The Whisky Tasting Process. Part 1, The Setting

Two months back, Jordan at Chemistry of the Cocktail posted a great piece on his spirits tasting methods.  It got me thinking about my own whisky tasting system.  I am a man of rituals, but most of them become involuntary once I discover how well they suit me.  So I wanted to step back and document how I experience my whiskies.

This isn't meant to be a How-To, but rather How-I-Do.  If anyone has thoughts about his or her processes, please feel free to share.  We may do things differently in the macro sense, yet have similarities in amongst the minutiae OR we may end up doing the same thing while taking different routes to get there.

In Part 1, I'll walk through the various drinking environs that I've experienced.  The milieus, if we're feeling nerdy.  (Also, please pardon the constant pronoun switcheroos.)


WHISKY PARTY or WHISKY SPECTACULAR
(Whiskyfest, Peetin' Meetin', Whisky Live, etc.)

Sounds great right?  It is.  At a price.

A festival provides the opportunity to try a dozen (or dozens!) of whiskies you haven't yet experienced.   There's food and water (both important), 100+ people, social time, brand ambassadors, distributor reps, and free swag.

The financial requirement begins with the tickets.  Often there are two types, regular and VIP (which gives you fancier booze and more time with industry folks).  The prices can range from $75 to $500.  You also must factor in travel and transport expenses.  If it's out of town, then you'll need a place to stay.  If it's in town, you'll need to get there and back, safely.

This can get expensive.  BUT there's so much whisky!  So you need to figure out the personal value of the experience (and the fab liquor) and see if the financial requirement is appropriate.

Because I'm on a limited budget, I tend to eye the well-regarded lower cost festivals.  I also take into account that at a certain point I'm probably not going to appreciate the multitude of whiskies by Hour Three or Hour Four.  Will I really be able to discern if the fifteenth sample was better than the sixteenth?  No.

Thus, I try to develop a plan beforehand.  If the event lists the whiskies present, that's even better.  I don't always go after the most expensive bottlings, instead I sometimes prioritize the whiskies that I've always wanted to try or always wanted to buy.  I have strong irrational bouts of window-shopping-whisky-lust, but I almost never buy blind.  So a festival gives me a chance to bring my crazy whisky dreams to reality and suss out if they're worth the lust.  Often, they're not.  And I save money as well as valuable Whisky Cabinet space.

I never do Single Malt Reports from festival tastings.  I quickly jot down some notes on my phone's notepad app, but that's it.  The events provide too much sensory distraction to really dig into the drink.  There's noise and smells and food and people -- usually all good things, so I enjoy them and leave the liquor analysis for another setting.


BRAND-SPONSORED FREE TASTINGS
(Raise the Macallan, JW Striding Man Society, etc.)

The atmosphere for these can vary.  I went to a Johnnie Walker Black event that was structured like a corporate event at a hotel.  Then there was a Raise the Macallan in a nightclub with thumping dance music and bright lights.

The brands are there to sell their products to you, but it's free and the booze is carefully limited.  I recommend these mostly for the free drinks and to get a kick out of what they're willing to do to deliver the hard sell.

I don't do Single Malt Reports from these events either.  Aside from all of the distractions, the brands tend to push through their products very quickly.  While it's nice to compare items within a product line, a whisky needs time in the glass.  Especially older whiskies.  Thus I prefer to talk to folks and enjoy the free whisky without thinking too much about it.


BRAND-FOCUSED EVENTS
(Bowmore on a Boat, etc.)

These are similar to the previous setting, but are not free.  The brand ambassador will walk the attendees through the product line in a smaller, sometimes swankier event space.  I actually like some of these events more than the free ones because the attendance is smaller and those that do attend actually enjoy whisky.  The attendees have plenty more opportunities to talk to the brand ambassador.  Most of these guys/gals really know their stuff and are great to chat up.  Plus the pours flow more liberally.

Because I have a little more control over the spacing between the drinks (and the amount!), I try to do a Report or two from the event.  This is another case of me typing wildly on my phone or scribbling on a small notepad.  But if the notes distract from experience, then I put them aside.


SOCIAL EVENTS
(LA Scotch Club, OC Scotch Club, etc.)

As you may notice, the setting audience gets smaller as we go.

Whisky clubs are a great way to meet fellow anoraks and to puzzle over drinks.  A good event will take place in a relatively quiet public place, like a bar or restaurant, and have a series of related whiskies for comparison.  This can cost anywhere from $10 to $50, depending on the bottle prices.

