Saturated Facts

One of the things I love about the UK is our veracious appetite for news; we seem to devour news stories with as much gusto as Americans devour saturated fat.

If you head to the Weatherspoons in Farringdon, a stones throw away from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in London, you’ll find massive TV screens not showing the football or MTV but rolling 24 hour news. Jump on public transport in The Big Smoke and you’ll be forced to read some form of gratis journal, updating you on anything from world news to local events and everything in between.

In the UK we are obese with facts, our arteries are clogged with knowledge. And yet we will chat about the weather as if we haven’t had access to media our entire lives. Indeed, it was Samuel Johnston writing for Idler in 1798 who remarked

“It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm.”

If you so desire, it is possible to feed solely from free news sources on a daily basis. To satisfy your hunger with the fast food version of news, the free paper.

Ranging from traditional news services such as The Metro on a weekday morning to The Evening Standard to see you back home again, London’s public transport system even has its own Male and Female specific style magazines, Shortlist and Stylist. The most niche of them all however must be City AM.

City AM is a free newspaper aimed at those folk who work, as the inventive and cunning title suggests, in the City. Those people who aggressively push figures around their offices (in more ways than one) and pride themselves on feasting at the table of capitalism, where the house red is often the blood of the weak and poor.

The most vile section of this actually sometimes informative rag, is called The Capitalist, particularly their weekly column entitled 'Bill Of The Week' where City workers are encouraged to send in a receipt for an outrageous lunch or dinner to be published for the rest of their fellow workers to admire.

Bill Of The Week is basically the modern day equivalent of a hunting trip: shoot an animal, cut off its head and mount it on a wall in your massive house, for all to see. Only in the current economic climate (caused in part by the traders and bankers who are lording their lunchtime killings), the beheaded animal is an endangered species and the rest of the world has no walls left to hang stuff on, having had to sell them to pay of the country's national debt...

At the start of the week I had the misfortune to stumble upon a copy of City AM while taking an early morning tube journey from Central London, heading out East. Flicking through I came across the aforementioned column showcasing a receipt for a long lunch taken by four City ‘gents’ on a Wednesday at the new Boisdale Restaurant in Canary Wharf. The total bill, for lunch, was a shade under £1800.

£1800. For lunch. For 4 people. On a Wednesday.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not hanging Capitalism out to dry here. I'm a supporter of Common Sense Capitalism but like anything, those involved to an extreme degree seem to come across badly. If you work hard and earn good money, you are within your rights to spend it how you see fit. It just seems clear from Bill Of The Week, that money doesn't buy you humility, meekness and modesty. Moreover, it just makes you look like a dick. But whatever your take on a lunchtime spend such as this, we should have a more detailed look at this weeks featured bill. What exactly has the eighteen hundred quid gone on?

The obvious headline spend is on food and wine. There are also some nice cigars thrown in the mix. But for those of you outside of London who have yet to hear about the new Boisdales, its newly opened bar features one of the finest whisky selections in the UK, with over 500 different Scotchs alone on the menu.

Surely there must be some excellent Scotch on our boys bill? After all, they've had the balls to send it in to City AM for publication. So, what have our highly paid, highly educated City fellas chosen to drink, with all those drams on tap and all that money in the bank?

Johnnie Walker Blue Label, at £27.20 a dram.

I’m fortunate enough to have visited the new Boisdale’s a couple of times since it opened in April, it being just a short tube ride away from home. The whisky selection is mind blowing, the atmosphere fantastic and the prices are reasonable. Considering the local clientèle, they’d be within their rights to charge a fortune. But they don’t.

Now, you can have all the seafood you like, you can visit the cigar terrace and have a Churchill or a Robusto. But if you’re surrounded by some of the greatest whisky in the world, at least try something you can’t get in Selfridges or a whisky you are unlikely to have at home.

Last time I popped in to the new Boisdales, one particular dram stood out on the menu for me. For £20.40p (for 50ml), that’s just under £7 less than the Blue Label, you can get yourself a single cask, cask strength 1968 39 year old Springbank. And you can order a 25ml dram for half that price...

Er, yes please:

Springbank – Acorn’s 1968 – 39 Year Old – Distilled April 1968 / Bottled November 2007 – Cask No 617 – 47.6% Vol

Nose: there are some smokes whiffs and the slight waxy nature that you would expect from a Springbank; I once had a candle handrolled from beeswax, with a light vanilla tone to it and this has a similar aroma but backed with tinned peaches and apricots. A delicate nose for something so old.

Palate: Plenty of peach melba, runny honey and dried apricot. A good deal of vanilla is rounded off with just a hint of smoke.

Finish: Delicate at first, with some light oak spices and then the runny honey and beeswax to finish.

Overall: A bargain of a dram and a slice of history from Campbeltown.

Wouldn't it be nice if City AM gave equal column inches on the same page as Bill Of The Week to a charity such as Christian Aid or Oxfam and requested that the people submitting such receipts make an equal donation to said charities, or even one closer to home such as Shelter, working to house and feed families made homeless in the local area. This may put their Wednesday afternoon spending in to light somewhat.

