Annandale Distillery Tasting

The full line-up

We had a packed crowd upstairs in our new surroundings of the Seven Oaks for February's tasting, a visit from the Annandale Distillery. Not too far over the border, it's only a couple of hours away on the M6 making it one of our closest distilleries. As is often the case, it's a 19th century distillery which closed in the 20th, but which has been revived in the 21st as part of the whisky boom.

Unpeated bourbon cask

Ambassador John had brought with him a mix of cask strength expressions showing off their unpeated (Man O'Words) and peated (Man O'Sword) range, and we added two bottles of our own from the club stocks for good measure.

So with eight drams to try we got straight into it, with an unpeated Man O'Words matured in bourbon casks. We certainly got the hit of vanilla and cream with this one. It tasted strong, you really felt this one in your chest on the way down, as well you might at 59.8% (no calibration drams here, clearly).

There was a caramel sweetness too, as part of a really long aftertaste. This was £75 and was nothing if not a serious start to proceedings.

Unpeated oloroso cask

Next a version aged in oloroso sherry, and even stronger at 61.5%. Again there was no mistaking that sherry, with plenty of spice, fruits, raisins and sultanas evident on the nose, which was a cracker and made us want to move quickly on to drinking the thing.

Those spices came through again on the palate, especially nutmeg, with a definite hint of ginger biscuits. Buttery shortbread was another shout. It was £85.

Unpeated fino cask

Completing the Man O'Words core range was dram three, matured in ex-fino sherry. The single cask fino makes this a unique whisky, John reckoned. This was different again, with yeast or bread on the nose. This gave way to something more cake-y on the palate, with a mixture of sweetness and almonds, so a Bakewell tart was an obvious tasting note.

Others picked out dark chocolate as well as other nutty flavours. Extremely pleasant again, and it came in at 60.4% and £95.

The fresh-filled bourbon

Before moving onto the peated core range, there was time for a detour via two bottles of Annandale sources from the club's back catalogue.

Again cask strength, whisky four was a 59.6% fresh filled bourbon. This did not taste quite as strong as the others or its ABV would suggest. Indeed, it had more of a "straight down the line" feel about it and was very pleasant and approachable.

The STR

Tasting notes included buttery again, along with "grainy" and a bit of sweetcorn. It took water well, too, apparently.

Dram five was an STR, the now familiar technique of shaving, toasting and re-charring, used by many younger distilleries to rejuvenate red wine and other casks for the maturation of whisky.

This got some mixed views in the room - some feeling the palate fell a bit short, but others really enjoying it. I fell into the latter camp and have written down the suitably vague "moreish" in my notes, so you'll have to make of that what you will. It was 59.2%.

Peated bourbon cask

Back to the distillery's core range for their three Man O'Swords peated drams, once again with bourbon, oloroso and fino cask expressions.

Dram six was matured in fresh bourbon. This was smoky on the nose, like a campfire barbecue, but not medicinal like some peat monsters can be. The PPM was 28-30ish, and we felt this was pretty approachable as these sorts of drinks go. "Delicious" was one view, and that it was great as it was, with no need for water.

Peated oloroso cask

This was 59.6% and was £75 (full disclosure: I bought one).

We were going in the same order as before, so it was oloroso next for a blend of sherry and peat. As you might expect, this made the whisky "very complex". Someone suggested it was more like a peated mead than anything else, although whether the Lindisfarne monks themselves ever needed to use peat to make their booze may be lost to history.

This was £85 and 61.1%.

If you think that the tasting notes recorded here might be getting shorter as the night progressed, you'd be right, but that's how it goes on an evening of eight cask strength whiskies. To finish we were treated to a peated version of the fino. It got an "ooh!" on the nose. We liked it, but amid stiff competition it perhaps wasn't quite the dram of the night. Nice, but maybe too peaty for some in the room.

Peated fino cask

Again it was 61%, and clocked in at £95.

As for that dram of the night voting, no fewer than seven of the eight whiskies got at least one vote, always a sign of a strong line up. The clear winner though was dram three, the unpeated fino cask Man O'Words, with an impressive 18 votes! The unpeated oloroso was second, with the peated bourbon and fino joint third.

Thanks to Martin for raiding the club stocks for those two additional bottles, and special thanks to John from Annandale for making the journey to see us and bringing such a great line up of drams to share.

New Year, New Home!

