Nosing Master Class

This is a start to a long journey of recognition training. I am trying to develop a master nosing class for our whiskey club and am using a nosing kit with 24 standard aromas in it. So how to begin, pour a little whiskey and decide which of the aromas are in it sounds simple right?Not so, the aromas are very close in certain areas and you have to work at it to decide which one is the closest. I say closest because the aroma kit gives you the broad brush stroke and you need to fill in the detail. So what I did was choose 6 aromas that i thought would be close and nose to find their presence. By the third whiskey a format arose, nose the whiskey, taste the whiskey, determine if aroma is present (simple yes no maybe), go back to yeses and decide if aroma is exact or similar. Then you may have to go back to the kit and pick a couple more aromas in the same family to see if something else is closer.For the group I think it will be important to start with very distinct whiskeys with strong specific aromas that are easy to identify. I am looking forward to putting this to the group to see how the format plays out.

What did I learn from the exercise?

The citrus in Irish whiskey is similar but not exactly like the orange in the kit, Laphroaig has some rose water in the finish and is more phenolic than peaty even though some peat is present. 2 of the 3 people I tried the yes, no, maybe with on Knob Creek found a aroma of clove and I didn't. You need fresh glasses for each aroma as they linger in the carafe for a long time. Lastly that there is always more to learned and everyone can benefit from trying this kit.  

Molson M

Funny how a day can be, opened my email this morning with the sell sheets for this beer in my in box and later in the day the Molson rep walks in unrelated to let me try the beer.I don't know what I expected exactly but I kind of thought it would be somewhat like a American style Lager similar to Sam Adams or Brooklyn needless to say I was disappointed. Lots of money has gone into packaging and fancy taps to help create head, individual regulators for constant pressure they even go as far as to suggest they won't sell it to you if  you don't push with beer gas. M stands for Microcarbonated or Minor carbonation I'm not sure there is a difference this beer is carbonated at a lesser level than regular lager but that is about all. As a result you pick up more sweetness in the nose somewhat fruity and it makes it easier to drink quickly. I'm sure this will appeal to a demographic that doesn't particularly like Beer but falls short with real Beer lovers.

Tequila Again

I bought this tequila Duty free on my way back from Mexico. It was the most expensive tequila I have ever purchased at $87.50 but it came highly recommended by the sommelier at the resort we stayed at. Frankly I was sceptical of buying a Jose Cuervo product as my experience had been limited to their blended products and my Teenage memories. "Boy was I wrong" I am seriously thinking of pouring this at a whisky tasting as I think it will fool at least half the group. It has all the characteristics of the best barrel aged spirits with great complexity on the nose and palate with a smack of Agave. It is a blend of mostly 3 year aged product with some additions of older vintages up to 30 years, not many tequilas are as old as this and it sure comes through. This may become my new only on special occasion beverage. In BC this Tequila sells for $184.00 so look for it when you travel it is great value.   

First Family of Tequila Celebrates Mexican Culture by Commissioning Local Artist to Design Box

This year the limited-edition handcrafted wooden box for the 15th installment to this collection is adorned with the artistic styling of Pablo Vargas Lugo.

Reserva de la Familia is an award-winning Extra Anejo (aged) Tequila made from hand-selected, 100% pure blue agave grown in the Cuervo estate’s richest volcanic soils. Reserva de la Familia, a crown jewel of the Jose Cuervo portfolio, is considered to be a collectable masterpiece by spirit connoisseurs around the world for both its superior taste and uniquely designed packaging.  Each year since 1995, the Cuervo family has selected a renowned Mexican artist to paint the new handcrafted wooden box for its ultra-premium vintage Tequila – part of its continuing support for promising Mexican artists and local culture

Jackson Triggs Grand Reserve Shiraz 2004

I have a very limited amount of these bottles left in the cellar and I was starting to wonder if they would still be drinkable and how they were aging. So this morning I opened one, it is amazing that the color of this wine is still as bright as it was five years ago when I first got it. The nose has changed a lot over the last five years what was field berries and pepper has given way to richer fruit slight tobacco and leathery notes with just a hint of pepper. The first thing you notice on the palate is how soft this wine has become, there is however still plenty of grippy tanin to make you think that further aging will not hurt this wine. If you have a few bottles of this in your cellar hold onto them for a while longer they will be great for impressing your friends.

I've included the original press release or I should say part of it from when this wine won the Rosemount estate trophy. I feel a special affinity for these wines as I've had the privilege of standing in this vineyard  looking at the grapes growing and talking to the viticulturist and the winemaker about these plantings the terroir, the region, the amount of sunshine these grapes get, and even how to water them. If you ever get the chance the great estates tour will give you a new appreciation for the attention to detail that starts in the dirt and ends in the bottle.

