Leslieville Scotch Society

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since our field trip to Whisky Live, and I think I’m finally sober enough to write about it. Our delegation was composed of myself, Matt, Rod, and Monte, who we’d been meaning to invite to a nosing for some time. Thanks to a couple of generous patrons, we had a full complement of VIP passes to the event.

Whiskies sampled:

• Highland Park 18
• Premium Bottlers – Linkwood
• Premium Bottlers – Lochnagar 11
• Auchentoshen 3 Wood
• Bowmore 16
• Bowmore 18
• Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or (Sauterne Cask)
• Ardbeg 10
• Talisker 25
• Inchgower 27 Rare Malt
• Rosebank 22 Rare Malt
• Johnnie Walker Blue
• Ballantine’s 30
• Ballantine’s 17
• Crown Royal No.16

There weren’t a whole lot of older bottles available on the main floor; some of the master classes were offering some more “special” selections, but unfortunately they were all sold out by the time we got around to them. The one exception was the Bourbon class, which they were giving away tickets to; so we took a little side-trip to Tennessee. A nice gentleman named Chris from Brown-Forman took us through the stories of the following American Whiskies:

• Jack Daniel’s
• Gentleman Jack
• Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel
• Woodford Reserve

Highlights of the show:

-Discovering the Via Allegro booth! Truly the find of the night. They were offering 3 scotch and food pairings:

• Talisker 25 paired with a nice sharp blue cheese
• Inchgower 27 paired with Thunder Bay gouda
• Rosebank 22 paired with dark chocolate

… all for one voucher each! We returned there at the end of our visit to finish with another Talisker 25, and we’ll definitely be going there for dinner.

-Making Bill from Ballantine’s convince us why we should sample his 30yo blend, and then haggling over the number of vouchers. It was actually very good, and he then gave us a sample of his 17yo, which we all enjoyed even more.

-Generally nerding out with fellow guests

-Reconnecting with Monte, who has promised to bring a couple of bottles from his fairly extensive collection to our next tasting night!