19/12/2022

Chapter 2

My first (virtual) encounter with Islay Whisky

Islay Whisky. We all know Islay Whisky, don’t we? Well, I didn’t have a clue at that time.

The Best Whisky Ever

I remember a friend of mine back in Italy used to talk about Lagavulin being the “best whisky everrrrrr” (think about that said in Italian with a lot of hand gestures in the air). You can therefore imagine my profound excitement when my friend Giuseppe G (not “Peppino” another Giuseppe) mentioned he had a 20cl bottle of Lagavulin16 ready to be shared with me and the aforementioned Peppino.

Following the Whisky samples

As we were seeking variety at the beginning of our journey more than quantity, it was the availability of sample bottles 5, 10 or 20 cl to drive us. On a sunny Sunday in April 2021, we managed to have a nice lineup. A 10 cl Laphroaig 10 picked up from the local Sainsbury, this 20cl Lagavulin 16 from Giuseppe, a Caol Ila 12 (the big bottle from Andrea), a 20cl Bruichladdich the Classic Laddie that Peppino bought online, and 2 20 cl Bunnahabhain bottles I bought from Amazon: Bunnahabhain Stiuireadair and the 12 year old . What a line-up that was!

The scheme was quite clear. I offered food and oat cakes (see side note). They brought the whisky. Win-win.

Leave the peat for the end

Now: the whiskies. I came to try them with very little bias. I think we read somewhere: “peat at the end”. So we started with the 2 Bunnahabhain. The Stiuireadair is a NAS (side note), natural colour, non-chilled filtered 46.3%. I remember it a bit tangy straight after opening it. It needed a bit of water to calm that pungent sensation in the nose, arrival and finish (no matter what they are for now). It was definitely different from what we tried before. We were discovering our first sherry cask whisky! Now we know that. For the price it was really good.

Then the Bunnahabhain 12: instant love! Still one of my favourites, still one that I recommend to start the journey on a bang for buck basis. I mean, seriosuly? It’s £32 on Amazon UK a no brainer! Not sure where you live of course. I had some old dates and dried prunes in my cupboard. It was amazing how I could smell them inside that dram. We still come back to it every now and then, and it’s more complex than that for sure, but this was my first sudden and prominent sensation when we tried it first as super-newbies.

So far, so good…already starting to think about going to visit Bunna’s distillery.

The Classic Laddie

Guess what? Another Islay Whisky. We then opened the small bottle of the Laddie. Our first dram over 46.3%. Acetone! Paint. That was the first shocking sensation. Has it ever happened to you? It’s a NAS, 50% abv. I think they brought it in to replace the 10 and make it more available in supermarkets. With that awkward skyblue colour may look more like a gin or a vodka on the shelf (just saying). But luckily I understand nothing about marketing. This was a very strange sensation. We waited, and added a wee bit of water. And the laddie changed. Cereals. We waited a bit more and hints of caramel were coming out. And waited, and cinnamon, apple/pear/pineapple fruity notes. The acetone was gone…Some say it’s slightly peated as well…couldn’t find any smoke in my palate. But that’s fine. The biggest discovery here is that higher abv whiskies tend to change quite a lot with time (oxygen) and water.

Did you say "peat"?

Yes, we then jumped into the dangerous world of peat.

I touched a bit on the Laphroaig 10 in chapter 1. It’s 40%, widely available across the world and travel retails. And… it tastes like cough syrup! That’s necessarily not a bad thing…it depends what memories you have of cough syrup. Me personally, I have surprisingly a good memory. It was medicinal, but also dense and syrupy, and I had that mental sensation that’d have got better drinking it as a kid…so, I didn’t mind the Laphroaig to be honest. If it’s on offer I’d probably buy it as a peat opener, but I don’t love it that much. It ended with that bitter sensation in the throat that I didn’t really like, and definitely lacking that nice thick coating sensation I do love.

Talking about bitterness. Lagavulin 16. Simply put, not the “best whisky everrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”. An OK whisky yes. How much would I pay today for a bottle of it? Probably no more than £50. It’s sold around £80 nowadays (Dec 2022 UK). So personally not my thing. But please try it…I did not give up on Lagavulin in this occasion…you’ll see it more down the line in the next chapters. Leo’s got quite a different relationship with it too. So, be open minded. Finally: Caol Ila 12. This friend Andrea had this bottle for a while and I’ve tried it a few times after this one. Sweet smoke. Among the 3 peated my favourite and still at a reasonable price. Yeah they filter it, not sure if they colour it but it doesn’t say natural colour, yes it’s only 43%. But, at the end of the day, it was a more than acceptable experience, not sure if you ever burnt marshmallows in front of a pit fire…that’s what it reminded me. I know I’m odd. What about you? Do you want to try these drams?

Drams

and more...

Today's drams

Bunnahabhain Stiuireadair – 46.3%
Bunnahabhain 12 – 46.3%
Bruichladdich the Classic Laddie – 50%
Laphroaig 10 – 40%
Caol Ila 12 – 43%
Lagavulin 16 – 43%

Oat cakes

Have you ever eaten the chipboard inside Ikea’s furniture? Well, me neither, but I’m sure this is what they taste like.

Oat cakes are widely available in the UK, and probably one of the driest thing on earth.

Nonetheless, I cannot drink whisky without them. For two main reasons.

They’re made with oat of course which is a cereal. Being a cereal pairs quite well with the cereal notes in whisky. Even if overall, they don’t taste like much.
Most importantly, they are so dry that you need to produce a huge quantity of saliva to make them edible. And that cleanse your palate, make it ready for the next dram

Try them and let me know, but careful. You’ll hate them first, but then you won’t be able to live without them.

NAS - No Age Statement

A NAS is a whisky where the bottler does not declare the age of the youngest whisky inside that bottle.

Here I don’t want to explain and say too much as there’s plenty of good references around from super-experts. The only thing I want to say is: NAS doesn’t mean it’s a bad whisky, at all! I can think of Glen Scotia Victoriana, Kilkerran Heavily peated for example. Amazing Whiskies without an age statement.

So what? Be open minded. Taste them. Taste is personal and doesn’t care about age. This includes Islay Whisky of course!