The Finals

It’s now official.  Over the last several months, the Old SNOTS had been sampling whiskies that had been favorites at previous gathering dating back to 2003.  The eventual goal was to winnow the best of the winners from the others.  Over the last several months, we cussed and cursed, gushed and raved, turned our thumbs up and down and ended up with a stable of eight whiskies — Glenmorangie Lasanta, Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban, Balvenie Doublewood, Balvenie Portwood, Tomatin 12, Inchgower 14, Lagavulin 16 and Talisker 10. 

The room was rife with anticipation of which whisky would end up The Old SNOTS favorite.  Each had their expectations.  Each had their fears.  The evening, in some ways, resembled a night around the poker table with people glancing at each others faces as they tasted trying to anticipate who was going to vote for which whisky.  In the end, we voted and the results were close, but decisive.  The runner up was the Glenmorangie Lasanta and The Old SNOTS Favorite from all the whiskies sampled from 2003 to 2009 was the Talisker 10 year old.

Interestingly, while the Glenmorangie Lasanta was the runner up, the two whiskies that generated the most discussion and brought people back to compare one against the other was the Talisker and the Lagavulin.  Despite everyone believing that the Lagavulin was the more complex of the two whiskies, in the blind taste testing that didn’t seem to hold true. 

So there it is.  Talisker 10 year old became the official Old SNOTS Favorite for 2003 to 2009.  At the end of the evening, we were all looking forward to the new year and finding our way to determining the Old SNOTS Favorite for 2010.