WHISKY


Blind date


After the success of last year’s inaugural event, the Scottish Field Readers’ Panel Whisky Challenge makes a welcome return


WORDS TIM SIDDONS IMAGES ANGUS BLACKBURN


other complete strangers spending a day in the same room blind-tasting forty-five whiskies? That’s exactly what happened on Friday 30


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Above: The readers’ panel from left to right: Jake Burton, Nicola Hancock, Tom Flannagan, Rosemary Cameron, Tim Mitchell, Susan Hunter, Ian Smith, Eric Dominy, Beth Cameron, Mark Kerr.


August when ten Scottish Field readers joined two whisky aficionados at the Scotch Whisky Experience on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile for the second Scottish Field Readers’ Panel Whisky Challenge. The event was devised as an oppor- tunity for ordinary lay men and women with an enthusiasm for whisky to get involved in our prestigious Scottish Whisky Awards, by choos-


146 WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK


n what circumstances would you find a Welsh golf professional, a former army bomb disposal expert, a farmer and seven


ing three drams to be considered by our expert judges in the grand final. The day was split into two: before lunch the


panel was to taste a whopping forty-five whis- kies, sent in by distilleries from across Scotland, with the aim of narrowing the field to a more manageable fifteen, which would be judged in more detail after lunch. It all kicked off with an excellent welcome speech from Janice John- ston, Scottish Field’s Whisky Project Manager, who also introduced the day’s expert guides, the Scotch Whisky Experience’s own Julie Trevisan Hunter and Darren Leitch, regional manager of The Whisky Shop in Edinburgh


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