wilson & Morgan “Highland Heart” Sherry (2006/2015) 43% – A classy classic whisky – soft wine, spice and simply superb
Without our regular ‘proper’ tasting evening, the BMC gents decided to do their version of a ‘Bar Night‘ with whiskies more accessible to us mortals – Aberlour 12 year, Lagavulin 16 year and Penderyn Madeira finish.
Our Whisky Ladies also departed convention and embraced a Sunday sundowner to sample gins made by our very own Whisky Lady – Susan Dias!
Another whisky lady and I brushed off the last Nordic whisky samples to explore:
- Iceland – Flóki Young Malt 1st Edition 47% – Barely a whisky, suggest adding a few more years… and then see what its all about
- Finland – Teerenpeli Kaski Distiller’s Choice 43% – Loved their homage to light sherry! What a fabulous dram…
- Denmark – Stauning Young Rye (2010/2011 – Oct 2012) 49.3% Batch 5 – Can’t tell whether its because I’m not a fan of rye or… but not my whisky style but didn’t do it for me
- Denmark – Stauning Peated 4 year (2009/2013) 55% 2nd Edition – All Danish peat, grain, locally malted… not bad but…
In February, caught up with the tasting notes for earlier sessions and experiences…
Starting with our original club’s November Irish night:
- Teeling Single Grain Wine Casks 46%
- Teeling Single Malt 46%
- Teeling Small Batch 46%
- Teeling Cask Strength
(Photo: Table for One)
Then our combined Whisky Ladies / Bombay & Malt and Cigar gents “Ladies Choice” whiskies with guest posts by some of our whisky ladies:
- Japan – Akashi 40% (Nikoulina) – Appetizer whisky…
- Sweden – Mackmyra Vinterdröm 46.1% (Susan) – Special edition
- India – Paul John Single Cask #1844 60.5% (Paula) – Unpeated single cask
- France – Kornog Taouarc’h Pempved 14 BC 46% (Pooja) – Our bras stayed on this time!
- Taiwan – Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask S090102020 57.1% (Shruti) – What a whisky!
Followed by the Whisky Ladies “out of ordinary” North American evening:
- Shelter Point Single Malt (2016, Batch #1) 46% – Fantastic 1st foray into the world of whisky – bravo BC, Canada!!
- Westland Single Malt 46% – Continues to confirm these Seattle folks are making darn good whisky
- AD Laws Triticum Straight Wheat 2 year (Batch #1B) 50% – The trouble with tribbles and grain experiments
- AD Laws Hordeum Straight Malt 2 year (Batch #1B) 42.5% – More grain experiments
And closing with more Whisky Live Singapore postings with:
- Dalmore – Quick nip of the 18 year
Curious to know more? Check out recent Whisky Lady’s monthly missives:
You can also find my Whisky Lady in India avatar on:
- Blog https://whiskylady.co/
- FaceBook Whisky Lady in India – https://www.facebook.com/WhiskyLadyIN
- Twitter @WhiskyLadyIN
Whisky Lady – May missive
Whisky Lady sampling remained strong in May with four whisky sessions!
It kicked off with a special “Gourmet Affair” whisky and food pairing by The Singleton and TheWestin Mumbai featuring:
- Glenkinchie 12 year with asparagus and burrata
- Caol Ila 12 year with stuffed morels and mushrooms
- Talisker 10 year with seared scallops and prosciutto or corn fed chicken
- Lagavulin 16 year with Australian lamb loin or Indian lamb shank
- Singleton by Glen Ord 12 year with mignardises
Whisky Lady – An AWESOME August!
As slow as July was, August was the opposite for this Whisky Lady!
Because… drum roll… Mumbai be warned! We launched a ‘Whisky Ladies‘ gathering to have some dangerously fun times enjoying our favourite whiskies!
Five fabulous drams with eight amazing whisky women! (Photo: Table For One)
Yup – you heard it right. We now have our own rocking whisky women’s club in Mumbai! Our inaugural evening featured: (more…)
Everyday Asia 