Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Calm Before The Storm

A two-tone Round the Barrel to bring September to an end. A fairly sedate start with a change of plan. Our initial idea for a bourbon night - with real, live bourbons and a selection of bourbon cask malts, took a late hit when bourbon-meister Andrew Bell called off with an attack of Islay cold.

In their stead we sampled a 20 year old Bladnoch, a 10 year old Speyside specially bottled for the Bon Accord, and two Tullibardines from our recent trip - a 15 year old sherry and an 18 year old port.

Joining us for the second part was Curt Robinson from Calgary, Alberta, who runs a whisky blogging website http://www.allthingswhisky.com  and has interviewed Ralfy and Mark for it, but also real people like Mickey Heads. He was coming to the end of a tour of Scotland, especially Islay, and chilled out with us before flying home the next day. Hope the head wasn't too bad Curt!

The second part of the evening was an altogether more rewarding affair. With the exception of Big Peat and the 26 year old Caol Ila, the remains of the previous week's Douglas Laing tasting were brought to the barrel. I raved about them last week, but the people who weren't there were equally as enthusiastic at the quality of the drams on offer.

Apart from Kurt, we had two other new faces - Elspeth who came with Eddie,(below) and Roddy,(above) who dispenses wisdom at Oddbins in Crow Road. Roddy joined on the night. We're not sure if we scared Elspeth off, but she seemed to enjoy the drams on the night.


The final star of the evening wasn't even a whisky. Your humble treasurer is spending the week basking in the glow of Channel Four's Come Dine With Me. This TV colossus was seen in action in his kitchen, destroying one batch of tatties, before getting caught making one dish stretch into two. 

Last night he was mobbed by star-struck TV groupies (well, Adam actually) who couldn't believe he could get so close to the big man. Where's the Security when you need it?