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Third Annual Whisky Hill Dram Jam

Saturday May 4, 2002

We straggled up around 10:30 am to coffee after much muttering and calls for skalks,

Dave chooses the first skalk of the day as the designated skalkmeister.  This skalk was taken barefoot before brushing of the teeth (need a gaelic translation here please...):

  1. Springbank 34 yo 1965, 46%, Fresh Sherry Cask (No. MM580)
    Sweet sherry toffee-like palate 

    300 mg B-1 / 11:00 am

  2. Tomatin 17 yo, 6/78-6/95, 56.5% Cadenhead's (Skalk No 2)
    FX dubs it the breakfast dram declaring it perfect with his strawberry danish.

    Tom cooks us up a mountain of a breakfast of scrambled eggs with leeks, fried potatoes, and venison loin steak fried in garlic and butter.  WOW

  3. Glengoyne 1967, 52.5%
    Another amazing dram - incredible post-breakfast dram.

  4. Linkwood 1983 Cask Strength Limited Bottling, 59.8%

  5. Blair Athol 1981 Cask Strength Limited Bottling, 55.5%

    300 mg B-1 / 4:00 pm

  6. Glenfarclas 1959, 35 yo, 52.6%, Sherry Cask, Whyte & Whyte

    Tom serves us snacks of smoked chicken wings - ummmmm!

  7. Eleuthera 46%, Compass Box (vatting of Caol Ila and Clynelish)

  8. Glen Garioch 1985 16 yo, Cask 1585, 51.9%

    Dinner of hot-smoked pork ribs (cooking since noon), tossed salad with hot bacon dressing, and pasta salad with slabs of cheese and salami - amazing dinner - best ribs we've ever had.  Another manly meal.

  9. Glen Garioch 1968 29 yo, Cask 618, 55.9%

  10. BLACK BOWMORE, 30 year old 1964/1994, 60%
    ...aka "Mountain Dhu"...   Served blind out of a Loch Dhu bottle, this completely fooled me - older sherry and no perceptible peat at all. Deep rich complex palate and a huge finish.  I guessed an older Macallan.   Thanks again S'tan!  You de'mon! 

  11. Longrow 1987 10 yo, Casks 149-151, 43% Signatory

    300 mg B-1 / 8:30 pm

  12. Talisker 12 yo 43%, Distillery

  13. Talisker 1975, 25 yo, 59.9%

  14. Longrow 1992, 57.2%, Cadenhead's
    At cask strength it's good, a bit estery/hot, but complex for a 9 yo.  With water all the edges disappear and the malt opens up a lot.  With even more water bringing it down to ~46-48% it becomes almost perfect and ethereal 

  15. Bowmore 1968 32 yo, 45.5% Bottle 1401/1860
    Nose is licorice, anise, spicecake.  Palate of sweet candy, citris-like lemon, pineapple and grapefruit.  Finish shift to a more smoky balance long and delightfully malty.  A stunning dram - MOK has dubbed this the White Bowmore.  I need to add one of these to my collection.  Oh, not a trace of FWP.  

    We sequence into the theme of the day - Ardbeg.  

  16. Ardbeg 25 yo, Oct 1975 - Sept 2001, 58%, Milroys
    Great dram,  this is getting peatier with time.  I like this dram a lot.  Alan brought this to A3 - do you have any still open Alan?   I'll bet it's tremendouse open now for 5 months (assuming you haven't inhaled it yet.)  

  17. Ardbeg 10 yo, no strength statement (tastes like 40%)
    Small old nip bought by FX on EBay

    head-to-head with

  18. Ardbeg 10 (current release), 46%
    Interesting head to head.  

  19. Springbank 12 yo 100 Europroof bottling, 57%
    A digression but a wonderful one - this is one of the few nips left from out infamous FOAF of Robertson's in Pitlochry in 2000.  We found they had nips of the Springbank 100 euro proof for 6 BP each - such a steal!  We bought all they had left in stock - 18 if I remember correctly.  Full bottles were selling at Loch Fyne for ~150 BP so these were a steal since 14 x 50 cl nips sold for 84 BP.   Thanks again for the memories Tom!  Back to the ardBEGs!

  20. Ardbeg 45.2%, 12/26/75-10/20/99, Sherry Cask No 4702, French Market Committee-like bottling

    Strangely enough, my tasting notes disappeared about this time and I went into database dramming mode.  Database Dramming Mode is what always happens when you get so impaired that merely keeping a list of your drams is a serious accomplishment.  This often occurs between 20-25 drams in my world.  (as an exception, I have notes for all 53 drams served by Ulf at his Mastadon Macallan Tasting.  Moderation was the key - if you can accept that any part of 53 drams could be considered moderation...  I like Ulf's approach tho...   moderation in excess! 

  21. Ardbeg 55%11/24/76-7/17/00, Cask 2392, Sherry Butt, Committee Bottling

    300 mg B-1 / 1:30 am

  22. Ardbeg 1967 30 yo, 50.3%, Dumpy Sig (3/22/67-9/12/97)

  23. Very Old Ardbeg, 30 yo, 40%

  24. 1974 Sigbeg 24 yo, 2/22/74-4/28/98, 51.3%, Casks 637 & 638

  25. The Ardbeggeddon, 1972, 29 yo, 48.4%  ummmmmmmmmmm.....

  26. Ardbeg 1975 43% 
    Very nice peaty dram, chill-filtered tho...  but no matter.  Put it on the Scotland 2k2 FOAFing list...  I have one in the closet so I'll be opening a 1975 vintage at my July tasting if I can find another...  Ardbeg is part of my retirement plan...

  27. Ardbeg 1978 43% (non-chill filtered)

  28. Lord of the Isles - I love the Lord!

  29. Ardbeg 1972, 27 yo, 50 %, OMC

  30. Ardbeg 1974, 26 yo, 50%, OMC

  31. Ardbeg 1975, 25 yo, 50%, OMC
    A totally kick-ass whisky,  a monster bathed in peat-reek... add to FOAFing Scotland 2002 list...  ok, so I'm 31 drams in...  at least it made an impression on me!

  32. Springbank 100 Double Dark (an old friend...)

  33. Rum Cask Springer (a revisit) 
    I liked it!  Even better with water.  I'll probably get one in Scotland for the library - <40 BP without VAT I think...  I'll try it at Loco's on our way to Glasgow via Newark Airport  and make a final decision at that point...   Maybe addition to FOAFing Scotland listing.

  34. Ardbeg1990

  35. Caol Ila 1989, 11 yo, refill Sherry Casks,  Sig's Unchillfiltered Collection

  36. Ardmore 12 yo1986, Limited Edition, 40%

  37. Ardmore 12 yo 56.2%, Douglas McArthur

    Yes, Saturday was truly an Ardbegger's Banquet!  Awesome day with unreal food and even better malts!
    It was now around 3 am and time to crash...  I left FX and Dave at the table and wandered off to the couch.  Not sure who ended up king of the mountain o'malts that day...

    Now for the B-1 rollup...  1,200 mg over a 14 hour period.  No reduction in mitigation capability between this dose and the 1,700 mg dose the day before.  Probably should knock it down to 900 mg next...   as long as I can get to my skalk in the morning...   
    it IS a miracle drug...   trust me, I'm a ...  well.... you know what I am...

    Here are the unprocessed photos from Saturday and Sunday.

NANO's Writeup of this debauch on MaltMadness

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last update on 5/16/02