Challenge accepted
Scottish Field welcomes a brand new panel of readers to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Leith
On Monday 5 August a team of whisky connoisseurs of the finest quality, our very own Scottish Field readers, assembled before hundreds of mini bottles of gold and amber, each one of them lined up to surprise and delight.
And how did our ten reader judges feel when tasked with tasting 54 whiskies in one day?
‘I’ve never seen so many glasses assembled before myself,’ said Kirstin Uhlenbrock, a tour operator who lives in Fife. ‘I am German by birth and acquired a taste for whisky relatively late in life when a Scottish friend of mine insisted I could not live for 17 years in Scotland not knowing anything about the water of life. He fully converted me.’
For Mathew Thorburn, tasting this number of whiskies was a breeze. He’s a member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and goes to whisky festivals. ‘But I’ve not tasted so many at such a high quality,’ he said.
Our very own whisky columnist and founder of World Whisky Day, Blair Bowman, and Annabel Meikle, Director of the Keepers of the Quaich, were there to give tasting advice to our panel.
‘Use your instinct. The first thing that comes into your head is the right thing. Ask yourself, “is it a big bruiser or a dainty dancer?”’ advised
Annabel. ‘Would you date this person or would you not? It’s quite instinctive for the knock out round.’
She told us her favourite quote by famous French epicure, Brillat-Savarin who said, ‘Smell and taste form a single sense of which the mouth is the lab and the nose is the chimney.’
Blair revealed how he writes his tasting notes. ‘I start with one word, such as citrus, then I zoom in to grapefruit, is it yellow, pink? Is it juice, peel, caramelised, until I get to caramelised pink grapefruit peel. It’s like a game of Guess Who?’
Our panel members teamed up to taste their whiskies at the same time and to compare notes. There were some arguments – Jim could taste sulphur but Kirsten couldn’t. ‘And I cover my ponies fly bites with sulphur so I know what it smells like.’
Tasting so many whiskies on a Monday was completely new for some of our panel. ‘After a while your mouth starts to feel aflame,’ commented Damon Simmonds.
‘I got into whisky through my dad,’ said Gillian Ferriday. ‘I’m a teacher but whisky is a real personal interest. It’s really good tasting whisky with no preconceived ideas and letting your taste buds guide you.’
Felix Haslimeier explained how he got into whisky after someone bought him a bottle of Laphroaig when he moved to Scotland from New Zealand. ‘There’s a huge interest in whisky in New Zealand but I didn’t discover it until I came here.’
For some of our panel writing tasting notes was no problem. ‘I do tastings as part of my work in the shop Good Spirits,’ said Angie Vera Sanchez. ‘I like it because I can guide people through the taste. I base it on the eight principles of taste and narrow it down.’
Andy Jack also works in the whisky business, looking after the Bowmore brand. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by whisky. It’s going to be hard to choose the top ones, there are so many nice ones. This one smells like fresh laundry, but in a good way.’
Lucy Allen works for an independent bottler, Mr Alba International. ‘We bottle for the Chinese market. The Chinese love cherry cask whiskies, number 20 would be their favourite, with rose and red wine fruits.’
Kirsten Webb works for Kingsbarns Distillery. ‘I was travelling in Australia and people kept saying, “you must love whisky”. I eventually started drinking it because it reminded me of home. I began drinking it in Old Fashioned cocktails. Then by themselves. When I got home I had to get into the industry.’
The Scottish Field Readers’ Whisky Challenge has launched whisky careers too. ‘I was in the Readers Challenge years ago, it launched my whisky career,’ said Blair Bowman.
‘This is the most authentic whisky competition there is because it’s completely blind. I’ve been very impressed by the calibre of everyone selected. They’ve taken on the challenge brilliantly and done exceptionally well with compiling their scores and tasting notes.’ Blair said.
‘This has been one of the best days of my life,’ said Jim Gillies. ‘I was worried we would be thrown in at the deep end but I’ll go away with so much new knowledge from Annabel and Blair.’
As we depart, Jim pops his head around the corner and says, ‘You’d think we’d be immune by now but I can still taste whisky in the bar.’
Our Readers’ Panel all went home with smiles and clinking goodie bags. Even the glasses made merry music as we tidied up.
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It’s quite instinctive for the knock out round. Would you date this person, or would you not
If you would like to be on the Scottish Field Readers’ Panel in 2020, email whisky@scottishfield.co.uk