A silence of the drams tasting; January 2014, Dundee. 

Aitken wines, Dundee, 30 January 2014. WHISKY TASTING EVENING

Hosted and whisky by; Peter MacKay, Carn Mor Independent bottlers, Bankfoot, Perth. 

These notes were taken/written by Shona Gillespie, attending were Paul McLean and Liz Gillespie – amongst 20 others.

The evening started at 7pm in Dundee, as we arrived we were given a dram of Old Perth Blended Malt 43%. It started very casual, we were still all standing mingling! As we took seats Peter started his chat. He told us about the company, his father, and what they do. Old Perth; I thought it was fizzy, sharp and very Grouse like, it has added colour. 4 malts make up the blend, no grain, two of them are Glenfiddich & Bruichladdie. Old Perth originally started back in 1913. It was ok. 

Next; Carn Mor Tomatin 18 year old 1994 46%. Taste/nose – apples, basil, pear and lemon meringue, it was quite nice. No chill filtration, bourbon barrels enlarged at cooperage. 

Third dram; Carn Mor Glen Moray 17 year old 1995 46%. Snickers! Caramel, toffee peanut, smells like jelly beans (candy). Paul liked this one. 

Fourth; Carn Mor Clynelish 16 year old 1997 46%. Part of the Diageo group, This is the core malt for Johnnie Walker Gold. A waxy character, Cadbury’s fruit and nut! 

Fifth; Carn Mor Glen Elgin 17 year old 1995 46%. Nice as a first sip. NO. (Shona then passed the glass to Paul). 

Six; Carn Mor a Cheo straight from the cask  Dailuaine 16 year old 1997 52.9%. (Shona) pronounced dal – euan. Yes!

Warm finish, gets better as it goes on, at first tastes nice, ends up like dust! Diageo flora and fauna range. 

Final dram;  Tamdhu 22 year old 1991 Oloroso finish 49.8%. different casks used Tio Pepe and Bristol Cream, creates finer whisky transforms flavours. Nice and warming, sticky toffee pudding – but I didn’t like it, gave it to Paul. (Paul’s note; a sherry finish? I think they just showed the whisky to a sherry bottle, no much sherry finish here. Priced at £90 per bottle on offer, I resisted – easily – and bought a Aberlour A’Bunadh at the end of the evening, 60.4%, batch 46 for £35! Superb).    Shona; overall, Speyside whiskies are quite similar and too bitter for my taste, not enough depth of flavour and a cheap texture, nothing tonight jumped out at me. The haggis neeps and tatties after dram 3 were good! 

Paul writes; Shona is 21 years old and daughter of MCLEANSCOTLAND owner Liz Gillespie. Shona is at university and has been on tour with us, also travelled with us to USA for a Scottish highland games week. She is the youngest member of the team.  Summary; a disappointing evening to be honest, it was more of a complete beginners evening, Peter had some of his facts wrong, but was personable enough. What utterly shocked me however was we were give ONE GLASS for 7 drams! I had to ask for water to swill out my glass each time, no the done thing! Never attended ANY tasting with one glass! Only whisky events and festivals, even then you have water! The fact we were surrounded by wine in the warehouse did not really add to the atmosphere. Not a very professional approach methinks. Carn Mor are based near Paul in Perth, they also produce creams and liqueurs for themselves (own label) and Bells, Dewar’s, Grouse, all of whom originated in Perth. 

Gus (18 year old son of Liz) drove us home! After a quick chat, we all agreed, not a very good whisky tasting. I had brought some drams with me so we started into these. At first we had a sessions of “Silence of the Drams”, Method; we nose and taste the drams, SAY NOTHING, write down what you think, do not let anyone see what you write. At the end of the tasting we compare notes. Using this method, no one is influenced by the others and we get true tasting notes. We had the frenzy by now! So out came Aberlour and Balvenie, followed by chutney and cheeses, Glengoyne, Connemara and Irn Bru ended the day! By now Denis (a latecomer to the session) was dancing in the kitchen, Liz was bumping off the walls, Paul – well sad to say, I was ok – note to myself; start drinkin less. At 2am we called it a day, Denis had disappeared 1 ish, we headed to place a head on a pillow. What started off as a let down, ended up as a thrill seeker! I think the empty glasses and bottles proved it. 

Paul and Liz are; www.angelswhiskyclub.com and www.mcleanscotland.com