Islay : The last Regional Whisky tasting

Final whisky tasting, ever. And it's an Islay. How good is that!! The crew arrived, Rich, Maryanne (hello snookums), Jeff and another bloody yank import Anna. Ridiculous, I'm at a whisky tasting with a pom and three yanks.

Daniel and Regional had lined up what promised to be a stunning tasting, so without further ado here's my tasting notes.

Mystery whisky : Lagavulin 16yo Hopefully no-one reading this hasn't already been on the tasting ! The mystery whisky, and no wonder I scored it highly and it came 2= overall. This one has popped up before, and I'm onto my second bottle... Nose: dry, aniseed, soap, apple, bourbon, oxidised metal. Palate: salt, bacon, sherry, smoke, caramel; Finish: long, dry, superb. 9/10.

Bruichladdich lightly peated 2001 46% 23.10.01, bottle 5223 of 24000 Bruichladdich do stupid things with their whiskys, different finishes left right and centre. Some work, some don't. This one didn't. Nose: lime, banana, vanilla, leafy, marmalade, chocolate. Palate: raisins, smoke, dry. Finish: short, pepper. 6/10 Sadly the promise of the nose wasn't delivered on.

Bowmore 25yo 55.8% Duncan Taylor 10.82-12.07 cask 85063 bottle 88/166 Bit of an oddity this one, an old Islay. Nose: coffee, toffee, sherry?, high alc. Palate: alcohol, banana, peat, wood. Finish: sour, medium length. 9/10 I'd certainly drink this again. Frequently. Really interesting whisky again demonstrating that Bowmore age well. It's only really Bowmore and Lagavulin that are doing old Islay whiskys...

Kilchoman New Spirit optic ppm50 61% 29/11/06-16/12/08 sherry cask 334/06 A couple of years ago Nick and I tasted the 1 month old new spirit from Kilchoman, the newest distillery on Islay. This is the 2 year old new spirit (whisky has to be aged for 3 years before it can be termed whisky). We loved the 1 month year old, finding it incredibly complex and interesting, although it polarised people - some loving it, others finding it too overpowering. There's more complexity in this one, and by god has the potential been realised. The 3 yo whisky has just been released, and I will be getting some.
Nose: salt, bacon, smoke, rubber, high alcohol. Palate: fizzy, smokey, peaty perfection. Finish: massive, chilli, smoke 10/10 Came 2=

Port Charlotte 7 (Bruichladdich) bottled 2008 bottle 12460 or 24000 61% I loved the PC6, and Nick and I had done extensive comparative work the weekend before on the PC6 and 7. The changes between the two years are huge, there are similarities between them, but the PC7 reveals a whole different flavour collection to the PC6. Nose: salt, bacon, chedder, metallic. Palate: tangy, lovely, caramel, dark chocolate, chilli. Finish: pepper, massive, sweet. 10/10 Came 1st.

Ardbeg Supernova 58.9% Stellar limited release 100pm Ardbeg trying to show off and do something ridiculous. A 100ppm whisky? never heard of before...BTW: Daniel explained the phenol ppm is measured before the distillation process Nose: soft, salty, antiseptic, lime, lightish. Palate: salt, sweet. Finish: med-long, dry, sour. 8/10. It's good, but a lot lighter than I expected. I wouldn't complain if I had a bottle, but the other three are better.

Bruichladdich Octomore 5yo edition 01.1 63.5% ppm131 100ppm? pah nothing, let's do 131ppm. That's real phenol ! Nose: grass, stale ash, high alc, antiseptic and vomit (yeah I know, but in a good way...). Palate: very light, sweet, honey. Finish: med-short, but big - if that makes sense. 7/10
So the two supposed stars, the octomore and the supernova, weren't the winners. Good, but not great whisky. The PC7, Lagavulin and Kilchoman were all stunning whisky.

What a final tasting tho'. I'd like to thank Blair S and Daniel - Blair for making me come along, and Daniel for guiding my addiction to the good stuff. As I'm sure you're all aware, I will be tasting more and hunting it out, but I doubt I'll find anything as good as the Regional Wines tastings. And I'll miss our usual whisky imbibing crew...

Love, B