To me, this is still a difficult atmosphere to do a Report well.  I want to be social and meet folks, and I am of the opinion that continually looking down and typing on my phone during a conversation is rude.  I know that opinion isn't as common as it used to be, but I'm sticking to it.


BARS AND RESTAURANTS

Unless you know something I don't, this is a paid experience.

You buy your whisky, you sit with it, spend as much time as you'd like with it.  There's still a social scene here, but (unless you're a hottie) it's one that you can control.  There's always the challenge of a multitude of other scents: bathrooms, buffalo chicken wings, garlic mashed potatoes.  Garlic mashed potatoes.  Garlic mashed potatoes.

Garlic mashed potatoes.

Sorry, got lost there for a moment.  Another prevalent obstruction is inconvenient glassware.  Tumblers are amongst the worst vessels to appreciate liquor.  So often one has to snoop around the available glasses and request the most bud-shaped glass available.  (I'll talk more about glassware in Part 2.)

If I can get a decent glass, then I'll do a full Report.  It's a fun (sorta exhibitionist-ly) public act of nerdry.  I even bust out the official Whisky Journal and a tiny pen.


PRIVATE TASTING

An expert sits down with you (and friends/family if you so choose) and walks you through a selection of similar whiskies.  These could be grouped by distillery, region, palate, nose, bottler, or price range.

These can also get a bit pricey, but if you have the time and cash, it's a great way to explore the whisky universe with someone who knows a lot more than you.  Sort of a whisky consultancy.

I've been to only one of these and it was AWESOME.  I recommend writing everything down, because after some hours and some cask strength experiences, things become difficult to sort out.


THE SLOW-WHISKY EXPERIENCE
(inspired by this blog post)

You sit at home with a glass of whisky and give it time and full attention.  You make sure no one's cooking with onions or garlic or curry.  Maybe you throw on some mellow tunes.  You don't necessarily need to shut the door or close out your loved ones, but a lack of serious conversation is important.  Halt the rush of information.

In general, how often do you give yourself that moment of calm?  Not all sensory response is instant.  There's always more to be seen and heard and smelled and tasted and felt with time, with lucidity.

You can choose to go without the music.  Sink into something more quiet.  Allow yourself zen.

In stillness comes clarity.

This isn't whisky yoga, it's more of an appreciation of one's being and the existence of the amazing bit of alchemy held in the glass.

To me, this is the best way to unlock a whisky.  I may refer to my Taste Offs as exciting events, but they happen in quiet and with a considerable amount of time.  I actually have to schedule them ahead of time to make sure that everything is set.

Now I don't often get those moments right, but when I do I find elements within a whisky that I've previously missed.

I'll expand upon the technical steps in my individual tasting process in Part 2, The Experience.

Single Malt Report: Trader Joe's Irish Single Malt

When we lived in Maryland, I was disappointed to discover that their Trader Joe's (TJ's) grocers were not allowed to sell alcohol.  It was difficult to describe to Marylanders how agreeable TJ's booze pricing can be.  And I am not talking about Two Buck Chuck.  That doesn't count.

Now I'm back in Cali.  And TJ's now has a well-chosen selection of whiskies -- Dalwhinnie 15, Balvenie Doublewood, Glenfiddich 12 & 15, Macallan 10 Fine Oak, Laphroaig 10, etc.  They also have their own label of Scotch whisky, though the quality of those have been mixed at best.

This year, much to my (and many others') surprise, a Trader Joe's Irish Single Malt suddenly appeared on the shelves.  Somehow TJ's had successfully contracted with Cooley Distillery to bottle some of their 4-year-old juice under the store's label.  At a price of $19.99.

New whisky at that price is difficult to pass up.  In LA, $19.99 is less than two glasses of mid-shelf booze at a bar.  For a whole bottle of something new, an IRISH single malt no less...

It's half full!

Label: Trader Joes

Distillery: Cooley
Type: Single Malt
Region: Ireland (Louth)

Age: minimum 4 years

Maturation: "single use bourbon oak casks"

Alcohol by Volume: 40%

It was a bold move by TJ's to go with an Irish single malt, something not very familiar with the average drinker in The States.  And I use the word "was" because now that Beam Inc has taken over Cooley and announced that most of their independent contracts will not be renewed, we may not see this whiskey for much longer.

It's also a bold choice because the nose and palate of this whiskey is quite different than the usual Irish blend or Scotch single malt.  It's sorta its own soup.

