The Cabinet met last Thursday evening to examine the very best of the non-Scotch whiskies we have accumulated over the years. bourbon, Irish whiskey and Canadian "rye" have all had meetings devoted to them and then, this being a Scotch club, those whiskies subsequently languished deep in our stocks, untouched. Enough time has gone by that we felt it was sensible to revisit the very best of them. I will not provide tasting notes in this post, but will rather refer the reader to the original notes by including the relevant links.
First we went to Kentucky for the Buffalo Trace Distillery's award winning Eagle Rare 10 year old single barrel. Interestingly this bourbon was originally a Seagrams product. In 1989 it was sold to Sazerac, who own Buffalo Trace.
http://whiskycabinet.blogspot.ca/2010/09/bourbon-night.html
Next we hopped over to Ireland for a re-taste of the Knappogue Castle 12 year old. This is a triple distilled pot whiskey. It is the creation of a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy from Texas, Mark Andrews, who with his improbably named wife, Lavonne Dickensheets Andrews, purchased Knappogue Castle in the wild west of Ireland in 1966. Mark took an interest in the whiskey that was aging in the castle's cellar and the enterprise grew from there.
http://whiskycabinet.blogspot.ca/2012/04/irish-whiskey.html
The third stop was back over the Atlantic to southern Ontario and John C. Hall's popular Forty Creek Distillery. The "Confederation Oak" whisky, so named because the barrels were apparently made from oak
trees planted in 1867, had been our favorite during the "Blame Canada" meeting.
http://whiskycabinet.blogspot.ca/2011/02/blame-canada.html
To avoid unfair bananas and cantaloupes comparisons we didn't officially score any of these. I can report two summary findings however: (1) each of the above was drinkable and somewhat enjoyable in its own way, but (2) drinking non-scotch whiskies only serves to reaffirm why we are in fact a Scotch Whisky Cabinet, not a bourbon, rye or Irish Whisk(e)y Cabinet. For further reaffirmation we turned to a longtime Cabinet favorite, the Old Pulteney 21. This is why the clubs exists. Not only exists but thrives. Thank you men of Wick.
First we went to Kentucky for the Buffalo Trace Distillery's award winning Eagle Rare 10 year old single barrel. Interestingly this bourbon was originally a Seagrams product. In 1989 it was sold to Sazerac, who own Buffalo Trace.http://whiskycabinet.blogspot.ca/2010/09/bourbon-night.html
http://whiskycabinet.blogspot.ca/2012/04/irish-whiskey.html
The third stop was back over the Atlantic to southern Ontario and John C. Hall's popular Forty Creek Distillery. The "Confederation Oak" whisky, so named because the barrels were apparently made from oak
trees planted in 1867, had been our favorite during the "Blame Canada" meeting.
http://whiskycabinet.blogspot.ca/2011/02/blame-canada.html
To avoid unfair bananas and cantaloupes comparisons we didn't officially score any of these. I can report two summary findings however: (1) each of the above was drinkable and somewhat enjoyable in its own way, but (2) drinking non-scotch whiskies only serves to reaffirm why we are in fact a Scotch Whisky Cabinet, not a bourbon, rye or Irish Whisk(e)y Cabinet. For further reaffirmation we turned to a longtime Cabinet favorite, the Old Pulteney 21. This is why the clubs exists. Not only exists but thrives. Thank you men of Wick.
The evening was enhanced by the presence of two guests, Mark and Dan, the serving of samosas and the consideration of educational topics ranging from the antics of Metis hunters to the range of undesirable objects and substances put in novelty cocktails.
Slainte!
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