One Good Turn, Deserves Another

As we glide over the hump of yet another Round of Scotcheads, our club continues to grow. It grows not by number but by ingenuity, knowledgebase and spirit (no pun intended). We have adopted two new rules:

1) Bottle-sharing: Commencing with Greg's upcoming hosting in our next Round, the host from two prior must bring a bottle as a gift to the host (in this case, Jordan). The following parameters shall apply: (A) the bottle need not be new, but it must be at least 3/4 full (just south of the bottle's shoulders) ; (B) the bottle can be a blend or a single malt, but must be a Scotch Whisky; (C) there is no monetary cap or floor. The giver must get this bottle for the host, not the membership; that is, the host's preferences must be considered in good faith. Consider this our charitable mission....This bottle will be served by the host during his tasting.

2) Knowledge-sharing: In addition to general tasting notes and scorecards to be provided by the host with each hosting, the host must provide a no less than "10 minute" agenda that establishes talking points and Scotch trivia/knowledge and is intended to expand our collective knowledge-base. The mission here is educational. The focus should be facts things that are fundamental but not easily ascertainable. This will be a requirement of each tasting beginning this week.

The Tasting: This evening, Jordan excitedly hosted the four of us, however we had no deadlock regarding our evening's top scotch. Jordan served our first independent bottle, Linkwood 15 (by Gordon McPhail), the long-awaited Lagavulin Distillers Edition (a Diageo Classic Malt made of P.X. (Pedro Ximenez) casks) and a coastal Highland, Clynelish (Klein-LEEsh) 14.

This group of generally Islayheads instead choose a highland malt for the top scotch, the Clynelish. It was a very drinkable scotch with a ton of flavor. It was salty with a lingering full finish. We each decided that this was a very drinkable Scotch after dinner or basically any other time. It was an easy dumping of the first-introduced Linkwood, which really did nothing for any taster. But not as easy was passing on the Lagavulin Distiller's Edition.

Justin and Austin had been raving about the Lagavulin especially after Jordan offered the Lagavulin 16 early in this club's history. The DE, however, was difficult to locate. Justin offered it at his wedding to special guests (including this writer), and it will be forever appreciated.

This peaty malt was perhaps the reddest Islay ive seen (resulting from its PX-ness), however, it just couldn't rise above the evening's top malt. Who's to say Highlands are finished. I think they've only just begun.