 

The line-up

Our 2025 programme of tastings got off to a bit of a different start for a couple of reasons. The first was a week's delay due to a previous booking at our new venue, meaning our January tasting actually took place on the first Thursday in February.

North British 18yo

But I've already given away the second. After spending most of our decade-plus history at the Britons Protection (longer serving members might recall our earliest days in the Lass O'Gowrie then the Castle, but these memories are understandably hazy), events at the start of January meant Star Pubs/Heineken finally took control of the place following a long battle. Changes afoot there, not least the departure of the whisky stocks that made it such an attractive place for us for so long, meant we were briefly homeless.

In stepped another Manchester landmark, the Seven Oaks in Chinatown. Their upstairs room is an ideal size for us, and so that's where we assembled for Martin to take us through six assorted bottles raided from the club's stocks.

The Holyrood

We started off with a single cask grain, an 18-year-old from North British aged in a refill sherry cask and bottled by Douglas Laing under their Old Particular brand. This had a sort of leather, waxy type vibe about it, the sort of smell you get when buffing up your car (I was taking others' word for this, I'm afraid my poor old Ford has never had a buffing, at least not from me). On the palate we got some toffee at the end, butterscotch too. Not too vanilla-y, as some grains can be.

This was good, although at our table we weren't quite sure it was worth the £67 we paid for it back in 2022. Others raved it about it though, declaring it "surprisingly good". Other tasting notes included struck matches and sulphur. It was 48.4%.

SMWS Tullibardine

Dram two went to the other end of the age scale, and a very young whisky from Edinburgh's new Holyrood distillery, which says it's the first in the Scottish capital for a century. Set up by Canadians in an old railway building, the distillery has a reputation for experimenting, and has employed an ex-distiller from Macallan to help them realise what they want to achieve.

We weren't so keen on the nose here - cheese and sweaty socks - but it was totally different when you actually drank it. Very creamy and interesting. We'd like to try more of their stuff, but not necessarily this precise expression again. It was 49.8% and cost us £70 including postage.

Arran 16yo

As someone commented on seeing the line-up of bottles at the start of the evening, "it's always a good night when you see one of these," gesturing at the familiar Scotch Malt Whisky Society livery of dram three. This expression - Blindfolds and Pipettes, 28.95 - was a 10-year-old Tullibardine.

This was straightforward and very good, we felt. Understated but chewy. Not especially memorable on the nose but it had a super long aftertaste, with distinct flavours of apple crumble, custard and a honeyed sweetness. There were mixed views on whether adding water did all that much for it. This bottle was £70 for SMWS members and it was 59%.

Aultmore

After a half-time break to recharge our glasses downstairs in our new surroundings, it was back for another trio of whiskies.

And we kicked off part two on the Isle of Arran, with a distillery exclusive 16-year-old single cask from 2022. We weren't quite sure what the cask was, although it could have been Sauternes, or fino - it was certainly very pale for something which had been aged for that long. 

It was very nice all round though, and Arran is a popular distillery among many club members who felt this particular expression helped the liquid shine. It was £95, which was perhaps a little at the top end of what we'd pay for it. The strength was 58%.

Glen Scotia

To another club for whisky five, this time the Cadenhead's Club and a 15-year-old Aultmore, the result of a vatting of several casks. This had an incredible nose and looked great too: it made you (or at least me) instantly want to drink it. 

And indeed, it lived up to expectations. Very nice, with classical old Speyside flavours, including dates and sticky toffee pudding. A great all-rounder and a favourite so far for many in the room. This was £70 and 54.8%.

Martin had a bit of peat lined up for us to finish with. A Glen Scotia bottled for Callander, this was matured in fresh bourbon then PX casks. My notes here indicate that it was billed as heavily peated, but didn't really taste all that peated, indeed I wrote "is it really peated at all?" so clearly this was causing some debate. More of a soft hint of smoke than anything else.

This was really delicious though. That hint of smoke brought to mind smoky bacon and Frazzles. "Stunning" and "terrific" were among the comments. Incredible value too, as we paid £59 for it back in 2021. It was 52.9%.

That brought us to the dram of the night voting, and despite a strong challenge from the Glen Scotia, the Cadenhead's Club Aultmore got the most votes with 13. In third place was the Arran.

Thanks to Martin for putting together our new home and this great line up of drams, and to all at the Seven Oaks for giving us such a warm welcome!