Sku and the guys at L.A.W.S. gave this decent reviews.  And I'm going to agree with Sku, though the bottle says this is only matured in bourbon casks, there is undoubtedly sherry stuff in here.

At first sips, this one was a puzzler.  I couldn't get my mind around it.  But with some oxygen and time, it has improved and I've had better luck cracking the malt.

NEAT
Color - light amber
Nose - sandy and/or dusty, teeny bit of smoke, smoky butter?, old notebook paper, winey tannins, hints of a sweet sherry and dried fruit
Palate - lots of cocoa, cloves, sweet malt, oak tannins, very drying
Finish - still very drying, mildly flat, cocoa

WITH WATER (near 33%ABV)
Nose - gets sugarier, some coconut oak stuff, starts to sniff more like a good blend
Palate - less cocoa but more vanilla, a little smoke, very oily and silky texture, still quite drying
Finish - goes weird here, a brief bitter vegetal vanilla puff

Though I don't recommend adding a few drips of water, this whiskey actually makes for a pretty good highball as the club soda brings out the palate's sweetness.

To be honest, I haven't been the biggest fan of Cooley's Irish single malts.  I do like the Knappogue Castle 12yr and the Tyrconnell finishes, but their Connemara bottlings and indie spinoffs have underwhelmed me.  This one sits somewhere in the middle.

On one hand: I won't go back for a second bottle of this TJ's malt.  It makes me yearn for Irish single pot stills.

On the other hand:  Some people are enjoying it quite a bit.  If you like the Cooley malts, then this may be your jam.  And at the price, it's a rarity and not much of a risk.

Availability - Trader Joe's
Pricing - $19.99
Rating - 75

The Monday after Peetin' Meetin'

The LA Scotch Club's annual Peetin' Meetin' commenced this past Saturday.  I was present and am still in one solid piece.  There was great PEATED barbecue, rockin' live tunes by the Brick Top Blaggers, cocktails mixed by the Seven Grand bartenders, sunshine, spring water, and large quantities of phenolic restorative.

Because many of the 80-100 bottles are of cask strength, the opportunity to get dangerously drunk is ever-present at the fest, but all 130+ attendees were quite responsible with their intake.  That's not to say that any of us were sober at the end, but it was nice to see folks enjoying the evening without getting stupid.  Whisky is meant to be consumed, not vomited up.

I will attend again next year.  I encourage you to do so as well.

Here's that pic I posted on Saturday:

I'm pretty sure there were a few additional bottles, but it was pretty difficult to tell once the fun had begun.  Independent bottlings of Laphroaig were everywhere, actually there were tons of indies around which always makes Thekrav a happy boy.  Diageo, Ardbeg, and Duncan Taylor were there, pouring their goods.  The only bottling that I wanted to try but missed out on was the Octomore 2/140.  That went very very quickly.  And, apparently there was a 27yr Caol Ila from Duncan Taylor that was enjoyed with alacrity before I found the empty bottle.

But I don't regret a damned thing from that night.  I tried 13 whiskies, received a shirt and a dram glass, sang along to "The Wild Rover", met some great people, and departed the ceremony on my own two feet.  THANK YOU again to Kristen for providing transportation.

---

Here are my actual Peatin' Meetin' notes from my phone, only edited to fix damn-you-auto-correct, with post-Meetin' comments in italics.

Ardbeg Supernova 58.9%ABV - like the Ten but freaking enormous; salt, seaweed, black peat smoke on the nose; brown sugar with lemon zest and the peat hammer in the palate and finish.
Folks didn't seem to realize that this extremely scarce (in the US) bottling was there for the drinking, so I went back for two passes.  It felt like the Ten on 'roids, in a good way.  I would still choose Uigeadail and Corryvreckan over it.

Clear Creek McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt - young but calm, almost sleepy; forgot about it already; come on America!
I really want to like this three-year-old malt from Portland.  It's a from a small family business that imports peated Islay barley, then distills it and casks it in Oregon oak.  But maybe it just couldn't stand up next to the Supernova leviathan.  I understand that the aged spirits business is a tough one, but I wonder what the whiskey would be like if it had eight years in oak?  I'm willing to give this another try on its own someday.

SMWS 127.13 (Port Charlotte 8yrs) 65.7%ABV - medium-peat, hot, industrial tar and sap and smoke followed by a bright fruit explosion
A muscular crazy PC that would have benefitted from some added water.  Bruichladdich really has their peated spirit in good shape.

