Gentlemen and Friends,
As much as I desire to be well prepared in advance of the occasion, I continue to find myself at the last minute with little more than a good intention gone awry. I must admit though, that the wee Caol Isla upon which I sip is doing more than its share, on this chill Autumn evening, to help ease my anguish.
Before you blink, our October 16th meeting will be upon us. The forecast is crisp chill with only a hint of a chance for precipitation, making it the perfect evening for a nip of the pure and the warm camaraderie of fine friends!
As promised, I've had several conversations regarding our upcoming program of events. The general agreement is to spend the next five months touring Scotland in an attempt to pitch one Classic Malt against one contender of the same region whose style is somewhat different from the expected. Here's the outline, though I must warn you that there is still the possibility of a bug in my ear leading us in a slightly different way by the time we get to a region...
- We start in Speyside, in an attempt to counter the recent lingering we've had on Islay. The first comparison (October's, in fact) is Cragganmore versus Macallan. In processing the choices, I was amazed that we hadn't already scored either of these!
- We linger in the region, but begin making our way North along the shore to pit Clynelish against The Dalmore.
- Then it's over the mountains to see how Dalwhinnie (one of our top 5) stands up to Aberfeldy. I'm interested in putting the effect of order into play, to see if trying the Aberfeldy second makes any difference in our scorings.
- Next is a bit of the East Coast versus West Coast thing, as we sail out with Old Poultney and into Oban.
- And finally, we end up on Islay again, where we'll stand Bunnahabain up against Caol Isla. Here, in particular, is a place where I might be swayed to take a more heavily peated malt instead of the most complex one, in going against what is generally accepted as the most unpeated of the Islay malts.
- And this will end us up in Founder's Month where we can re-try whatever is our heart's content.
To avoid any undue rambling, I'll leave it at that, and provide the standard agenda:
- 6:30 PM ~ Monty's for our tasting.
- 8:00 PM(-ish) ~ The Old Toad again, unless anyone feels strongly about moving elsewhere.
- Afterwards ~ Light up your preferred after-dinner smoke on the street and chat it up...
Croí follain agus gob fliuch!
(the Gaelic toast "A healthy heart and a wet mouth!")
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