NEWS RELEASE  For immediate use
JACKSON-TRIGGS SHIRAZ NAMED WORLD’S BEST IN GROUNDBREAKING FIRST
Mississauga, Ontario (July 27, 2006) … In an international first, a North American wine was awarded
the Rosemount Estate Trophy for Best Shiraz/ Syrah at the International Wine and Spirits Competition
(I.W.S.C.) in London, England. The Jackson-Triggs  Okanagan Estate Proprietors’ Grand Reserve
Shiraz 2004 was chosen as the world’s best from a group that included wines from Australia and South
Africa, nations that have traditionally dominated the Shiraz/ Syrah category.  The trophy is historic in
that it is the first ever to be awarded at the I.W.S.C. to a Canadian red wine. Previous winners of the
Rosemount Estate Shiraz/ Syrah trophy include such  prestigious wines as the Wolf Blass Platinum
Label Shiraz, the Leasingham Classic Clare Shiraz and the Eileen Hardy Shiraz. In addition to this
groundbreaking first, the Jackson-Triggs Winery was also short-listed for the Canadian Producer of
the Year Trophy, (to be awarded later this year) which it has won four times since 1999.

Borgogno Barolo 1952

Well a couple of nights ago I finally broke down and opened a bottle of 1952 Borgogno Barolo Rieserva  that a customer gave me.I was waiting for a special occasion but we had family in town and the day just seemed right. I am no expert on Vintage wines so i was extra careful and stood the bottle up slowly to not shake up the sediment and cautiously extracted the cork. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the cork with no evidence of leakage or breakdown. Then I proceeded to the filter the wine through a gold mesh filter into a clear glass decanter, this is when the first hint that maybe we were in for some trouble surfaced. The color seemed very subdued with browning evident, nonetheless I let the wine sit and breathe for a good 1.5 hours and it seemed to brighten up a bit. Once we got the wine in the glasses and our noses involved everyone was quick to point out the varnish smell on the nose. we proceeded to taste it anyway and it unfortunately had oxidized to the point of no return. Oh well after 59 years you kind of know it is a gamble at best. Sometimes the enjoyment can be not just in the drinking but in the story, the research, and the occasion this certainly makes me want to experiment with more great vintages.

Sunday's Whiskey Tasting

well another successful Robbie Burns tasting is over with eight whiskeys tasted, most of which we had not tasted in the past. We started with three blinds the first was a Canadian Rye Gibsons finest 12-year-old, it received the same reception it does every time we taste it. There is something about the sweetness inherent to corn and rye that it makes everyone happy. We followed that with a split tasting half of the room trying the clan Denny vatted malt and the other half tasting Chivas 18. I poured clan Denny this whiskey was extremely light in color and those with a hint of citrus and a very clean short finish it would be good for a pre-dinner dram but food would hide its subtle flavors. The last blind was the revelstoke spiced whiskey this liquid is an anomaly is Canadian whiskey made in Wisconsin and is technically a whiskey liqueur. There is a heavy addition of vanilla and spice and an underlying sweetness which makes this a great whiskey for mixing but straight up not a great choice.

We tasted five more whiskeys throughout the evening the first was the Isle of Arron 15-year-old anniversary edition this whiskey is aged in Amontillado Sherry casks that give the whiskey a reddish tint. The nose of this whiskey has strong cocoa powder and sulfur notes, the first impression on the tongue is somewhat tarry but it gives way to licorice notes. I was a bit unsure of this whiskey at the start but I warmed up to it as it sat on my tongue for a while. Before the next whiskey we had dinner, when we went back to tasting we started with anCnoc 12-year-old from Knockdhu distillery this is another light whiskey, and most people had trouble finding the flavors in this as their pallets were not ready after eating the lesson here is try a little coffee, or beer to cleanse the food from your pallet. I was talking to one member who suggested that perhaps mouth pH may have something to do with our inability to perceive flavors after eating. I will pursue some information on this.

Next up was Mackmyra special number 3 this is the first Swedish single malt we have tasted interestingly it is aged in small 30 L casks which include used bourbon, Sherry casks, and Swedish oak casks. This whiskey was surprisingly full-bodied with a real doughy or custardy mouth feel. I really enjoyed this whiskey. After that we moved on to the oak cross by compass box this whiskey is aged in a combination of used bourbon and French oak casks. this whiskey is also a vatted malt which effectively means that it is all single malt whiskey but from more than one distillery. It was hard to discern a difference caused by the French oak in this whiskey, there was a lot of wood in this whiskey but it did not have that classic French mouth feel. This is a good middle of the road whiskey that is not bad value for the money. The last whiskey of the evening was a monster, the Ardbeg supernova. This whiskey was selected by the whiskey Bible as whiskey of the year for 2010, at 160 ppm peat phenols it is one of the peatiest whiskeys we have ever tried. This whiskey lingers on the palate for ages. What is most striking about this whiskey is the balance between peat and drink ability, only after a few minutes does the peat overwhelm the palate.

As always these tastings end up with discussions about some portion of the process of making whiskey. This tasting most of the discussion was around barrels and wood affect, it is funny how some whiskeys seem perfectly balanced with the wood and others seem as though the wood is an afterthought. Personally I choose the whiskeys that have a complex relationship with the barrel.