Vatting lesson #1: Islay dominates anything it touches. That's what I learned from vatting Clynelish and Caol Ila 50-50 last night. The result smelled like Caol Ila, and it tasted like Caol Ila. I really couldn't detect any of the Clynelish in the blend, even though Clynelish is hardly an unassertive malt. My purpose in doing this was to see how the vatting compares to Compass Box Eleuthera, and the clear answer is that Eleuthera was both better and more complex. With Eleuthera, one could pick up elements from both Clynelish and Caol Ila. With my vatting, I could not. The moral of the story, I think, is that if you want to combine a Highlands Scotch and an Islay one and get elements from both, you need a lot more of the Highlands Scotch than of the Islay. Perhaps I will repeat the experiment with a 75-25 ratio.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Last Night's Tipple
Vatting lesson #1: Islay dominates anything it touches. That's what I learned from vatting Clynelish and Caol Ila 50-50 last night. The result smelled like Caol Ila, and it tasted like Caol Ila. I really couldn't detect any of the Clynelish in the blend, even though Clynelish is hardly an unassertive malt. My purpose in doing this was to see how the vatting compares to Compass Box Eleuthera, and the clear answer is that Eleuthera was both better and more complex. With Eleuthera, one could pick up elements from both Clynelish and Caol Ila. With my vatting, I could not. The moral of the story, I think, is that if you want to combine a Highlands Scotch and an Islay one and get elements from both, you need a lot more of the Highlands Scotch than of the Islay. Perhaps I will repeat the experiment with a 75-25 ratio.
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