Manchester Whisky Club Christmas Party 2024

 

Here's the briefest flavour of our annual Christmas party, held upstairs at the Britons Protection. It's the night of the year when - instead of a regular tasting - we bring back any leftover drams from the year and club members bring a bottle to share, along with plenty of homemade snacks and goodies.

We're now firmly into our second decade at Manchester Whisky Club and going as strongly as ever. Thanks to everyone who has taken part in a tasting over the past year, as a presenter, member or guest, and to all at the Britons for hosting us for another year. Merry Christmas!

Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery Tasting

 

Flagship

We had a distillery tasting for our November meeting. And not just any old distillery, either, but one of the pioneers of the boom in English whisky, Spirit of Yorkshire.

Based in Hunmanby close to the North Sea coast, it's home of not only Filey Bay whisky but also Wold Top brewery. Brand ambassador Amy explained the local, sustainable ethos of this independently-run business, which grows all its own barley on the farm and controls all aspects of the production process from field to bottle.

Scarborough Fair IPA

We've had Filey Bay a few times over the years, not least when its first products came onto the market in 2019 (I bought a bottle of the inaugural release which I foolishly/not foolishly drank, it's now worth a lot more than I paid for it). So it was great to be reacquainted with what is one of our closest distilleries.

We had seven drinks to try, a mixture of whisky and beer. And first up was an example of Filey Bay's core expression, called Flagship. What you can buy now is a 5-year-old at 46%. It's a very easy drinker, light and creamy. Lots of us had tried this at some point before, and it's well-liked: "It's nice".

Barrel Wave

Amy said the aim of the drink was not to copy Scotch whisky but to respect it as a marker of what they were trying to achieve, and Flagship does this admirably. There are apples and pear drops there, too.

Our first beer was drink number two, an IPA called Scarborough Fair (Filey being on the way to Scarborough, more or less). At 6% this was very hoppy and was also sweet and fruity, with lots of grapefruit notes. Very refreshing, and ideal for a hot summer's afternoon we felt.

IPA finish whisky

Amy was taking us on a journey from whisky to beer to whisky-aged beer and, eventually, beer-aged whisky. So next was another beer, Barrel Wave. It was 9.1% but did not drink like it.

Having spent almost a year in a cask, it tasted like something quite different from its golden appearance, much more like a stout or a porter. Much sweeter all round, in fact almost a bit too sweet some felt. "Great but I wouldn't want it all that often" someone suggested. On that theoretical hot summer's afternoon, this one might be deceptively dangerous to have to hand.

STR finish batch 4

And so onto that IPA finished whisky. There are a few IPA finishes around, and they are not all universally liked (if I can interject a personal opinion I remember not being wildly impressed by the Jamesons Caskmates IPA, having enjoyed the stout version quite a lot). But on trying this we were soon clear this was something rather more special.

A 5-year-old and 46% again, but seemed stronger. Nice and chewy, but retaining that grapefruit from the beer. Very refreshing all round. We loved it! And with a price tag of £65, quite a few of us bought a bottle to take home at half-time.

Peated finish batch 3

After an opportunity to recharge our beer glasses downstairs at the bar of the Britons Protection, it was on to our fifth drink and third whisky.

Amy served up an STR finish, from their fourth batch. STR is a technique pioneered and popularised by the late Jim Swan, who served as an adviser to Spirit of Yorkshire among others. It stands for shaved, toasted and recharged, and, at the risk of oversimplifying massively, acts as a way of rejuvenating red wine barrels to give a subtler flavour suitable for whiskies.

Sherry cask reserve 5

This particular bottle had spent 9-10 months in the STR cask at the end of the maturation period. Lots of red fruits and jam here, it was juicy and moreish. Well worth it again at £65.

We got a taste of peat for drink six, with batch 3 of their peated finish. It had spent the last 11 months in casks which previously held Islay whisky, long enough to give us a proper tease of peat without being too overwhelming. Nutty and creamy, but with a bit of salty brine as well.

Some of the bigger peat monsters in the club wanted a bit more of a hit from it, but having said that, it was still surprising how much peat you got from less than a year in those casks. It did smell a bit more peaty than it actually tasted though, perhaps. Again, £65.

Which brought us onto the last dram of the evening, the end-of-year special release sherry cask reserve 5. A 6-year-old full maturation in PX and ex-moscatel barrels, this was very nice indeed, and one of the oldest expressions so far released under the Filey Bay brand. Lots of justified acclaim in the room for this one, which we thought "wonderful" and "brilliant".

