My letters for the year commencing August 2007 and completing August 2008 appear to be lost to the mists of time. I am, however, able to report that my own memories are not so degraded, and especially as I am prompted by a copy of all our scores I keep here in my office at home. I beg your patience as I summarize these months.
The summer of 2007 proved to be the first challenging period for the Club. Attendance was spotty at best, and it wasn't clear that the Club would survive much longer. It, of course, has...
September 2007 was our first official business meeting. As with any growing enterprise, the early years held little in the way of business, and we spent this time primarily in the revelry of our cups and company. The two orders of business we did conduct were the collection of the subscription to pay for the awards the Club procured for our favored server and waitress; and the presentation of the awards to their recipients.
October found us sampling Aberfeldy and Dewar's White Label. Aberfeldy is the primary malt used in the Dewar's blend, and our intent was to see if we could find the malt's character in the blend. Neither performed very well. November pitted the same Dewar's White Label against Johnny Wlaker Black Label. An undoubtedly interesting match, though both paled in comparison to the scores we generally provide to our singles. In December we sipped Caol Ila for the first time.
In January 2008 it was the Nectar D'Or. In February we held our "Battle of the Glens", pitting Glenfiddich Solera Reserve against Glenlivet French Oak Reserve, both 15 year old single malts. The Glenlivet inched out the win with a score half a point greater than that of the Glenfiddich. March was our first official Founder's Month, and there was no 'proper' tasting held. April found us on Islay, tasting Laphroaig and Talisker; Lagavulin and Ardbeg followed in May. On an interesting note, the Talisker performed very poorly relative to the Laphroaig. Of the entire 'lost' period, this Lagavulin tasting scored the highest overall. We took an aside in June, to taste the newly available Buchanan's Special Reserve. This event was "sponsored" by our local distributer, and included a host of informative materials. Although not a bad whisky, the Buchanan's did not score very well, though this may be attributable to the fact that there were very few members in attendance this month. The attendance was so poor in July that we did not "officially" score any whisky. I suppose very little has changed over the years, and I'm prompted to consider whether summer time tastings should become something much lighter than those of the rest of the year. We conclude the lost year with a tasting of the Singleton of Glendullan. This dram scored rather well, ending the year on a positive note!
I now return you to our regularly documented events.
Sláinte,
