S.M.W.S Tasting Night

Tuesday night and another tasting for Glasgow's Whisky Club Tasting Panel. Five brave souls travelled throught the rain to meet at the Bon Accord bar to go through 5 new bottles from our friends in Edinburgh. Here are the results.

Malt 1,
SMWS 129.19 (Loch Lomond-16 year-old), 50.1% volume, £50, one of 79 bottles
The nose quite intriguing starts with a touch of salt, then fruit into cinnamon. At times the fruit is very pick’n’mix confectionary. To taste it is like being hit with a piece of rough peat. First sip -Full rush of peat quickly developing into a sweet finish. Second sip – rough, charcoal, dry and unmemorable.

70/100

Malt 2.
SMWS 93.33 (Glen Scotia-16 year-old), 64.3% volume, £49, one of 177 bottles
Fruit driven nose, blueberries and cherry chewits jump straight out at you. A touch of lime and lavender at the edges and you have a very well put together experience. The palate was not the best for me but if you like liquorice to dominate with the edges of prunes and Root beer then this malt is for you. With water the liquorice does die down and the prunes turn slightly too raspberry jus. A great malt but not for my personal tastes.

80/100

Malt 3.
SMWS 1.141 (Glenfarclas ## year-old) 48.1% volume.
A boy band malt! Synthetic, clean, trying to hard to impress, and as always one member who wants to be the rebel. A fake fruit nose that is very like apples mixed with polish cleaner gives way to a slightly oaky, tangerine and concentrated orange juice palate. With water the there is more fruit, a hint of chocolate and some spicy white heather. I like it but I’m not sure why?

85/100

Malt 4.SMWS 37.40 (Cragganmore ##year-old) 56% volume
A classic grassy Speysider! Floral, rose water, fresh green fruit – strawberries and sugar on a summer day (while watching Wimbledon on the TV). With out water there is a strange mid-palate sour moment where the rollercoaster ride stalls but with the addition of a touch of water this turns into mouth watering fruit. Almost perfect.

95/100

Malt 5.
SMWS 27.72 (Springbank-12 year-old), 57.3% volume, £51, one of 292 bottles
A darker richer monster than the previous drams. At first it’s a fruit cake mixed with to much sherry then it’s a ginger cake that could do with some sherry. Great complexity. The palate is at first peppery then smoky, touch peaty, then just when it’s about to finish it turns sweet. I had a great time trying to work out the distillery and I had to go for Talisker (peaty, smoky, peppery) but it was Springbank! Another brilliant dram and a great one to finish on.

95/100

If you would like to more about SMWS please visit there site.

http://www.smws.co.uk/

Henschke Wine Tasting

Another fantastic tasting at Inverarity 121 – why they keep inviting me I’ll never know. This week Peter was presenting the Henscke Wine range and I could think of no better way of spending a Saturday afternoon.I have to admit that my palate is designed to love wines from the New World – big, powerful fruit bombs filled with concentration and berry juice. First up was the Riesling (£12.99), a fresh fruity, slightly sweet but with a limey-citrus crispness tipple 85/100. Following on was the Tilly’s Vineyard 2004 (£9.99), a Semillon, Sauvignon and Chardonnay mix. Again a lot of fruit but not to much complexity 85/100 and then to finish the whites Louis Semillon 2003(£11.99), quite powerful for a Semillon but just the right wine to finish on, it has brilliant toasty notes (which is down to the 26% French oak aging). A year on your wine rack and you will get the ‘runny honey on toast’ notes that real good Semillon is capable of 90/100.

As is Inverarity 121’s key idea it is the Henschke family who own and run the winery for more details please visit.

http://www.henschke.com.au/

On to the reds and there was no messing about. To dive straight into the Johann’s Garden GSM (Grenach/Shiraz/Mouvedre - £18.99) is like running through a dense bramble patch eating all the brambles, and a few leaves, as you go. A green herby, almost spearmint notes follow. Give this wine a year or two and you will have a true Australian great 92/100. Then is the Shiraz/Cabernet 2002 (£18.99) a true battle of Shiraz’s blackberries and the Cabernet’s eucalyptus – the berries win by the way 92/100.

To finish Peter really threw his best at us the straight Cabernet (okay 91% Cabernet and 9% Merlot - £39.50). I swear that I thought that this was a Pinot on the nose – inky, oily, burnt raisins and dark forest fruits. I may have been wrong about the grape but the wine was magnificent 95/100.

6 wines, one Saturday afternoon – brilliant tasting!