And that brought us to the dram of the night voting (we excluded the beers from this one). And the winner was the STR finish with no fewer than 14 votes, ahead of the IPA and sherry cask reserve which were joint second. But all of the whiskies got at least one vote, again suggesting how strong the tasting was from top to bottom.

Thanks to Amy from Spirit of Yorkshire for taking us through such a great line-up, and also thanks to all club members and guests for attending, and to the Britons Protection for hosting us once again. That was the last formal tasting of the year, with just the Christmas Party remaining. As ever, there will be a much less full report of that one!

Mysterious Drams for Hallowe'en

The full line-up, plus a pint.

October's tasting took place on Hallowe'en night itself. Club members took refuge from the ghoulies in the safe surroundings of the Britons Protection, where Rich P took us through a selection of mysterious drams: selected because they were all independently bottled without the original distillery name on the label.

Secret Irish

There are lots of reasons why distilleries might do this, from selling off whisky that doesn't fit their own flavour profile or simply to maintain control over their branding and how it's used. It means lots of interesting liquid is out there for us to try if you are able to explore beyond the better known labels.

Our own journey started with something bottled by Master of Malt, the online booze retail behemoth. Their 13-year-old Secret Irish (the number of distilleries this could realistically be from at that age is very limited, but nevertheless) came in pretty strong at 57.5%. And it was a proper vanilla bomb, very punchy but still eminently drinkable despite the strength and without adding water.

We got a real buttery, pastry taste. Like an almond croissant. But also butterscotch and, when some drinkers put a bit of water in anyway, some notes of creme brulee. At £70 we felt this was pretty good value. A bargain, even!

5yo rye

Dram two was the first of a couple of visits to Edinburgh-based indie bottler Fragrant Drops, run by erstwhile club members George and Rachel. We had an Indiana rye which, for those in the know, means distilling giant MGP. A 5-year-old, this was particularly rye-y, like rye bread. "Big caraway vibes" someone suggested. Grassy, minty, with notes of black pepper too.

This one divided the room a bit. Someone thought it tasted like carpet, but I was in the camp that absolutely loved it. It was 57.1% and cost us £68.

D Taylor Speyside

 we were heading to Scotland and a Duncan Taylor bottling from an unknown Speyside distillery. Part of its Octave collection, the expressions are all finished in smaller casks giving the whisky more contact with the wood over a shorter period of time.

This was a nice colour and smelt sweet. There was cereal on the palate, which came out a bit more with water. The thing that maybe lingered the most was a toffee apple taste, ideal for the time of year. It possibly paled a little in comparison to the others we'd already had, and there were mixed views in the room again. The suspicion was this may have been a Glenfarclas, although it curiously didn't really taste all that much like it. Just 89 bottles of this were produced, it was 54.2% and cost £86.

Grapefruit sour finish!

Following a half-time break to recharge our glasses downstairs at the Britons, we were back for four more drams.

Rich dubbed the second half 'trick or peat' and we kicked off with a bottling from Murray McDavid, with the liquid inside a Ledaig unusually finished in a grapefruit sour cask. The grapefruit came through more on the nose than the palate, but the finish really lingered for an absolute eternity. There was a peaty hit followed by a fruity, citrussy bit at the end. Fresh and zingy, we felt this worked well all round.

Some polarised views again but I have to say, I thought this was terrific. Good value again at £59. It clocked in at 54.4%.

An 18yo Highland

Closer to home for whisky number five, and Manchester's own indie bottler Chorlton Whisky. We had an 18-year-old from a Highland distillery to try. Smooth and creamy, this reminded someone of Juicy Fruit chewing gum. The best all-rounder of the night so far, we felt.

This was most likely to have been a Ben Nevis. It certainly tasted like it, according to the real whisky savants in the room. Very nice in general. It was 54% and there are still some left at £120.

10yo Orkney

It was back to Fragrant Drops for dram six, and this was a 10-year-old peated Orkney, which meant a Highland Park we thought. Fully matured in a red wine barrique, there were certainly high hopes for it.

Ooft, this was something. At 64.1% though, was this just a touch too much? It was extremely chewy but some felt it was a little too strong and not actually all that easy to drink. Some picked out an oiliness, for others on my table it was a bit confusing with the nose more satisfying than the palate. Lots of people really, really liked it though, so it was perhaps just my corner of the room that was a bit sceptical. It certainly cut through well, which is no mean feat at the end of the night.