Longrow 14yr - farmyardy sooty on the nose, salted, smooth peat, i luv longrow
I do.  I love Longrow.  It can hold serve with the Islay monsters, but has a character all its own.  Serge V. found coal stoves and wet dogs in the nose; that I can understand.  On a side note, these aged Longrows are 30-40% cheaper in the UK and that's INCLUDING international shipping.

Lagavulin 16yr - cinammon brown sugar cognac sugared peat vanilla cake rubber tarry on the nose, smoke stronger on palate with some bright spices like clove, nice bitterness, soft texture, a little vegetal after some time, it's a little different every time I drink it
Lagavulin 16 is getting more mysterious each time I try it.  It's always enjoyable, but constantly reveals different palates with each tasting.  There were moments when the palate felt similar to Ardbeg, but that may have been a sensory hiccup.

Lagavulin 12yr 2009 release; 57.9%ABV - mint on palate, bourbon oak on nose, lots of oak but also lots of malt, lots of lots; vegetal peat, wood ashes, brown sugared peat, seaweed and coast on palate and finish
I really liked this one.  It had a significantly stronger ABV than the 16yr, but also had a more lively spirit.  A million miles from the welcoming soothing character of the 16, this whisky wants to pick a fight.

Caol Ila distillers edition (I think 2010) - a lot of people liked this one, i didn't; weird bitterness in the smoked finish, an odd sweetie otherwise
A Moscatel finish.  My nose and palate seem to reject most non-sherry wine finishes, including this one.  My opinion is probably not to be trusted on this whisky.

Caol Ila 12yr - toffee and peat on the palate, honey and apple juice but also a little gaseous on the nose, very drying but short finish
I dumped half of this sample into the grass, I'LL ADMIT IT NOW!  It wasn't bad, but it really can't dance next to the Lagavulins.

Ardmore 19yr 1992 Whisky Doris 49.6%ABV - **WINNER** - loveliest nose of the night: flower blossoms and citrus punch with oaky red starburst candy; palate starts mild then goes to a fruit tart, boozy ladyfingers, the fruit explosion lasts through the finish: oranges & peaches
I'm considering buying this one if I can pull together the cash.  I nosed this Ardmore for 20-25 minutes before sipping.  I went back for a second round just to try to figure out how to describe it.  Probably one of the best noses I've ever experienced.  But it was also my ninth whisky of the night.

Stellar phone photography courtesy of Me

SMWS 127.19 (Port Charlotte 9yr) - 66%ABV thus hot and spicy, also peat
Holy moley, this was a heater.  I don't even understand how they're delivering a 66%ABV liquid after nine years in a Scottish climate.  Heading into George T. Stagg territory with that ethyl.  This needs serious water to flush out its mysteries.

The Corryvreckan - because
it was there

Penderyn Peated Welsh Single Malt - piney, bland peat felt added, a pipsqueak next to The Corry and PCs.
Also had this alongside my second Ardmore pour.  I'm rooting for Welsh whisky, but I would actually trust their wine finishes over this.  Or maybe even their regular malt.

Brora 1972-1993 G&M's Connoisseur's Choice - @40% ABV insanely drinkable, peat beautifully integrated w/ the rest, all malt almost no oak, but a bit weak
This one...well...I wasn't supposed to have this one as it was only for members (though I'll be one soon). But I had it anyway. I will break rules for a Brora. Gordon & Macphail just updated their Connoisseur's Choice line so that it'll be 46%ABV and unchillfiltered going forward. Had this one been 46% and UCF, it would have easily made my all time top five. Alas it was stretched thin at 40%. Will I ever have another Brora opportunity? I hope so!

---

Because an event like this isn't the best atmosphere for full Single Malt Reports and ratings -- peat smoke, barbecue and food scents, cigars, cigarettes, fresh air!, and, you know, socializing.  But if I were to rank these, not including The Corryvreckan:

Ardmore 19yr 1992 Whisky Doris
Lagavulin 12yr 2009
Longrow 14yr
Lagavulin 16yr
Brora 1972-1993 G&M
Ardbeg Supernova
SMWS 127.13 (Port Charlotte 8yr)
SMWS 127.19 (Port Charlotte 9yr)
Caol Ila 12yr
McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt
Caol Ila distillers edition
Penderyn Peated

Yes, the Brora finished 5th out of 12.  Perhaps it was the 40% ABV, the chillfiltering, and almost twenty years in the bottle, but it felt like I was getting only a hint of the Brora spirit's greatness.