Right, I’m off for my knitting lesson with Madame Defarge...

The Glen Love It

Thank goodness for double glazing!

My marker for winter drawing in is the need to turn on the central heating. Had it not been for good cavity wall insulation and thick, vacuous, see-through* panes of double-glazed glass, which daily provide me with a real-life version of East Enders as I gaze out on London life, I would have had the heaters blaring out weeks ago. But this week, with plummeting temperatures and snow falling all around, I finally succumbed to pushing the “on” button, to have my various cockles warmed.

Opening the airing cupboard to retrieve my selection of “big jumpers”, hidden away since the snow melted in March, I’m reminded of sunnier times in the year and a short film flicks through my mind, typically rose-tinted and jolly. But amongst the nostalgia are some genuine highlights, one of which is of a fabulous trip to Speyside, to the opening of the new still house at The Glenlivet.

Last night we held our first 'official' CaskStrength.net tasting, in association with The Glenlivet, which provided us with an opportunity to give our invited guests some winter memories of their own. The venue for this 'liquid alliance' was one of the lavishly decorated upstairs rooms at the well known London restaurant and jazz club Boisdales of Belgravia.

Awaking to a blanket of snow across London, the conditions for our tasting were the polar opposite (pun very much intended) of the sun-drenched Speyside trip back in June. However, our 20 hardy attendees were not to be deterred from the prospect of six whiskies from The Glenlivet range and we had just person one drop out, struggling to make his way from a snow-bound Oxfordshire countryside into the Big Smoke.

On the menu for the evening were some whiskies we’d not had the pleasure of trying before, with particular highlights being the oldest and the youngest in the line up; The Glenlivet 12 Year Old First Fill (travel retail only) and The Glenlivet 25 Year Old. The rest of the selection was as follows: 15 Year Old French Oak, Nadurra Triumph, 18 Year Old and a Mystery Whisky...... ooooohhhhh! (you gotta love audience participation!!)

The Mystery Whisky was in fact one that we have already reviewed, The Founders Reserve, but tonight was about providing our esteemed (and highly knowledgable) guests with an opportunity to share in our tastings and hopefully bank a “highlight of 2010”, as we did with our trip to Speyside earlier in the year. Thankfully, the lucky competition winners seemed to enjoy the night, with an eclectic mix of people, proving our long-held view that whisky is all about the spirit within the spirit, meeting new people and enjoying great company.

But we weren’t going to let our guests off scot-free (or Scotch free, even). Oh, no! Caskstrength.net is all about the work ethic and in this life, you don’t get anything for free... it was the job of the assembled group to help us tweet some tasting notes on each whisky, which we then sent flying out in to the digital ether. Not quite wikileaks, but it was jolly good fun and threw up some very interesting tasting notes (most noticeably “Gary Lineker”, but more on that later) which hopefully add an extra dimension to our thoughts on these drams, below.

The evening started with a scene-setting introduction from Phil Huckle, UK Brand Ambassador for The Glenlivet, as he expanded on the history of the distillery and the use of the term “Glenlivet”. So popular was whisky from The Glenlivet that distillers from the area would use the name Glenlivet solely for their own single malt, leading to a court case in the 1800’s where The Glenlivet was granted the right to be the only distillery to use the name Glenlivet in isolation, relegating its neighbours to the use of Glenlivet as an additional marque on their products.

As the snow tumbled down outside, it was time to warm ourselves with the first dram of the evening:

The Glenlivet - 12 Year Old First Fill – Travel Retail Only – 1ltr – 40% ABV

Nose: Great wafts of spiced cooking apple and ripe bananas, toasted pine nuts and clear apple juice.

Palate: Matured in first fill American Oak, this leads to a palate of fresh pine, those bananas again but this time more as banana bread, honey and white pear. A “juicy” mouth feel.

Finish: Medium to short, with a hint of spice, this is a session whisky and once opened, throw the cork far away as you won’t need it again!

Overall: Here are our thoughts from the tasting panel for the evening: “Ripe bananas, coconut and toffee, vanilla, crème brulee and almond spice”. The ripe bananas was a particular talking point and really stood out on the nose.

The second dram of the evening was the 15 Year Old French Oak. Matured in American Oak and finished in Limousin casks, more commonly used in the Cognac industry, this whisky highlighted the influence European Oak has on spirit, adding a greater weight, depth and additional complexity from the 12 Year Old First Fill. The tasting notes from our guests included "well-fed xmas cake, pre-fired xmas pudding, dates, caramel, panna cotta, nutmeg and brandy butter", which about sums up this whisky, at 40% ABV, perfectly. Give yourself a round of applause!

Next up was a whisky that we hold in high regard here at CaskStrength.net HQ. So much so, that it has made the final of our Best in Glass Award for this year (result to be announced on Dec 10^th 2010).

The Glenlivet – Nadurra Triumph – 1991 – 48% (non chill filtered)

Just to save any confusion, there are 3 releases of Nadurra: The Triumph,bottled in March 2010 at 48%, a Duty Free edition at 43% and a cask strength (various ABV’s depending on batch) available in high street retailers.

