Drew and Rebecca hosted the evening for the third straight year at their beautiful home with a freshly remodeled kitchen. Well, part of it anyway. The wood feature is great! Donna was kind enough to post some video of Todd, master of ceremonies, cutting the haggis on our Facebook page for the club. Slacking as I am right now (just posted two for December and a week late on this one) I am posting my notes on the evening's selection of the water of life. 

*Timrous Beastie Blended Malt  47% ABV  (Highland Whiskies)
     -smelled a tinge rubbery
     -tasted rubbery with pepper and slight sweet
     -tinge of smoke
     -with water smelled lighter rubber
     -tasted oaky with slight sweet
     -trailed oak
     For a Blended Malt (a blend of single malts, no other grain whiskies) this was disappointing. I always point to Johnny Walker Green as a barometer for Blended Malts. It has much more than this whisky delivered. 

     My sweetheart wife bought me a bottle of Dalwhinnie 15yr and a Dewars 12yr for Christmas. The first was to replace my dwindling supply and the second was a curiosity. Here is what it tasted like to me:

*Dewars 12 yr Double Aged 40% ABV
     -smelled sweet vanilla
     -tasted oaky with slight port wine sour
     -trailed peppery oak and wine
     -with water smelled sour wood, almost rubbery
     -tasted peppery wood and trailed quickly
     -after a few minutes-tasted oak
     Water ruined this blend. It removed any sweetness. Not much to this. 

     Todd and Greg did an excellent job of preparing a multi-course meal which we all enjoyed! Our annual December gathering is growing steadily and we hope to see more club members as time goes on. Of course we did not have a tasting but I did write down some notes on a whisky I have had before. 
     Alyson was not able to make the meeting, unfortunately, and missed out on the bag of goodies Todd brought especially for her. We tried out the pictured stuff. I will call it stuff. I believe the bag was left on the table at the end of the evening, never to be seen again. It was almost full as well. 

*Laphroaig Cairdeas  51.3% ABV
     -smelled of peat smoke with slight sweet
     -tasted peaty with sweet in the middle
     -peat seemed to offset the bitter at the end of the port taste
     -with water smelled smokey wood
     -tasted peppery with wood/peat
     -trailed peat smoke
     Water took away the sweetness but dulled the smokiness and made it almost a Speyside (but with peat smoke).