The last club night of the year, and the end of five years of Glasgow’s Whisky Club. We’ve come a long way since Alex Robertson and a few friends had an Isle of Jura tasting in the mezzanine floor of the Pot Still. Membership has grown, as has our experience of some very fine single malt, single grain and blended whiskies.Tuesday night round the barrel was no exception and the DTs – in the shape of Jacq Sutherland and her Duncan Taylor offering, allowed the club to go out on a high note, and facing our sixth year with some confidence.
Again, we used club funds to purchase some extremely fine drams and club secretary Andrew Bell worked hard on the selection. On this occasion we sampled the 70th Anniversary Malt, to celebrate … err 75 years of Duncan Taylor. A mixture of 41-year-old Glenfarclas and a similarly aged Highland Park, ours was bottle number 327 from 375. It came in at 46.3% and was considered dram of the evening by a few members.
We also tasted the quite magnificent Black Bull 12 year old at 50%. At £32.50 or thereabouts, it’s a stunning dram at the price and a definite stocking filler for Chez Toshie.
A sublime 39-year-old Caperdonich cask at 46.8% caught the taste buds and vied for dram of the night with another 39 year old, a Glenlivet cask at 48.6%. Quite hard to separate these two. Caperdonich is a personal favourite but the Glenlivet was something special. A peated Bunnahabhain 12-year-old from the NC2 range was the final offering. Clear as new make spirit, my nose was telling me baby sick (!), my taste buds were swamped by a fabulous flavour.
Our favourite DT person had driven the goodies down from Huntly because of some ordering mix-up, so many thanks to Jacq for the sacrifice – and the even greater sacrifice of not drinking her wares since she had to drive back home again.We welcomed a couple of new faces who are trying us out before deciding on membership next year. They seemed to enjoy themselves, so perhaps we'll meet Martin and Gordon again.
Ken Seaton and Maggie are over from France during the festive season, so we’ll try to arrange a wee club get together. There are other developments likely to be on the agenda for next year, so watch this space.
