Cnoc Cnoc

Busy wee time recently folks, what with holidays and other bits and bobs, so apologies for not updating Still Life for a while.

A couple of weeks ago Ken Seaton and I inveigled our way into an AnCnoc tasting being given by Jim Murray of Bible fame. The setting was the Lismore in Partick and, frankly, it’s not ideal. The tasting would have taken place in direct line with access to the toilets, with the attendant inconveniences (sorry, couldn’t help it). A bouncer made people walk out the pub and sneak in the side door, thus saving the guests from seeing Mr Murray cancel the tasting.

The drams were AnCnoc new make, a six year old bottling brought specifically at Jim’s request, the standard 12, the new 16 and a bottle from the dim and distant past, a 1975 Knockdhu. He told the audience, Daily Express competition winners, that he takes the AnCnoc to every tasting across the world, as it it’s one most people haven’t heard of, and it scores very highly for consistency of quality.

At the end of a short, but enjoyable tasting, punters got the chance to vote their favourite dram and using a calculation that made the Holyrood election papers a doddle, the standard 12 came out ahead, followed by the Knockdhu and the 16.

Jim told some tall tales, such as being stalked through Inverness in his first ever visit to Scotland. Both stalkers male, incidentally.

And he has an interesting technique, insisting the whisky should be warmed in one hand while the glass is covered by the other at the top.

I got pelters for admitting I have the occasional whisky with ice, but told him the club’s motto was drink it your way, and Ken drew his ire by suggesting whisky worked good with food.

Pish and Tosh was his reaction. Well he got it half right!