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.