Mark's Blog

19 September 2006

Meeting the Monster.

Thursday 14th of September was an important day in the history of Vinology; it was the date of our first Whisky tasting for the Vinology Whisky Club.  After many years of hosting whisky events for someone else, I felt that the format had become stale and the tired hotel in Leamington Spa with it’s second rate food was no longer up to providing a platform for what we wanted to achieve.  As a business, we pride ourselves on being modern and vibrant with an exciting list of wines and whiskies, which carries on through to our bright, modern shop.  I wanted to extend this whole ethos through in to our first whisky event.  The venue I chose was the One Elm pub in Stratford which is just around the corner from the shop, which is handy; it also serves as my local watering hole.  The pub is furnished in a very modern style with a cool bar area and an excellent two floored restaurant.  For the tasting, we took over the first floor of the restaurant.  The staff are young, trendy and keen and under the stewardship of Michael Mond-Redmond have a manager with a “can do” attitude

For the event itself I wanted a Whisky company or distillery which has the same outlook as us.  It didn’t take long to decide to go with the Guys from Compass Box.  Founded about five years ago by American John Glazer, they have since made their mark on the whisky market by producing a stylish cast of whiskies under exotic names such as ‘Hedonism’ and ‘The Peat Monster’.  Last year they were awarded Whisky magazine’s ‘Innovator of the year’ award.

The evening was hosted by Robbie Millar, managing director of Compass Box who was a former colleague of Johns at United Distillers (Diageo).  I am always a little nervous at the start of a tasting if I haven’t heard the speaker before and as I hadn’t used the venue before as well, I was a touch apprehensive.  As it turned out my fears were unfounded as under quite difficult circumstances Robbie delivered a memorable and well received performance.  I mentioned difficult circumstances; as with any whisky tasting we pre-pour the first three or four drams; now in eight years of doing these events I have never had to deal with fruit flies.  With about ten minutes until kick off someone commented that they had a fly in their whisky; not a problem, we can just change it.  On closer inspection, lots of pre-poured drams had tiny black flies in them.  Being a pleasantly warm evening the windows of the restaurant had been left open.  The sweet waft of fine whisky had enticed lots of little fruit flies in to an untimely death; not a bad way to go though.  Being the professionals that we are, we had brought enough fresh glasses and Whisky to rectify the situation and this time covered up the glasses.

The drama hadn’t quite finished either; when choosing the venue I had only been upstairs when the restaurant was empty; unfortunately, at 8 o’clock the restaurant was packed and the volume level had risen considerably.  Poor Robbie was having difficulty making himself heard, so took the decision to do his tutoring to half the room at a time.  This created double the work load for him, but worked a treat and everyone agreed that his delivery was spot on.  Robbie must have enjoyed it though as he has asked if can come back and do another one in the future. He will be most welcome.

On to the whiskies. The tasting started with Asyla, a blend of grain and malt whisky. I hadn’t tasted this whisky in years and had forgotten how good it was.  The nose is very exotic, in fact I would go as far as to say that if you could create the perfect whisky bouquet this would be it.  The body is softness personified with a great finish.  Not a bad start to the evening.  Second up, was the elegantly smoky Elethura.  This whisky is a vatted malt which combines malts from Glenlossie and Caol Ila.  The richness of the Speyside entwines with the oily, peaty Islay to create a complex and satisfying dram.  The next whisky was the famous grain whisky called Hedonism. This whisky is so soft and light but yet still manages to retain some delicious flavours of vanilla and toffee. The finish is sweet and long and was the favourite of the fruit flies - insects with impeccable taste.  After a short break for appropriate refreshment, served up by the One Elm’s chef we moved on to whisky number four. This was a completely new whisky to the Compass Box range called Oak Cross. This is a vatting of Highland and Speyside malts that have received secondary maturation in barrels with American oak staves and French oak heads. The result is a big spicy mouthful, a departure from the subtle and demure whiskies that Compass Box usually craft. However, with just tiniest splash of water the Oak Cross opens up and reveals itself as the most delicious of drams. Next to be tasted was the Peat Monster. Well, not so much a monster, more a big peaty pussy cat. For those people who are not that keen on Islay malts the Peat Monster is an education on what great whiskies they can be. The addition of some smoky Ardmore tames the monster yet adds to this fantastic whisky. The final dram of the evening was Orangerie. Old malt whisky that had been infused with orange peel; this was really tasty and the two flavours harmonised to create an interesting drink.

Overall the evening was a huge success and the assembled guests agreed that both the drams and the event itself were excellent.

On to wine related matters. The autumn trade tastings are in full swing and I was in London yesterday hoping to find something of interest to add to our list. I can report that a couple of gems caught my attention. Definitely making the list in the next few weeks will be a new wine from the Two Hands stable and a wonderful Pinot Gris from my pet region of Tasmania. I must also inform you that after many years of tasting I have actually found a Pinotage that is drinkable; in fact, I shall even go on record saying that I quite liked it. Maybe it was the addition of a splash of Shiraz and Viognier that swayed me, but anyway, congratulations to the guys at Hidden Valley in Stellenbosch for proving me wrong.

Cheers!