My Dear Friends & Esteemed Guests,
I write in hopes that you had the very best holidays, a Merry Christmas and, as they say in Scotland, a Happy Hogmanay. I myself had a very pleasant end of the year, but since fell a bit under the weather. My sense of smell has not yet returned to its proper place, and you can imagine how much this dismays me. But be of good cheer! And trust that I will be right as rain when next we meet.
In December we expanded into the Highlands. The evening began with a little history, specifically focused on how Speyside, which we discussed last month, is and always has been a sub-set of the Highlands region. Its elevation to a region in its own right is due to the preponderance of distilleries (more than half of all Scotland’s distilleries are here), and that this is owing more to the terrain being suitable to the illicit distilling trade than to any particular nature or style of whisky produced there. The industry creates a stereotype for Highland whiskies in much the same way as they do for Speysides, namely: malty and fruity, and generally with a hint of smoke, and always well influenced by the wood. Of course there will be variations, and these are generalized into sub-divisions. In the North, the typical house style is “big, salty, and sweet” on the nose, and “sweet and dry, with a long finish” on the palate. The Eastern distilleries tend to be fruity and oily. The South are more full bodied, and most eagerly display the influence of their casks. The West have a fairly wide variation even among themselves! Both the North and the West, in my humble opinion, can further be subdivided to include “coastal” styles; the North’s coastal style more heavily containing orange, spice, and salt, the West’s, in addition to the orange and spice, tend to have more complexity. The Islands, exclusive of Islay, are also included in this region, though there is growing understanding of their being quite independent from their “mainland” cousins. Here there is generally a maritime sense to the whisky, with more or less peat. Again, even among themselves, styles vary.
As last month, our nosing covered a wide range of the flavor wheel. Fruit notes, introduced during fermentation, and wood notes, introduced during aging, are most evident. Last month’s letter focused on Speyside’s primary regional aromas: Estery and Woody, so I will not write much on those here. Suffice it to say that in addition to the peachy/coconut notes we nosed last month, we experienced rose-water and hyacinth and discussed the term “perfumed”, which is used when the specific floral scent cannot be identified. Likewise, we explored the more tannic side of the wood scale last month, and focused on balsamic vanilla and caramel this month. There is little need, I am sure, to go into any description of these flavors, owing to their prevalence in every day experience. Lastly, we spent time with the Malty notes, exploring aromas best described as “malted barley”, “butter”, “biscuits” or even “cake”. Although the extremes may contain more burnt variations of this sweet, somewhat thick, note, we did not experience this ourselves. We did notice that several of those present were able to experience only parts of the sensory range, or picked up other notes altogether.
We began our tasting with Dalwhinnie 15 year old. Aromatic, with hints of heather and peat, Dalwhinnie presented the malt and fruit aromas we had just sampled. With water the flavor actually opened up considerably, prompting one participant to encourage us to sip it more slowly: “...it’s not Irish whiskey after all!” The Dalwhinnie scored a respectable, but not stellar, 6.8.
Next up was the Clynelish 14 year old. Faint florals and brown sugar lined the nose, with a respectably creamy but not cloying sweetness were presented to the mouth in a lovely complexity. A hint of salt and a touch bitter on the finish, we scored this dram just a hint behind our first, with an average of 6.75.
Our final glass held Glenmorangie’s The Original, their 10 year old whisky. Being Glenmorangie, we all had high expectations - which were summarily met. A deep and velvety peg, nuts, vanilla, and fresh flowers come together in the nose, and honey and citrus dominate the palate. A long, dry and somewhat oaky finish bring this fine dram to completeness. We scored the Original at 7.85.
Until our next time together,
Sláinte,
