Ardbeggeddon III - Sunday January 13, 2002

Slept in on Sunday and met up with the group at around 2 pm on Sunday.  The first item on the agenda was the previously-scheduled blind tasting.  No, of course the skalk was the first thing in the day...  I had saved half my last dram from the night before and started with that.

  1. Springbank Local Barley,1965, 51.3%, OB

  2. Springbank Limited Edition, 25 yo, 46% OB

The Blind Tasting

This was a PLOWED first - an organized blind tasting of Springbanks organized by MOK and Ulf.  We were originally planning on doing 2 flights that day, the first of Springbank and the second of Ardbeg, but we only made it through the first flight of Springers.

We were told/shown the 4 whiskys we were tasting ahead of time and were served them blind by S'tan...  These four Springers were:

  1. 1965 35 yo 46% Murray McDavid 

  2. Local Barley, 1965, 51.3%, OB

  3. 35 yo Limited Edition, 46%, OB 

  4. 1965 29 yo, 46%, OB

Participants in the tasting were Ulf, Sir Dave of the Loco Barley, Michael, Alan, FX, Manny and myself, presided over by S'tan (of course, all orchestrated evil is presided over by S'tan...)  The drams were numbered and we tasted all 4 at our leisure, taking notes and "trying" not to discuss them so as not to "influence" each other's impressions.

Once everyone had completed their evaluation we went around the room and discussed our impressions of each dram, and presented our guess at the identity of each.  

Only Alan got all four drams correct - amazing performance!

We then had a rousing discussion about the pros/cons of this type of tasting approach and whether being "influenced" by other's opinions was a good or bad thing.  The general consensus was that "influence" and "subliminal programming" were both characteristic of PLOWED gatherings and could not be denied...  but then this WAS being orchestrated by S'tan so influence was probably an understatement.

The order of the afternoon quickly degenerated in classic PLOWED style and we abandoned the idea of blind tasting the Ardbegs as originally planned.

THE ANNUAL PLOWED "MASTURBATING THE ADJECTIVES" AWARD

During this tasting, Manny won the newly-christened Ardbeggeddon Award coined by Ulf a few days earlier for the most outrageous tasting descriptor.  He described one of the blind Springers as reminding him of:

"Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels" - Manny, 1/13/02

We collected the blind tasting bottles and returned to the official tasting room to resume dramming PLOWED style.

  1. Inchmurrin 28 yo, 43%, OB

  2. Linkwood 11 yo, 10/84-6/96, 59.5%, Glenhaven (an old favorite)

  3. Mortlach 10 yo, 1983, 43% W&W Single Barrel

  4. Ardbeg 1975, 43% OB

  5. Bowmore 31 yo, 10/8/68-11/20/99, Cask 3820, Bottle 93/252, Sig Millenium

  6. Port Ellen 11 yo, 4/81-7/92, 64.5%, Cadenhead's 150th Anniversary

I was definitely losing my focus here...  one of the side effects of the earlier controlled tasting is my best guess...  as you can see the entropy only increased as the evening progressed.

  1. Talisker 18 yo, 7/79-6/98, 61.6%, Cadenhead's

  2. Old Pulteney 31 yo, 1968, 46%, Cask #3248, OB

  3. Caol Ila 19 yo, 1/81-7/00, 62.6%

  4. Linkwood 14 yo, 5/79-10/93, 53.5%, Cadenhead's

  5. Port Ellen 23 yo, 11/77-5/01, 50% OMC

  6. Bowmore 31 yo, 10/8/68-11/20/99, Sig Millenium (revisited #11 - excellent!)

  7. Local Barley, 1966 - lipped in the PLOWED Style pioneered by Loco!

  8. Port Ellen 22 yo, 1976, 57%, Scott's Selection

  9. Bunnahabhain 35 yo, 43.2%

  10. Linlithgow 24 yo, 6/2/75-11/12/99, Cask 9613, Bottle 142/320, 49.7%

  11. Poit Dhubh, 21 yo, 43% - WOW, very fruity dram with a much younger profile - very, very nice - get some of this...

  12. Fettercairn 10 yo, Glenhaven - "the ice tea malt"

  13. Tamdhu 21 yo, 3/63-7/84, 46%, Cadenhead's

That was about all the free-association I could handle for one night...  another successful PLOWED evening!

Some notable Quotes from the third full day of A3:

"I am most joyful just to be here" - Ulf

"Michael, you have until April to FOAF London" - Loco , discussing one of the inevitable outcomes of his attendance at Ulf's birthday celebration...

"Sweden is in the house"

"I've been PLOWED and it's been good"

"Dave is completely evil, he has a Keeper lipping the local barley"

"Darth MOK "negotiates" with wanna-be single malt enthusiasts"

"Once you get PLOWED you'll never go back"

"I've drammed my age many times but I'm a young guy so it doesn't mean much." Nano

"S'tan - Keeper of the Quaich (HORROR!)"

"It's like chihuahua chow" - Uisgetom describing Glenburgie 8 yo

In S'tan we trust (ok, this was very late in the evening and obviously way past time to crash)

Here are the unprocessed photos from Ardbeggeddon 3 - Day 3.  

We performed the annual PLOWED ritual of lipping the Local Barley on Sunday and have some photos to document this year's session. 

Monday, January 14, A3 Final Day

return to Ardbeggeddon 3
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last updated on 2/23/02