Q Haute ‘World of Scotch’

A run over 9 scotches over @ Kensington Wine Market with Alex. Some initial (and very personal mind you) tasting notes to plan the menu off:

Nikka Coffey Malt (love)
– vanilla, cherry, very aromatic, bourbon
– sweet, light, vanilla
thoughts during/afterwards: this is for dessert, oh man this smells so good…

Nikka Miyagikyo 15y (good)
– smokey, honey, pancake syrup
– medium, smoke/peat wall with rolling sweetness afterwards
thoughts during/afterwards: smells smokey… hi there peat wall, oh that rich sweetness is nice

Glasgow Compass (meh)
– austere, peaty, hot sake aroma
– peat, intense attack, light
thoughts during/afterwards: shochu? no sake… hot sake? surprisingly light for how hard it bites

Compass The Lost Blend (meh)
– dusty underground wine cellar, light peat
– oak vanilla is a major flavour, medium, similarities with miyagikyo
thoughts during/afterwards: that wine cellar tour in cote du beaune under the church… oak comes off like stags’ leap petit syrah, just on a whiskey level

GlenDronach 2003 (good)
– almond syrup, aromatic, candied pecan
– intense attack, quick fade into sweet nutty notes
thoughts during/afterwards: smells gentle, nope its not, there it goes

GlenDronach 1993 KWM Cask 1625 (love)
– oloroso sherry
– rich, intense, tongue numbing alcohol, almost comes off tannic
thoughts during/afterwards: 100% oloroso sherry, jesus fuck what abv is this?

Kavalan Solist Vinho (love)
– maple candied nuts
– medium, sweet finish
thoughts during/afterwards: similar to 2003.. but more polished

Machir Bay (meh)
– vegetal (dark green eg: asparagus), newish car
– soft rich texture
thoughts during/afterwards: how many times will I smell this before I can write something down… plastic..? new car? and vegetables?

Kilchoman 100% Islay 4th edition (meh)
– subdued, tight, litterbox mix, stale kibble / bag opened for a long time
– light and bitter
thoughts during/afterwards: after the other 8 this has almost no aroma (by comparison) should I write dog food? is this dogfood… more like litterbox — thats almost worse.

Jeff Dixon

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September 25, 2020 at 10:13 AM

Not sure how long this tasting was or if there was some sort of palate/sensory resets between tasting, but do you ever wonder if they changed the order would you have the same opinions/thoughts. If the Kilchoman was first, this would have been your frame of reference for the rest and the lack of aroma would not have been a thought.

I find many times after too many tasting of whatever without some sort of reset tends to drown out at the end. I always enjoyed the tasting at Q given there was always amazing food to reset your palate before the next tasting occurred.

Josh
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Author

September 25, 2020 at 3:01 PM

The tastings are usually a couple hours, there is a soft reset with water between them. I’d say each whiskey is given about 20(+/- 10m depending)

The order of how things are tasted is a huge influence on how the menus form, how the whiskeys present themselves, and how likeable they are. I’ve found that it’s best to do peaty last, because the peaty flavor lingers for hours (especially in something heavily peated like Bruichladdich Octomore) and is really hard to get rid of.

Usually we’ll go through and organize the whiskeys (based on aroma and assumption of flavor) from lightest to heaviest, unpeaty to peaty.

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