WHISKY LIVE FESTIVAL




I was invited by Brandhouse to join them at the Whisky Live festival to experience their Whisky Sensorium.
I am by no means a whisky expert, in fact I know/knew very little about it. I am more of a brandy drinker. 
So I decided it was about time to enter the world of whisky.





The Sensorium was divided into 4 “worlds” of flavours and the whiskies obviously categorised accordingly. 
Fresh. Rich. Vibrant. Bold.
For the amateur (me) this was very helpful to get a good overview of the different whisky styles and to figure out which whiskies fits where.
Another thing I enjoyed about how they presented their whiskies was the fact that they paired the blended whisky with the leading single malt of that blend. Let me explain, you’d taste the Johnnie Walker Black Label and then taste the Caol Ila single malt which is the lead whisky in the Black Label blend.
Similarly the Johnnie Walker Red label’s leading whisky is Talisker, the leading whisky of Bell’s Special Reserve is Singleton. 
So if you enjoy the popular whisky blends but want to move into the world of single malts then a good place to start is to find out what the lead whisky is in your favourite blend.

A few other random whisky facts:
  • Unlike wine & brandy, you are advised to add a bit of water
  • Bells Special reserve is the best value for money whisky blend (so I was told but I now agree)
  • White Horse is actually a great whisky (contrary to popular belief and what the branding suggests)
  • Whisky is the result of the distillation of base beer
  • The year on a bottle of whisky indicates the youngest barrel that went into that bottle

Hieronymus Brunschwig, 15th century doctor and distiller on making whisky from beer: It is “the separation of the gross from the subtle and the subtle from the gross…to make the spiritual lighter by its subtlety”