Front Porch Tasting

A beautiful Saturday afternoon random tasting – including some hand-carried one-off drams a friend brought back from Scotland.

There is something special about sitting on your front porch with a nice dram and watching the world go by that truly makes a person feel that there is hope for the world. And it is even better when you can do it with a friend.

Recently a new friend stopped by and brought a few special hand-delivered drams (see those two medicine bottles on the left side of the picture – more about them later). Getting to know someone new while also learning their whisky tastes can be a delicate exercise – it’s a balance of not wanting to offend them while also wanting your choices to be considered noteworthy. Luckily my new friend was low key which matched my preferred style so we had a fine time sitting and sipping for a few hours on a hot Saturday afternoon.

I brought out a couple of budget single malts from Gordon and MacPhails – the Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky 8-year-old from the Bunnahabhain distillery and the Orkney Single Malt Scotch Whisky 8-year-old from the Highland Park Distillery. I also trotted out some Pappy Van Winkle 20-year-old (not pictured) – so it wasn’t an entirely budget tasting.

What my friend brought was much more interesting mainly because it it wasn’t something for sale anywhere at any price. He recently visited Scotland and had some personalized tours and meetings at distilleries – he brought out a very young, very much unfinished super peaty concoction that really isn’t meant to be drunk just yet – or frankly maybe ever. It sure was interesting though. And the other bottle he had was a 28-year-old from a northern Scotland distillery. Wow. Amazingly tasty. Sorry about the lack of eloquence, but that’s really all there is to say about that.

The afternoon was about hanging out in the late afternoon light, waiting for the breeze and sipping a few drams; not writing copious tasting notes trying to squeeze every last ounce of information from those few centiliters of whisky. In fact as much as I enjoy discussing a dram, more often then not, I would just prefer to enjoy a glass of whisky with a friend and have a good conversation – maybe about whisky, or our gardens, our scarce I say it  (politics) or who knows what. Given a choice between talking exclusively about a whisky for hours and talking with a friend (new or old) about a variety of topics, including whisky, I’ll choose the later every single time. It is simply more interesting.

That’s not saying I’m not super interested in whisky, I am of course, it’s just that like a good whisky, life needs balance and all whisky all the time makes Stewart a dull boy. And nobody likes a dull boy.There’ll be more front porch tastings in the future – and maybe there’ll even be tasting notes.

Update: The lineup for the first WhiskyRI Seminar and tasting to take place in August is almost settled. Stay tuned for more information on the date, time and place to buy tickets.

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