Otherwise, had I the $$$, I would purchase any of the top four.  If the planets align, I'd like to do proper reports at least six of the whiskies.  We'll see what the next year brings.

Happy Monday!

Peetin' Meetin' tonight

This appears to be what I am up against tonight.  Well, I and others.  A few others...

If you're looking for me, I'll be the guy passed out inside a bottle of Longrow.

Friday Ramblings

Let's lead with the happy.  My favorite Got Milk commercial.



Dogs and peanut butter.  Call me a simple man, but that's enough to keep me watching this commercial repeatedly, twelve years later.

---

The Yankees traded for Ichiro Suzuki in one of the better WTF? transactions of recent memory.  Upon hearing the news, I immediately Facebooked that I was now going to watch a whole lot of baseball for the rest of the season.  The next day, Alex Rodriguez broke his hand and now I'm going to go back to not obsessively following baseball.  24 hours of intense fandom, over.

---

Mark Gillespie of Whiskycast wrote a good clear commentary on the Bruichladdich/Remy deal.

After reading it, yesterday, I came to a realization: The financial windfall for the distillery employees (who have been working their asses off for ten years for probably lower up-front pay) and their families is considerably more important to me as a human being, than a whisky brand losing its "independent" label.

---

Happy 10th birthday to Whiskyfun!  Serge writes my favorite whisky reviews, so I hope this is the first decade of many.

---

Jordan at Chemistry of the Cocktail just published an excellent post on the rising prices of the non-chillfitered higher-ABV single malts.

The rising single malt prices are beginning to aggravate me.  More to follow soon, as my full complaint is still in development status...

Happy Friday!

The Artist or Singin' in the Rain? Singin' in the Rain.

(Source)

My Mac's Dictionary app has this entry for "trifle":

trifle |ˈtrīfəl|

noun

1 a thing of little value or importance : we needn't trouble the headmaster over such trifles.

• [in sing. ] a small amount of something : the thousand yen he'd paid seemed the merest trifle.

2 BRIT. a cold dessert of sponge cake and fruit covered with layers of custard, jelly, and cream.

Those are separate definitions.  The British definition (#2) can be for something that is very rich, delicious, and memorable.  The first (U.S.-specific) definition has a disposable connotation.

(Source)

When we popped The Artist into the DVD player, I thought the film was going to be Definition #2 Trifle.  But instead it was a Definition #1 Trifle.

Though I am a silent film fan who hates musicals, I must say if you want to watch a film about a Douglas Fairbanks-type silent film actor who struggles with the transition to sound film while the perky ingenue he bumps into seems more suited than he to the new movies, rent Singin' in the Rain.

Also, Cyd Charisse

Singin' in the Rain is funny, very smart, post-modern before post-modernism, and always entertaining.  The Artist is about a man deeply blinded by his own misery and the woman who supposedly loves him but is at best a creepy stalker and at worst a succubus.  Without the cute dog, it would have been a melodrama, not a comedy.

Jean Dujardin's George Valentin goes from Fairbanks to self-pitying alcoholic John Gilbert so fast, that I'm not sure who "the artist" is actually supposed to be.  We see so little of Valentin's actual craft and so much his life's ruination that I'm not really sure if he's the artist in question.  He's also a thoroughly passive character allowing failure's quicksand to swallow him whole.  Singin' in the Rain's Don Lockwood is an active character; he may mull his failure for a bit and need a friend to give him a push, but he works to figure out how to salvage his career.  Thus Lockwood's art becomes the focus of Rain, while Valentin's emasculation is the focus of Artist.

Is Berenice Bejo's Peppy Miller supposed to be "the artist"?  As mentioned before, she ultimately comes across as uncomfortably pathological in her relationship with Valentin.  She watches his life fall apart, up close at times, then buys up ALL of his belongings and his right-hand man, Clifton.  And we're supposed to accept that as signs of human love and devotion?  Valentin's reaction to this unnerving discovery is completely understandable (though overly melodramatic with an inappropriate Hitchcock score theft).  I won't spoil what Valentin does, but let's just say it's not an act of loving acceptance.  So we know Peppy's a psychotic stalker, but is she an artist?  Her aggressive career advances lead her to superstardom, but -- because her screen performances are brushed by in quick montage -- we don't if she's devoted to her craft or just an excellent opportunist.

