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Bring a
Blend 2021
or
Catching
up with Malt Mates after 3 years
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Photos by Whisky Emporium photography, |
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Bring a Blend
was an idea I first had back in 2019 and originally planned for
2020 but the idea had to be put on hold thanks to the travel and
meeting restrictions of covid & lockdown. Finally it looked like
it could go ahead for 2021 so I ran the idea by my dear
Malt Mates Klaus & Oliver who immediately signed up for
it. A date was agreed, then changed to a week later thanks to
another engagement that I couldn't move and finally after three
years we were all able to get together once again. The idea is
self explanatory in the name, a get together to sample blended
whisky primarily from days gone by and each of my guests should
also bring something suitable, or maybe not so in the case of
Oliver's Czech bottling containing "whisky and other spirits".
During lockdown
when I was based at home I spent many hours hunting online for
suitable older blends and managed to find what I hoped were some
gems and some which were almost certainly not (did I mention
that Long Wood yet?)
Oliver
brought a delightful Grand Old Parr and a far from
delightful Czech bottling of what was described on the label as
"whisky and other spirits".
Klaus
brought possibly, no definitely the finest blended whisky I've
ever tried. It was a 44 year old bottling from Andy McNeil under
his Cooper's Choice label and as stated on the
label comprised whisky from just 3 distilleries; Lochside,
Garnheath & Invergordon. Wow, just wow. In addition he brought a
blend I remember from a few decades ago from a stay I had on the
Isle of Skye; Ian Macleod's Isle of Skye blend, oh
what memories from that trip when I first discovered this exact
bottling.
As for me,
I laid out my small collection of older editions of blends which
I'd managed to snaffle from online auctions and each of us could
choose one to open alongside two which were already open. In
total we ended up with eight bottlings to try and generally
ignored that Czech thing, sorry Oliver.
Our final selection
or the chosen 8 were Isle of Skye blend, Scotch Royale, Hankey
Bannister 5y, JW Black label, Silver old Scotch whisky, Long
Wood 12y, Grand Old Parr & that Cooper's Choice 1972. It's quite
hard to date these old blends but it was our consented opinion
that they were primarily from the 1970's or very early 80's
apart from that Isle of Skye which I remember from the very
early 90's. |
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I'll not post all
the detailed tasting notes here
but you can click on the individual bottle pictures below to
visit them individually but I will give the general synopsis
from the three of us.
We all agreed
that there were three bottlings which stood well above the
others and they were the Cooper's Choice 1972 44y blend of
Lochside, Garnheath & Invergordon. A truly stunning bottling
which I awarded a well desrved 90 points. Oliver couldn't bring
himself to 90 but suggested 89.8 points. As for Klaus I last
heard him pondering over 90 or 90+. He seemd to be heading for
91 but somewhere in there I think I heard a suggestion of 92? We
all agreed this was the outstanding whisky of the evening.
Maybe
surprisingly to some our concensus for the second best
bottling was the 1970's JW Black Label 12y. Did we really say
that a Johnnie Walker Black Label was the second best bottling
of the evening? Too bloody right we did, a stunningly good
whisky which I wish was available in this style today. We all
agreed on a score of around 85-86 points.
If you think our
decision for second place was strange then just wait for the
news that third place for the evening was given to a 5 year old
whisky! Yes Hankey Bannister 5y was unanimously voted our third
best whisky of the event. Once again if only this were available
today ....
Equally
unanimous was our vote for the worst whisky of the event;
that Long Wood bottling. There's no easy way to say this but it
just wasn't good. Was it worse than Oliver's Czech thing? No,
that was worse but technically that one wasn't whisky as it
contained "whisky and other spirits". |
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So what conclusions
did we draw from this gathering?
Firstly that
after three long years, two of which were basically enforced
lockdown, it was great to meet up again and share some
surprisingly outstanding drams and a not surprisingly bad one plus
that dreadful Czech thing, sorry again Oliver.
Secondly,
apart from that Long Wood we all agreed that the quality of what
were pretty standard 1970's blends, including some labels we'd
never heard of before, was truly outstanding and that if they
were still sold like this today we'd be more than tempted to
regularly buy them.
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One final word from me to say thanks to Oliver and Klaus for
helping make BringaBlend 2021 a weekend to remember and sorry
that the other (more local) guests had to cancel at the last
minute. Maybe next time chaps. |
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A
selection of previous Dram-atics highlights
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The Malt
Maniacs Awards - MMA |
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Dec.
2010 |
December's Advent-urous drams,
Nant Distillery,
The road to Certification |
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Nov. 2010 |
Journey to end of Scotverse,
Wick,
Pulteney,
Balblair,
Knockdhu,
Homecoming,
Tweetup,
Chilling with Cooley |
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Oct.
2010 |
The John Walker,
Sampling with Master of Malts,
Changing jobs,
Whisky Round Table |
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Sept.
2010 |
Playing Chinese whispers,
Oktoberfest,
SMWS Spirit Cellar,
500,000 |
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August
2010 |
Elementary my dear Islay,
Handbags at dawn,
Dram-arkable 500,
Cheapo Challenge,
Ah Dooagh,
1 from 3 left |
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July
2010 |
Age
matters. A series of whisky reviews concentrating upon 'Age' |
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June
2010 |
Jules
Rimet, pickles & crisps.
Mon coeur, mon amour oh mon sherry.
A
taste of the great outdoors. |
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May
2010 |
The
highly-acclaimed and record-breaking "Desert Island Drams" |
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April
2010 |
My
peat's bigger than your peat,
A foursome with a famous Scottish
bird |
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March
2010 |
Sample
Mania tasting notes,
The Good, the Bad & The Loch Dh-Ugly,
A return to sanity,
The Choice of Managers |
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Jan-Feb
2010 |
Keep
taking the medicine,
It's Festival time,
Maker's Mark,
Sleeveless in Munich |
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Dec. 2009 |
All
power to bean-counters,
protecting Scotch,
seasonal drams,
Definitive Xmas Drams,
2009 Whisky Awards |
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Nov. 2009 |
How it
all started,
Bonfire night,
Autumnal musings,
EU Tax & Duty,
What's in a (whisky) name? |
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2009-2020 by Keith Wood - All rights reserved - Whisky-Emporium |
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