Blending in

“It smells like a burning hospital!”  No one has ever said that about my work.  But I am not John Glaser and my work is not called The Peat Monster.  If those were true, then it would have been a compliment.  The Bald Eagle and I had the opportunity to blend a whisky that impress the master mind behind Compass Box.   We failed to do so.  So did most of the teams on the evening.  The occasion was an evening tasting whisky, blending whisky and eating good food at Burrata in Cape Town. 

The Range.  Notice great beer tap at the back

We worked our way through 4 of the regulars in the Compass Box range while John explained some history of the blends and himself.  He started out in wine making, moved to the business side of it which got him into the business side of whisky and thereon to the blending of whisky.  If he quits his day job again a lot of people will be very annoyed.  And I told him so.

 

The Great King Street blend is apparently what he wanted to make when he started, but circumstances and the market prevented him.  It is a blend of grain whisky and the lead single malt being Clynelish.  Different ages, different types of oak blended into loveliness.

The first Compass Box whisky Mr Glaser released was Hedonism.  An all grain rarity then and it remains an all grain rarity.  Made from grain whiskies of two different distilleries and two age groups of 12-15 and 18-23 years.  He used this blend to explain the lead whisky.  He says that although the younger whiskies made up only 40% of the blend they “speak louder” than the older ones. 

Range in glasses

The original Spice Tree confused the traditionalists in Scotland.    The technique of putting in a new toasted oak stave inside an old barrel to rejuvenate it without rebuilding it is widely used in the wine industry.  However it is not traditional in the whisky industry and whisky produced this way was not allowed to be called whisky.  Of course all innovation is non-traditional, but that didn’t stop the Scotch WhiskyAssociation.  In negotiations between Glaser and the rulers of whisky they were heard to say “Quality is irrelevant” focusing more on tradition.  This stupid attitude was circumvented by producing barrels with new ends made from newly toasted oak.  Of course now it takes 2-3 years to produce the same drinkable effect that can be done in 6-12 months, but the traditionalists are happy.  So of course are people like me who like this, once again Clynelish led, blend.

Tasting now returned to the burning infirmary.  The Peat Monster is 60% Laphroaig, 20% Ledaig and 20% Ardmore.  The peat influence is therefore obvious and can be over powering.  Very few people are indifferent to the heavily peated whiskies.  Love or hate it territory this and the crowd was split about half way.  The Bald Eagle and I are big fans of peaty whisky and The Peat Monster in particular. 

Small, but very good.

The food was lamb neck and vegetables made in a way that renders them edible.  Dessert was frangipane , within one letter of the flower, but is in fact “Pastry with a creamy almond-flavoured filling”  To show the culinary knowledge at our table it was variously described as “A chocolate brownie type thing”  and “sort of chocolate cakey”.  Luckily the chef was on hand to help us out.  It was without doubt delicious.  This was paired with Orangerie.  A mix of whisky and orange type, well, stuff. At whisky tastings this orange liquer catch you by surprise and are normally dismissed out of mouth.  Here, paired wioth the frangipane, it worked much better.

Four types of whisky were available for us to blend. 

1. 14 year old grain
2. 10 year old Clynelish in American oak
3. Whisky that didn’t quite make it into the Spice Tree from European oak
4. Laphroaig as the peated ingredient
5. Oh yes, and Cape Town tap water.

We blended these together according to instructions:

A             Who is it for?

B             What is the occasion?

Great fun to decide on the blend, try it, adapt it as it turned out different to expectations.  As to our own blends?  We came fourth.  Twenty teams took part.  The top three were announced.  By deduction we came fourth.