A great way to explore whisky which might be above your budget is to club together with others and decide on a price per person for a tasting. There is no better way to enjoy good whisky than in the company of friends and food. Also, especially when taking part in a Christmas Whisky event which gets you and your friends into the Festive Spirit.
The below tasting worked out at £50 per head and included six generous whiskies and party food. An example of whilst people might think Christmas whiskies should be sherried or peated, this shouldn’t be the case. As the vote at the end showed, it is also not always the whisky you expect to win which is the overall winner.
The food and drink you have before any tasting affect your palate, but in this case, the food consumed during the tasting likely had the biggest impact.
This was pork pie, scotch egg, sausage rolls, crisps, mince pies and various types of “Christmas” cake from chocolate varieties to traditional fruit cake.
The below are the tasting notes taken on the night and some thoughts from the next day. As with any whisky tasting it’s hard to concentrate on writing when enjoying yourself. Which you’d make the winner pretty much depends on your preferred style of whisky, although the winner won by a large margin in a group of 20 people. It might have been because it paired very well with the food, particularly the pork pie, at least in this whisky taster’s opinion.
Six whiskies which the club sampled on the night
- Connoisseurs Choice Aultmore 2009 13 Year Old St Joseph Cask (ABV 45%, £129)
Dewars blends often feature Autlmore, so you can expect a sweet whisky.
- Nose – Caramel and fruit.
- Palate – Thick and mouth coating with some spice but a lovely toffee apple flavour. There was a Slight “off” wine flavours which sometimes can be noticed from red wine casks by this dram. Not off putting, and probably the orange flavours as described in the official tasting notes.
- Finish – Long with caramel and fruits but a slightly sour ending.
- Overall – Not a bad starter whisky. The first whisky of the evening has probably the hardest job of convincing you to buy it. But this was certainly a contender although possibly let down by the lowish ABV.
- Balvenie A Collection of Curious Casks 18 Year Old (ABV 47.9%, £300)
By the name, one might expect this to be somewhat unusual, and that it was. It would be impossible to recognise this as a Balvenie in a blind tasting. One suggestion was that this whisky is best enjoyed slowly and savoring its complexity. However, an interesting thought on the night questioned whether it was essentially just a bottle of Grants, given that Balvenie is owned by William Grant & Son. The whisky spent its final eight years maturing in French Pineau casks—a blend of fortified wine and cognac eau de vie.
- Nose – Horlicks was the first impression.
- Palate – Smooth, sweet, non-whisky, with mainly cognac and fortified wine flavours.
- Finish – Complex and long
- Overall – As said this is one to contemplate, and the notes likely do not do it justice. The finish was the best part, and given time, the complexity as described in official tasting notes likely will come through on the palate. Definitely one to return to on another night with more time to enjoy.
- Single Cask Nation Macduff 16 year old (56.8% ABV, £105)
Macduff is fast becoming a favourite distillery. The only question is why whisky bottled under the name of Glen Deveron (the same distillery) is nowhere near as good? This also was the first experience of a whisky bottled under independent bottlers, Single Cask Nation. On the basis of this bottle, they’re another independent bottler to seek out in the next few months.
- Nose – Farmyard funk, citrus fruit, apples and strawberries.
- Palate – Light and fruity. Typical Macduff.
- Finish – Sweet and medium long, encapsulated in the word “beautiful”.
- Overall – This had wow factor about it, a star, a cracking whisky for the price. The glowing thoughts might have been influenced by how tremendous it paired with the pork pie.
It possibly might be brilliant on New Years Eve with cheese and oatcakes.
- Loch Fyne Fynest Craigellachie 18 year old (ABV 61.7%, £199)
That ABV is correct, maybe the first time sampling an 18 year old at that strength. And the colour clearly meant sherried. It was dark.
- Nose – Sherry
- Palate – Sherry, sherry, sherry, but really quite nice with chocolate and whisky soaked raisins.
- Finish – Mouth drying sherry. Possibly suggesting the sherry cask was oloroso?
- Overall – One for the sherry fans although possibly over-sherried in this taster’s opinion. It went well with a chocolate stollen cake. So possibly one to finish Christmas dinner with?
- Torabhaig NAS The Whisky Shop Exclusive (ABV 61.5%, £110)
The first peated whisky of the night and boy was this peated. The casks were distilled between 2018 and 2019 using Concerto barley heavily peated at 78ppm.
- Nose – Bacon fries and peat
- Palate – Bacon fries and peat
- Finish – Bacon fries and bonfire ash.
- Overall – One for lovers of youngish peated whisky, but too much bacon for this taster.
- Octomore 15.1 5 year old (ABV 59.1%, £140)
Peated at 108.2 ppm one might expect it to be even more peated in flavour than the Torabhaig. But this is an Octomore and whilst it’s unmistakably peated, it’s more refined and mellow. One comment was, “peat fire but you don’t need a chimney sweep”.
- Nose – Peat and fruit gums.
- Palate – Sweet malt, peat and spices
- Finish – Peat, spice and white wine.
- Overall – One might have thought this would have a good chance of being the winner on the night. A few years ago, that might well have been the case. But that wasn’t so this time. Maybe because of the expectation which it failed to fulfil, although the food consumed might not have helped.
The Whisky Winners of a Christmas Whisky Tasting
By a large margin the Single Cask Nation Macduff won first place and that was in a group of whisky fans who tend to go either for sherried or peated whiskies. On the night it certainly deserved this win, it was head and shoulders above the rest and the cheapest bottle tasted. This result came as a surprise, given that it competed against a whisky three times the price from a more renowned distillery with a much longer history than Macduff, established in the 1960s.
The Aultmore and Craigellachie tied for second place, as the majority of the group overwhelmingly favoured the Macduff.
The rest all got one vote. This maybe is unfair to them given that the quality of the whisky was so good. And on another night, with a different series of drams, different food, things might have been different. The important thing is everyone had a cracking time and agreed that Christmas whisky tastings are the best of the year.
