Gathering Minutes – May 2010

Minutes of the Meeting
of the

Old Scotch Nosing or Tasting Society

(Old SNOTS)
May 29, 2010

 
Members Present:                                                      Single Malts Present:
Teri Newman                                                 Aberfeldy 12 yr old
Gail “Wojo” Wojtowicz                                    Bowmore 12 yr old
Mo Verling                                                    Glenfiddich 15 yr old
Stan Skavdal                                                Aberlour 12 yr old
Mike “Peeto” Peet (V)                                   Glenfarclas 12 yr old
Mark Caslen                                                 Scapa 16 yr old
Steve McAllister                                            Auchentoshan Three Wood
Alicia McAllister                                             Sheep Dip 20 yr old (not voted on)     
                                                                 Strathisla 12 yr old (not voted on)

 1.  Despite the fact that we were tasting free whisky this gathering, we only managed a rather small showing as you can see from the Members Present list.  I don’t get it.  If we were giving away money for free, I’d expect our showing would have been much larger.  What’s more important here, Folks?  Actually, I know for a fact that some took advantage of the three-day weekend and went out of town.  Others, including our full-time scribe (for the purpose of these minutes, aka Tinker Bell, about which there will be more later), were on full-blown vacations, otherwise known as work avoidance behavior.  Those of us with our priorities straight were treated to the hospitality of Teri Newman and her husband John.  After we’d gone through all six verses of “Over the River and Through the Woods” so many times we couldn’t stand it anymore, we arrived at the Newman residence north of Highland, IL.  Among those that made the trek was Mike “Peeto” Peet, otherwise known at this gathering as “VIRGIN” which he rather gleefully accepted noting, with a wry smile, that he certainly looked forward to losing this label just as he had once before.  We all kept our distance from him after that.  Set deep back into a wooded area, the house felt like a private retreat and it was only the sound of I-70 that reminded us we weren’t deep in the Ozark hardwood forests.  If you recall, Teri told us we had to see John’s “man-cave.”  In fact, it was truly amazing featuring all things LSU, an impressive array of model military hardware and more collectible football figurines than I could begin to count.  My personal favorite, though?—a six pack of Monty Python’s HOLY GRAIL ale.

 2.  As I mentioned, the whisky we sampled this time was free.  Wojo, who I’m happy to say looked great after her surgery, provided every drop.  In fact, she acted as the middle-man bringing whisky sent to her from Alyson Anderson of Republic National Distribution Co. in Austin, TX.  You may ask who Wojo had to pay to get such a relationship.  Actually, Wojo has a niece, Wendy (I’ve no idea if Wendy has brothers named John and Michael or if she has a Newfoundland named Nana or if her last name is Darling, all of which wouldn’t surprise me given the happy ending).  Wendy knows or works for Alyson who saw our Old SNOTS website and was intrigued.  Alyson sent Wojo a box of whisky hoping for our reaction.  Well Wendy and Alyson, Wojo and the Old SNOTS’ Lost Boys (and girls) are happy to oblige. 

3.  Following the grilling of steaks accompanied by salad and Teri’s “world famous” and pretty damn good potato salad, the gathering sat down to the business at hand and started sampling the whiskies.  On to the tasting notes:

a.  Aberfeldy
“This is for beginners.” – Teri; “Soft” – Steve; “Not much to this” – Mo; “Next!” – Steve

b.  Bowmore
“Oh yeah!  The sea . . .” – Mo; “Woohoo!” – Wojo; “Is there any 7-Up?”  After receiving a number of glares, “What?” – Peeto; “There’s a lot of peat here.” – Teri; “I just licked an ashtray.” – Mark; “I like this.” – Stan

c. Glenfiddich
“Not much nose.  Some allspice.” – Mo; “Very spicy.” – Alicia; “I could do this all night.” – Wojo; “A light dram.  Not complex, but a nice drop.” – Mo; “Apple.  It’s better than Glenlivet.” – Wojo

d.  Aberlour
“Holy cow.” (That’s code for “Is that all there is?”) – Steve; “Unremarkable.” – Mo; “All its got going for it is sweetness.” – Teri; “This would be good for morning oatmeal.” – Alicia; “I don’t like the finish.” – Stan; “What finish?” – Steve  

[It was at about this point that if Peeto had had gills, they’d have been green.  If whisky is an acquired taste, he hadn’t yet.  He later confided (never confide to an Old SNOTSter something that could be used against you) that over the weekend he went to a McDonalds with a newly asphalted parking lot and had immediate flashbacks to the Bowmore 12.  As far as this writer is concerned, if it kept him from eating at McDonalds, that’s another reason to like Bowmore.]

 e.  Glenfarclas
“Carmel nose.  Really sweet and syrupy, like you’d use on pancakes.” – Steve; “The McAllisters must really like breakfast.” – Peeto; “A sweet, beginner’s scotch.” – Teri

f.  Scapa
“You could make cranachan with this.” (Cranachan is a Scottish dessert made with a whisky that won’t overwhelm the rest of the ingredients) – Alicia; “Scotch on training wheels.  That’s why Jim [Dice] would like it.” – Wojo; “There’s a touch of salt.” – Stan; “This tastes like the water’s already been added.” – Wojo; “Absolutely!  That’s a perfect description.” – Mo

g.  Auchentoshan
“Wow, this is entirely different.” – Mo; “Oooo . . . started with butter and then switched to salt.” – Stan; “It has the freshness of lemonade.” – Steve

After we’d tasted and voted on this group, Wojo brought out two more whiskies from Alyson—Sheep Dip 20 yr old and Strathisla 12 yr old.

h.  Sheep Dip
“This is Sheep Dip?  Very surprising.” – Steve; “Peaty and hints of the sea.” – Mo; “Actually, this is very good.” – Wojo; “Not at all like the Sheep Dip I remember.” – Alicia; “Hey wait, it’s a blend!  We may have broken the rules!” – Mo; “Actually, it’s vatted, but you’re right.” – Steve (The difference is that blended whisky includes grain alcohol as its base while vatted whisky is nothing but a mixture of single malt whiskies.)

 i.  Strathisla
“Limey.” – Wojo; “As in the fruit.” – Steve; “Not a Sassenach.” – Mo; “Michael Jackson says it tastes like juicy oak.” – Mark; “What is juicy oak?” – Steve; “But I can taste Juicy Fruit.” – Mo

 4.  Before I get to the vote, you may recall I mentioned Tinker Bell in the first paragraph.  Well, in fact, during the whisky sampling I heard a tinkling sound, like the sound of tiny bells.  I brushed it off as the sound of wind chimes outside or clinking of glasses in the dishwasher or the result of 16 years of flying C-5s.  As it turns out, it was our vacationing scribe, Tinker Bell, trying to whisper in my ear via a text message that he voted for the Highland whisky.  We discounted this attempt as biased and misinformed and, as a result, faeries all over the world dropped dead.  No big loss . . .  A simple vote was taken and the winner was Bowmore, two-to-one, with 4 votes and the Glenfiddich was second with 2 votes.  All agreed that it was an interesting and revealing lineup!   A hearty and sincere “Thanks” to Alyson Anderson and Republic National Distributing Co.

5.  The next gathering of the Old SNOTS will be held at the home of Bobby Fowler on 26 June.  The theme for that gathering will be whiskies from Islay and Skye. 

[With apologies to J.M. Barrie.]

 “Cab for Bean?!”