Big Peat Hallowe'en

Well, it wasn't quite the end. We had one bonus dram left to enjoy, a Hallowe'en special Big Peat, a blend of Islay whiskies from Douglas Laing.

This was good but it was a bit late in the evening to take a real view on that, especially following the powerhouse last dram from Fragrant Drops. It was a 2021 version and cost £50 at the time, with an ABV of 48%.

This brought us to the dram of the night voting, and it was a narrow victory for...  the Fragrant Drops 10-year-old Orkney! The sixth dram picked up 11 votes, just two ahead of the Chorlton Whisky bottling, with the Murray McDavid grapefruit sour finish third. Perhaps no surprise that three big peaty drams would dominate the evening, as there are plenty of peat fans in the club, but three very worthy drams nonetheless.

Thanks to all club members for coming and to the Britons for hosting us once again. And special thanks to Rich for running such a great tasting!

 

Home or Away

 

The full line up

I hosted September's tasting and for a theme I chose 'Home or Away' - four whiskies either fully matured or finished in a second drink, paired for the occasion with an example of that other drink. Yes, that's eight drinks on a school night.

Wire Works and friends

To start with we had, unusually, a whisky we'd had before. The Wire Works Necessarily Evil impressed us during last year's tasting of English drams. Finished in casks which previously held stout made by Derbyshire neighbours Thornbridge, I thought it would be interesting to try the whisky again in tandem with a drop of the beer.

The whisky was the 2023 version at 51.3% bought for £67 direct from the distillery (it might be a touch cheaper if you shop around). Nice and rich, it's got a bit of coffee and sweetness about it. I was curious if any of those notes were accentuated by having the thick, treacly stout at the same time.

The original spirit is lightly peated and some thought the stout brought that out a little. But the strong, stout flavours of martime, chocolate and liqourice really ploughed through most of the subtleties. The stout, aged in bourbon barrels, is 13% and is £13 for a 375ml bottle. We got four so there was enough to go round.

Deanston with marsala

For our second whisky we went to Deanston, one of the club's favourite distilleries which we've had often over the years. It's widely known as a pioneer of organic production. As part of a range of interesting finishes lately is an expression finished in marsala casks.

Marsala has a sad reputation as cooking wine useful for not much more than boozing up your tiramisu. But that wasn't always so. British importers searching for a new port or sherry happened upon this Sicilian fortified wine in the late 18th century, and once it became Lord Nelson's favourite drink it was this and not rum which the elite officers of the Royal Navy were drinking as they took on Napoleon.

A glut of poor quality produce meant marsala lost its lustre over the years, meaning it has gradually moved from the spirits shelf to the store cupboard. There are some bottlings available made the more traditional, high-quality way, though. We had the Cantine Pellegrino Reserva 2000, barrel aged for more than 20 years. 

The Deanston was a 15-year-old, which only spent a little time in the ex-marsala casks at the end, but still long enough to pick up plenty of honey and sweetness. It's 55.2% and we got it from the distillery for £95, but again it might be a little less elsewhere. The marsala again had that honey about it, dried fruit too like apricots, although it was a bit too sweet for some. It's 19% and is £36 for a 750ml bottle.

Penderyn / carcavelos

After a half-time break and a chance to refill our beer glasses downstairs at the Britons Protection - eight drinks not enough for all of us, evidently - we moved onto not one but two old favourites.

Penderyn, the Welsh distillery, is one of the club's most frequently tasted whiskies. And an enduring independent bottler is the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Put them together and you get the SMWS bottling Cava and Raspberry Liqueur Jelly, a six-year-old finished in first-fill barriques which previously held carcavelos.

This was a new one on everyone in the club, which was reason enough to try it. Carcavelos is a Portuguese drink, essentially a form of light port made not in Porto, but in an area to the west of Lisbon. Once quite a thriving area for production, most of it has been eaten up by urbanisation leaving just one producer remaining, itself a joint venture backed by the local council and the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture. The wine making area in question is just 60 acres, and we had an example of the only commercially available bottling you can get, the Villa Oeiras.

This was great stuff all round. While we enjoyed the whisky, it was the carcavelos which was the night's surprise hit. Nuts, marzipan, caramel and butterscotch. Several members were straight onto their phones to pick up a bottle. We paid £25 apiece for two half-sized bottles, while the Penderyn, all of 60.2%, was £73 (for SMWS members).

