Winnipeg was fortunate enough to play host to several opening round matches in the Women's World Cup of soccer (football) over the last couple of weeks. Inspired by this and inspired by the backlog of world whiskies in the depths of our whisky cabinet we decided to hold a Whisky World Cup during our meeting. A grueling contest of malts from around the globe, malt to malt, teeth gritted, eyes locked, keepers wary.
It turns out that this is not an entirely original notion as the other World Cup (the men's) inspired the Whisky Exchange to contrive a whisky connection:
ttps://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2014/06/world-cup-2014/
But those are all Scottish! And the connections dreamed up for the teams to the whiskies are, and I will constrain myself to polite comment, fanciful. We have a better concept. We will pit the products of different countries against each other. We will put the World in World Cup.
To the contestants then. Group A is comprised of the non-British contenders: Sweden, Canada and the USA. Group B is drawn entirely from the British Isles: Wales, Ireland and Scotland. India was a hopeful as well, but there was not enough left in the Amrut bottle for them to be able to field a squad.
The rules were simple. Two three-way matches were held (triangular field?). The winner of each was determined by majority decision based purely on enjoyment. Which would you be most likely to buy as a gift for a good friend? Then the winners of the two groups would meet for the title match.
Group A presented an interesting progression from light to dark and from thin to dense. The Mackmyra is interesting. It has no age statement, but is presumably quite young. It is apparently made entirely of Swedish ingredients, right down to the oak in the barrel. On the positive side it has a pleasant fruitiness (pears?) and enough complexity to interest the palate, but on the negative it is very thin in mouthfeel and has no finish to speak of. One worth watching, but likely no match against the Canadians and the powerhouse Yanks. Canada sent the 40 Creek Confederation Oak to the match. This had previously been our favorite Canadian whisky and has been reviewed and described before. A fine effort by Canada, but then Baker's 7 took to the field. Somehow this bottle had escaped our notice over the last number of years, so we were unprepared for the punch in the mouth it offered. Dense and dark it comes on sweet, sour and bitter all at once (only salt and I suppose umami are missing from the basic flavour spectrum and the latter would be unwelcome anyway). Cherries come to mind. Very interesting and the clear Group A winner, although one quiet vote was cast for the Mackmyra.
Group B should have walked away with this, but the officiating body decided to handicap the Scots and the Irish by insisting they send their secondary teams. First the poor Welsh struggled onto the pitch with their young and unloved Penderyn Sherrywood. This has been reviewed by us elsewhere and remains underwhelming with a weird unbalanced bitterness at its heart. Ireland offered the Tyrconnell, which we have also reviewed previously and found to be middle of the road: scotch-like in some respects and oddly redolent of almonds. A possible contender, but not a strong one. And now the moment you have struggled through these last few paragraphs to reach - the Scottish Whisky World Cup team. Somehow the Glenfiddich Cask of Dreams seemed most apt and it did perform ably, trouncing this weak group. This is a very solid scotch with nothing really to critique about it (other than the "Cask of Dreams" marketing nonsense). It is a scotch you'd be happy to buy for your uncle. But what about for a good friend? The Cask of Dreams in one hand and the Baker's 7 in the other. Perhaps it is a sad moment for a Scotch club, but the choice was unanimous: a Bourbon, the Baker's 7, walks away with the cup.
Feeling badly for Scotland we pulled out the beloved Old Pulteney 21 and the world was set straight again. Ha! Bourbon "victory". The very idea.
World Cup metaphor silliness aside (and my apologies, it won't happen again), it was a most jolly evening. We were short three members, but we had the good fortune to enjoy the company of two excellent guests, Dan and Steve, as well as whisky cheddar from Cory and the usual range of eclectic conversation.
Slainte!
(thank you to Ivan for the photographs)
It turns out that this is not an entirely original notion as the other World Cup (the men's) inspired the Whisky Exchange to contrive a whisky connection:
ttps://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2014/06/world-cup-2014/
But those are all Scottish! And the connections dreamed up for the teams to the whiskies are, and I will constrain myself to polite comment, fanciful. We have a better concept. We will pit the products of different countries against each other. We will put the World in World Cup.
The rules were simple. Two three-way matches were held (triangular field?). The winner of each was determined by majority decision based purely on enjoyment. Which would you be most likely to buy as a gift for a good friend? Then the winners of the two groups would meet for the title match.
Group A presented an interesting progression from light to dark and from thin to dense. The Mackmyra is interesting. It has no age statement, but is presumably quite young. It is apparently made entirely of Swedish ingredients, right down to the oak in the barrel. On the positive side it has a pleasant fruitiness (pears?) and enough complexity to interest the palate, but on the negative it is very thin in mouthfeel and has no finish to speak of. One worth watching, but likely no match against the Canadians and the powerhouse Yanks. Canada sent the 40 Creek Confederation Oak to the match. This had previously been our favorite Canadian whisky and has been reviewed and described before. A fine effort by Canada, but then Baker's 7 took to the field. Somehow this bottle had escaped our notice over the last number of years, so we were unprepared for the punch in the mouth it offered. Dense and dark it comes on sweet, sour and bitter all at once (only salt and I suppose umami are missing from the basic flavour spectrum and the latter would be unwelcome anyway). Cherries come to mind. Very interesting and the clear Group A winner, although one quiet vote was cast for the Mackmyra.
Group B should have walked away with this, but the officiating body decided to handicap the Scots and the Irish by insisting they send their secondary teams. First the poor Welsh struggled onto the pitch with their young and unloved Penderyn Sherrywood. This has been reviewed by us elsewhere and remains underwhelming with a weird unbalanced bitterness at its heart. Ireland offered the Tyrconnell, which we have also reviewed previously and found to be middle of the road: scotch-like in some respects and oddly redolent of almonds. A possible contender, but not a strong one. And now the moment you have struggled through these last few paragraphs to reach - the Scottish Whisky World Cup team. Somehow the Glenfiddich Cask of Dreams seemed most apt and it did perform ably, trouncing this weak group. This is a very solid scotch with nothing really to critique about it (other than the "Cask of Dreams" marketing nonsense). It is a scotch you'd be happy to buy for your uncle. But what about for a good friend? The Cask of Dreams in one hand and the Baker's 7 in the other. Perhaps it is a sad moment for a Scotch club, but the choice was unanimous: a Bourbon, the Baker's 7, walks away with the cup.Feeling badly for Scotland we pulled out the beloved Old Pulteney 21 and the world was set straight again. Ha! Bourbon "victory". The very idea.
World Cup metaphor silliness aside (and my apologies, it won't happen again), it was a most jolly evening. We were short three members, but we had the good fortune to enjoy the company of two excellent guests, Dan and Steve, as well as whisky cheddar from Cory and the usual range of eclectic conversation.
Slainte!
(thank you to Ivan for the photographs)
No comments:
Post a Comment