Nose: Hot buttered popcorn is the first thing that flies out of the glass at you, backed with heather and sweet apple juice. A hint of grapefruit juice hits the back of the nose, which I’ve attributed to the higher ABV) and there is just a touch of red fruit right at the back (a tiny portion of this version of the Nadurra has spent time in European Oak, unlike the other two releases which are 100% ex-American Oak barrels).

Palate: Neat, this retains the hot buttered popcorn and the wheat and oak elements dance around like the perfect couple on your tongue, developing the red fruits over time, initially growing out of light apples, vanilla and honey. With water, liquorice emerges and a drying nature, increased wood activity, come out and a hint of ginger.

Finish: Short, gingerbread and spices. With water the finish is easier, less spices with a greater hint of baked apples.

Overall: here is what our panel thought "buttered popcorn, tropical fruits, ginger, sherries coconut, fruit salad chews, tang”

Onwards we carried to the next dram, The Glenlivet 18 Year Old. A classic whisky which is always going to carry a weight of expectation with it, due to its popularity world-wide and was the whisky of the night which provided us with the best, most unusal tasting note of the evening... here is what the panel thought "pear drops, blackberry lockets, toffee, wholemeal toast with nutella, aniseed, treacle, orange peel, Gary Lineker"

“Gary Lineker?”, we hear you cry! “WTF?”

The gent who supplied this note gave an explanation “Well, it just does what you expect it to. 9 times out of 10, this will put the ball in the net.” Fair point!

It’s nearly Christmas and the goodwill seems to extend to distillers and shops around this time too, as you can pick this whisky up in Waitrose for less than £30. In fact, £28.99 is their current retail for this. Bonkers.

As the evening drew to a close, we had two final whiskies to get through. As we’ve already done notes on The Founders Reserve (panel notes on Twitter "dusty coco, coffee, brandy butter, vanilla, dark choc orange, real liquorice, purple quality street, fig jam”), this just leaves the 25 Year Old to go:

The Glenlivet – 25 Year Old – 1985 – 43%

Nose: Everything you expect from an old whisky finished in Oloroso Sherry barrels; plums, rich Christmas pudding, old books and furniture polish, all topped off with walnuts and soaked raisins. A wonderfully rich and filling nose.

Palate: Classy, with cinnamon, ginger, rooibosh tea, nutmeg and fruit cake. Weighty mouth feel and a depth of flavour that surpasses the other drams for the evening. Exactly what an “old” whisky should do.

Finish: Slightly drying, sweet honey and Demerara sugar, with a hint of sweet coffee.

Overall: Here are the thoughts of the panel: “sweet cured bacon, stewed plums, boiled fruits, furniture polish, flat doc pepper, bonfire toffee, crab apple jelly" The final note there, crab apple jelly, got a rousing round of applause and proved one of the more popular tasting notes for the evening.

As the night drew to a close, with the snow still falling, there was just enough time to retire to Boisdale’s famous roof terrace for a cigar and a dram. Thank you to everyone who came along, braving some awful weather to spend the evening helping us taste some excellent drams. It was fantastic to finally meet some of you as well as to see some familiar faces from previous whisky events.

As they say in my part of South London, “Biguppayaself, Blud”.

*one could insert an “ex-girlfriend joke” here, but I’ll refrain after the stick I took from one ex’s friend over a similar opportunity not passed up, recently. I think her Christmas present this year will be reasonably easy: a pinch of salt

The Glenlivet Tasting Competition

Whisky in 3D? surely not??

So far, we've only seen one movie in the "new 3D" format at the cinema: Toy Story 3.

Proclaimed by Mark Kermode as "the greatest film trilogy of all time", it really did come to life and brought a whole new dimension to cinematic story-telling.

Never ones to be left behind by technology, here at Caskstrength.net, we're finally entering the 3D world!

Well sort of. Instead of just the regular 2D 'here's-our-thoughts-on-a-whisky' posts, we've decided to launch our first official 'in-the-flesh' Caskstrength tasting.... and we want you to come along....

On St Andrews Day, (Tuesday 30th November) we will be hosting a fabulous tasting in London with some of the good folk from The Glenlivet. The venue will be:

Boisdale Of Belgravia,

15 Eccleston Street,

Belgravia, SW1W 9LX

Along with The Glenlivet's Brand Ambassador Phil Huckle, We'll be going through some excellent examples from The 'livet catalogue for your delectation and delight... and something really very interesting and slightly mysterious too...

There are 15 places up for grabs here- If you’d like to join us, it couldn't be simpler.

Send us an email to info@caskstrength.net saying:

“Me, please. I’d like to come along and drink some Glenlivet with you.”

And it gets better. If you can't make it into London, Fear not. Our friends at Edinburgh Whisky Blog will be hosting a similar Glenlivet tasting up in their home town, on the same night!!

A few house rules first, however:

1.You must be over the age of 18 Years and state your Date Of Birth in the email. (pretty obvious this one)

2.You must be able to get to the venue for 6pm on 30th November. We will be starting promptly!

3. This is a free event and we'll be drawing 15 names from a hat next Friday 12th November, so get emailing now...!

Slainte,

Neil + Joel