As we advertised we had our first open tasting on the 18th of March, It was not desigend as a big event or anything that might be too complex for a whisky novice.
The venue was a local club and comprised of 3 tables in the corner of a room where the participants sat and shared the evening.

The theme for the tasting was “south to north” which comprised of 4 bottles from a private collection:
* Penderyn SherryWood
* Jura 10 Year old
* The Macphail’s Collection GlenTurret
* Glenfiddich 14 year Rich Oak

We had 4 participants and 2 members of the MaltGeeks Crew in the evening, when at one point a member of the Club came to inquire to our satisfaction and ended with a dram on Jura in his hand(he did not protest too hard).

For some of the participants this was the first “tasting” event – they have drank whisky before but have not done the complete process of evaluating a dram by colour, aroma, palate and adding water.

We had some mixed reviews and favorites of the night, however the “winner” of the evening or I should say the favorite of most was the Penderyn.

All in all it was a good evening, and we might consider doing another withing a month.

World Whisky Day Is Just 2 month away , to be held on the 18th of May, We at MaltGeeks are very happy about this event and will enjoy it each in our own way.
As We will be unable to participate in a large event on the day we will be hosting a more modest event on the 18th of March in the Cotterells Club in Hemel Hempstead ,182 Cotterells, Hemel Hempstead HP1 1JW .

This will be a small event with a short selection for tasting and sampleing.

For more information contact assi@maltgeeks.com .

On the weekend of the 19th of may two members of the Maltgeeks group went to the Whisky Lounge annual event in Stratford Upon Avon for some whisky fun.

The venue was nice and intimate in size, with 16 stands all around with the SMWS holding the centre of the room and commanding the respect and attention as entitled to them by any whisky lover.
We sampled many drams (mostly new things we have not tried before , but also some old and familiar friends) during the visit and enjoyed some surprises (for better and for worse) from the ones we did not know.
This is the list of the items we tasted ,We might provide sampling notes later :

We debated if we should sign up to the scotch Malt Whisky society(SWMS) but the price was a bit too high at the time , though we did agree that it is something we have to do in the future.

When we left it was with high spirits and a joyous step, and not just from the golden nectar flowing in our veins.

World Whisky Day
This is a good thing that needs as much exposure as we can give it, We of the MaltGeek group have volunteered to write an article for this event, and are also contemplating on making an event… more on that to come!

I first learned about campfire from a posting in Whisky Isreal blog , and thought I might give it a try .
The event was held in a nice location although if you are not local – finding was a bit of a quest ( hidden in a office complex behind a pub ) As i am reading the “Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy” now – i thought that the only thing missing was the “beware the Leopard” sign to make it complete.

The evening itself started very nice with a good atmosphere , with wine and 12 Yrs Glenfiddich for a warm up. A lot was written about this dram so I will skip on …
Jamie’s story was a very light and flowing , and keeping and interesting pace while finding the common thread of Glenfiddich in his life , and during the story we were presented with a dram of the 15 Yrs Glenfiddich . Again an age old dram that the is worldly known , so i will skip describing it too !

When the presentation of Jaime’s ended we were presented with the star dram of the evening :

Glenfiddich 14 years Rich Oak , Personally i thought the first image of the bottle (presented as a wood carving) was much more appealing then the actual bottle , but I guess it was not a good way to sell .

We’ll start of with the color : The Dram has a light gold ( almost honey hue) with faint traces of almonds , and in some lightings it has the hue of a light rust on a thin sheet of metal – all in all a good color and very promising .
The swirl in the glass is very smooth and leave nice light silky legs on the rim .
Nose : The first scent is a very sharp and hiding many of the properties , once you let your nose settle into it the currents of Vanilla , Peppers , Caramel and a Dry leaves emerge to give a nice lingering sensation in the nose.

Taste : The dram rolls very smoothly in the mouth and leaves some unfamiliar feeling in this “young” Glenfiddich dram , it’s presence on the palette is very light and easy , no burn on the back of the mouth and no after burn going down in the stomach . Once it clears the mouth there are traces of Caramel, Almonds , Cream and an oily feeling that leaves you wondering what it is hiding.
No Tasting will be complete with out adding a splash of water , so that is what i did and was very much surprised at the results :
Color : To my surprise the water had no effect on the color , but it did make the swirl become even smoother .
Nose : Again not much change , but an emerging scent that creeps out of the altered dram is of soft Klin dust with a pine over tone.
Taste : The water gives this Dram the little push it needed for the nice burn it was lacking before , and that kick is dominated with a flavor of peppers coming out in force ( relatively) to compliment the others .

All in all a very nice dram from Glenfiddich , and one I am happy to have experienced as it differs from the regular path of the Glenfiddich ( to me ) .