READERS’ PANEL WHISKY CHALLENGE


and one of our eight expert judges at this year’s Scottish Whisky Awards. The sight of ten tables, each with forty-five


sample bottles of whiskies and glasses was a daunting one – especially at ten-thirty in the morning. ‘It’s pretty intimidating’, Nicola Hancock said to me. ‘You don’t have to drink them all’, I reminded her. These initial fears were allayed by Darren and Julie, who both had some sound advice for our tasters. They suggested grouping the whiskies, by strength (the stronger whiskies create more bubbles after being shaken), leaving the stronger drams until the end, and by taste – keeping the peaty whiskies together for example. Armed with these words of wisdom our panel


set about choosing their favourite tipples amongst the vast array in front of them, which varied consid- erably in colour, strength, and price. Of course they had no idea which whisky was which – the fact that the whiskies are all blind tasted is integral to the credibility of the Scottish Whisky Awards. After a superb buffet lunch, kindly created


by the Scotch Whisky Experience kitchen, we got to the business end of the day, when the


‘For others the whisky unlocked vaults of pure creativity’


fifteen most popular whiskies went head to head for the three precious spaces in the grand final. Our readers were asked to spend more time with each whisky, and were encouraged to provide tasting notes. Judging by some of the reddening faces in the room, Julie’s advice to just nose the morning whiskies suddenly seemed extremely sensible. For others, however, the whisky unlocked


Clockwise from top left: Tim Mitchell contemplates another literary gem; Susan Hunter sniffs out the perfect dram; Beth Cameron getting into the spirit of the occasion; Tom Flannagan – deep in thought .


vaults of pure creativity, as demonstrated by this example from Tim Mitchell’s tasting notes: ‘The taste pushes you through a candyfloss door into a world of sherbert. The journey ends with a foam party on the tongue. If Roald Dahl made a whisky, this would be it’. By the end of the day, all of our ten readers were


exhausted, one or two were slightly inebriated, but they’d all had a thoroughly enjoyable experience. And together they had also chosen the three whis- kies to challenge for Whisky of the Year.


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