Ledaig / Bourdeaux

The final pairing involved a bottle I picked up on a holiday to Mull a couple of years back. Ledaig is the original name of the Tobermory distillery and is still the brand they used for their peated expressions. I tried some in the shop there and ended up walking out with a bottle: a 10-year-old, 2020 bottling fully matured in Bourdeaux red wine casks. I was also £110 lighter, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

For something to stand up to not only that but also the plethora of other booze we'd knocked back by this stage, club member Nic of the brilliant Reserve Wines in Didsbury recommended the Chateau Picoron Le Bon Nobel. A small independent vineyard, it names all its bottlings as palindromes, which Nic accurately felt was probably about as much information as needed to be imparted at that stage of the evening.

The Ledaig was superb, the wine we enjoyed too, even though it was perhaps on a bit of a hiding to nothing at that point of the night. Some felt they'd be glad to drink it again but perhaps not quite at the the £25 price tag.

That brought us to the dram of the night voting. Amidst trying to host the tasting I've realised I didn't actually note down the scores on the doors, but pairing three - the Penderyn and carcavelos - was the overwhelming winner. An unforgettable triumph for Wales and Portugal!

Thanks to all club members who made this another sold out tasting, and to everyone at the Britons for hosting us once again.

The Science of Whisky: part 3

 

The full line-up

Club member Adam was our host for August's meeting of Manchester Whisky Club, and as befits his personal interest in all things science he had an evening of chemical geekery in store for us.

95% worth

We kicked off with something extremely strong, in fact the highest ABV drink we've ever had at the club. Not whisky but some 95% Spirytus from Poland.

This was a bit of an effort to get down for a newbie at this kind of super strong booze, but wasn't as bad as it might have been all things considered. We had it in the little plastic cup you can see in the middle of the line up of drams and most of us managed to get it down in the end. An acquired taste that it would probably be quite headache-inducting to acquire.

The new make

Onto the actual whisky and Adam had a bit of a double header for us first of all. He asked to to try drams one and two together and do a compare and contrast.

The first definitely had treacle notes. The second was much thicker and tasted sweet. Adam revealed that they were in fact the same original spirit, a new make from Bladnoch that Adam had bought from club favourite indie bottler Whiskybroker.

He then aged the first dram with spirit caramel and number two with bits of barrel over just a couple of weeks, to demonstrate the different effects these can have and took us through what they do to the liquid. All very interesting!

Glen Moray 8yo

Whisky three also had some interesting ageing going on. It was an 8-year-old from Glen Moray that had been matured in oloroso sherry butts. Cask strength at 60%, this was sweet with plenty of depth and hints of summer fruits. A bit of a lip smacker.

Retailing at £75, opinion was split on whether it was quite worth that much.

St Bridget's Kirk

After a half-time break and an opportunity to recharge our glasses downstairs at the Britons Protection, we went back to something much older. A 35-year-old bottle of St Bridget's Kirk, which Adam described as a "classic blend" from the Edrington Group, owner of Famous Grouse, Highland Park and many others.

This was aged in a refill sherry cask and was highly likely to include some of that Highland Park along with liquid from some of Edrington's other distilleries. This was really nice, "delicious" in fact. We got ours for £90 although it's no longer available in the UK for that price, sadly.

BBR Williamson

Two more to go and whisky five was a Murray McDavid, another one with a few miles on the clock with 28 years on the bottle. It was a Sauternes cask, which certainly gave it a bit of a salty taste. A bit dull though was one general view, and others found it a little unusual or weird. It was 47.5% and we paid £175 for it (I forgot to get a photo of it!).

For the big finish we went to Berry Brothers and Rudd and a bottle of Williamson, a brand usually applied to 'teaspooned' bottlings of Laphroaig. This was particular expression had spend its full term in an oloroso hogshead, giving us a lovely mixture of peat and sherry. It had a real kick to it as well at 60.8%. We got ours for a bargain of £82, although it's now sold out.

The dram of the night voting was only ever going to go one way given the fondness of many club members for big peaty drinks, and the BBR Williamson won so easily we didn't even bother counting up how many votes it got. Next was the St Bridget's Kirk with eight, while the Glen Moray was in third place with four.

Thanks to all club members and their guests for joining us, the Britons for hosting another successful tasting, and especially Adam for all his work selecting the drams and guiding us through some of the more scientific elements of whisky.