Ultimately, the Artist, or rather Artists, are the craftspeople behind the film.  The camerawork shines, the sets and costumes look lovely, the old Academy Ratio is much appreciated, the editing is solid, the symbolism (though occasionally heavy-handed) is enjoyable, and the music (aside from the Vertigo steal) is great silent film stuff.  It's very difficult to make a feature-length silent film in an age of noise, it's even more difficult to get something like that distributed widely, so big kudos to The Weinstein Company for putting their considerable heft behind it.

But when it comes to story and character, The Artist isn't a luxurious pleasure.  Peppy's obsessive fanaticism and Valentin's self-destruction are never reconciled and instead get wallpapered over with a quickie final scene that tends to no loose end.  Thus it became disposable to me once it was over.

Singin' in the Rain has a quickie ending too, but amongst all of the tremendous insider humor throughout the film, Don and Kathy scramble to address their challenges thus revealing layer upon layer of complex character traits.  And because they actually care about each other, they assist one another and work together when struggles befall them.

The Artist's characters don't.  She pities him while simultaneously building a shrine around his former self.  And he just pities himself.  So the happy ending either doesn't work or it's just another step in her obsession.  It's a mystery the film doesn't attempt to solve.  If the filmmakers treat this crux as "a thing of little value or importance", then this viewer will do the same with their art.

Single Malt Report: Cragganmore 20 year old 1991 Single Cask (Master of Malt)

Continuing with yesterday's theme of tastings gone awry, I present to you:

Product Link

Distillery: Cragganmore
Owner: Diageo

Independent Bottler: Master of Malt

Age: 20 years (March 1991 - March 2011)

Maturation: refill hogshead

Type: Single Malt

Alcohol by Volume: 54.2%
Cask: 1157
Limited Release: 274 bottles

This is likely a case wherein the whisky was fine, but the drinker's taste buds were not.  So, I'd best do some disclaimers here:

1.  Cragganmore distills a great spirit.

2.  Master of Malt is one of the best online whisky retailers.  Their Drinks by the Dram options have helped grandly expand my whisky world.

3.  Their own bottlings have been quite good so far and I hope they keep it going!

4.  Candidly, I probably flubbed this one.  No one else's reviews show the quirk that I experienced.  There just was a sensory misunderstanding between the malt and I.  My only defense is that this was about a year ago, before I'd even started the Single Malt Report postings.

Ruben of WhiskyNotes has a good review of it here.
The Casks has an in-depth write-up on it here.
Gal at WhiskyIsrael also has a very positive post on it here.

Compare their notes of malt, mint, flowers, juicy fruits, ginger, green tea, honey, and apples with.....um.....this:

NEAT
Color -- Straw with a gold hue
Nose -- Alcohol-forward, apples, actual wood planks
Palate -- SALTY SALT, perfumed, caramel, salted caramel
Finish -- Alcohol heat on the gums, spicy and long

WITH WATER
Nose -- More sugary, caramel chews, dried apricots, cherries, maybe a hint of vanilla?
Palate -- Oak, SALT
Finish -- Still hot and spicy, but now there's SALT in the finish

Water brought out the better nose characteristics.  But I had a difficult time finding the palate because...

(Source)

I felt like a cow at the salt lick.

This isn't one of my prouder malt moments, but I want to make sure that I share both the clarity and confusion in my whisky journey.

As this tasting was done over a year ago, perhaps I can chalk it up to a newbie tasting fail.  I remember sitting there, staring at my Glencairn glass thinking, "Crap, I can't taste anything but table salt.  Is that vanilla?  No, that's more salt.  Fruit?  Nope, salt."  And because no one else online has noted sodium chloride...and the bottler does consistent good work...and the distillery makes good stuff......that leaves one party with the issue.

This sort of thing happens from time to time.  We aren't always in our best tasting shape, just like we're not always in our best biking shape or our best dancing shape.  A stuffy nose, allergies, exhaustion, or just lack of focus can effect how receptors transmit information to the brain.

So, this was probably a decent dram.  I encourage you to read the positive reviews that I linked to above.  The 700mL bottles are sold out, but the samples are still for sale here.  Master of Malt also put out a second Crag 1991 single cask release here.

I'll be reporting on another Master of Malt single cask release next week, and it's likely to be something quite different than this.  We can all hope, right.  ;-)

Availability - Master of Malt only, samples only

Pricing - Bottles have sold out, samples are 4.50GBP plus int'l shipping

Rating - 78