Monday 15 February 2016

Special Tasting at House of Single Malts

On Friday I went to a very special tasting. After I finished work I took the train to travel away from Zurich to a village near St. Gallen. The village is called Mörschwil and it is like the Swiss epicenter of whisky because two of the biggest whisky shops are located there. The shop where I went is called House of Single Malts and it is definitely worth a visit. After arriving at the shop I was greeted by the owners Ivan and Manuela who were really nice hosts. They introduced me to the other guests (we were only 10) and explained the plan for the evening because it wasn’t going  to be your everyday kind of tasting, we were about to attend a bottle killing session (or as it is also called a heelslayer session) and the whole tasting was designed to be a game.

Before explaining the rules of the game we were served a first whisky and I immediately knew that the long train ride was more than worth it. The first whisky we were served was the stunning Laddie 22 from the Bruichladdich Distillery. I got really excited because this whisky has sadly been discontinued and I haven’t had the chance to taste it yet. It was a fantastic start to the evening and I will give a more in depth review of this in another article. Meanwhile Ivan and Manuela explained us the rules to the game. There were around 50 near empty bottles that were lined up in 12 rows. In front of every row was a card which was Jack, Queen, King or Ace. Every card represented a certain kind of whisky. The bottles behind the Jacks were the least desirable most of them being Swiss whiskies. The bottles behind the Queens were some good whiskies like for example a Glendronach 18 port Finish or a Tobermory 19 by Cadenhead’s. The bottles behind the Kings were mostly peaty whiskies and the bottles behind the Aces were some true Jackpot whiskies, most of them being rather old and rare. There was another deck of cards which would be passed around the guests. Someone had to draw a card and the whisky would be the counterpart of the card he drew.
The person who was 7 places away from the one who drew the card had then to roll a dice and the resulting number determined how many people would get a dram of the whisky. The first person who didn’t get that whisky would then draw the next card. There were also two wildcards which allowed choosing a whisky of your liking. The game was so much fun and the people were really nice. After a while we didn’t only taste our own whiskies but we shared them.
As I’ve already said the evening couldn’t have started better than with the dram of Laddie 22 but it quickly got even better because the first card that I drew was an ace. The whisky that I got was a true stunner: A 30 years old single cask from the Glenrothes distillery. Unluckily for the other people at the table the person 7 places to my right rolled a 1 and so I was the only one who could have a dram of this beauty.
Glenrothes 30 yo Single Cask
The second whisky that I got wasn’t that exciting. The person a few places to my left drew a Jack and we got a glass of a Swiss whisky. It was a whisky called Old River which is produced by the Aare brewery which is located in the Canton of Bern. This version was 4 years old and part of their premium line. As you can imagine it wasn’t really pleasant after the Glenrothes and I didn’t enjoy it very much.

The next card that was drawn was a wildcard and the man who drew it chose a whisky that was a 1964 vintage since this is the year his wife was born. It was a Single Grain from the closed North of Scotland distillery bottled by Scott’s Selection. As I already mentioned the atmosphere was very friendly and the man asked me if I wanted to have a taste of this special whisky. It was a very nice gesture and I am truly grateful because it was a special experience.
The next time I got to taste something I didn’t have more luck as me and some others got another glass of a bottle behind a Jack. This time it was a whisky from the Locher Brewery that produces the Säntis Malt which I think is one of the best Swiss whiskies. We got to taste the Snow White edition which is a special edition that is released in winter. This whisky is matured for 4 years in beer casks and was then transferred to a cask that had previously held an apple spirit. I found this dram much more agreeable than the Swiss whisky I tasted earlier.

After a while Manuela and Ivan surprised us with a wide range of delicious hors d’oeuvres and after enjoying a few bites we continued the game. This time I was a little luckier because we drew a King and we got another Bruichladdich this time a Port Charlotte (the smoky version of Bruichladdich) PC 8. I saved that one for the end because I didn’t want to drink a peaty whisky now as it would cover the flavours of other unpeated whiskies that would still come but I will write a few words about this whisky here. This was a very special dram because just like the Laddie 22 it is rather hard to find nowadays. It is very palatable for its high abv (60.6%) and has some lovely salted caramel character.
My next dram was a Glendronach 15 years old Tawny Port Finish which was a stunner too. Like most whiskies that are finished in port casks it is very fruity and sweet with notes of strawberry jam, honey and hazelnuts.

Before we got served a desert our hosts allowed us to get one whisky of our choice. It was tough to choose between all those fantastic bottles but in the end I decided to get my first taste of a Karuizawa. This is a closed distillery from Japan that is highly demanded at the moment with bottles being sold for crazy prices at auctions. The version that I had was the Spirit of Asama which is one of the more affordable Karuizawas but this one was bottled at 55% abv. It was fantastic and I will give you a more detailed review in another article.
Karuizawa Spirit of Asama
Another whisky that I chose myself was a Blended Scotch: The Spirit of Freedom 30 years old. This blend was created by the owners of Springbank J&A Mitchell to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn and consists of 75% malt and 25% grain whisky.
During the whole evening we had a lot of fun. The other people who attended the tasting were really nice and I made some new friends. The atmosphere was very friendly and as I mentioned before we started sharing and comparing our whiskies over the course of time. Two notable mentions that I got to taste from other persons were a Bunnahabhain 1979 sherry cask by Berry’s own Selection and a Glenburgie 1966 by Gordon & MacPhail which was matured in a sherry cask aswell.
I had so much fun that I totally forgot the time and I had to leave in a hurry to catch my train home.
I want to thank Manuela and Ivan who were the kindest hosts you could imagine. The idea of the game was genius and it worked out so well even though they haven’t done anything similar before. They also only charged us a rather modest amount which they used to buy the delicious hors d’oeuvres. I can recommend everyone to visit their shop because they are not only kind but also very knowledgeable.

I also recommend you all to go to tastings and other whisky related events because you can learn a lot, they are so much fun and you easily make friends with likeminded people.


Slàinte mhath, U

1 comment:

  1. My head is spinning from the whole experience you described! So many sensory inputs with the smells and tastes and the rush of drawing a card! The adrenaline rush from that seems like what you could get from gambling! Thanks for sharing this with us! It sounded incredible!

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