Contained within these pages is all the information on the whiskies tasted by the Society at its Tasting Meetings. Tastings are listed starting with the most recent. All tastings are blind tastings unless otherwise noted. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the link to our first year of tastings. Rating System Used for Tastings starting 10-20-14 to present. The scores shown for each tasting represent the average of the individual members' scores given each whisky. Individual member scores are not reported. In an attempt to better assess each whisky, our club recently voted to adopt a revised rating system. The Ones to Avoid Range 0 - 49 Nothing short of absolutely vile. 50 - 64 Nasty and worth avoiding. The Disappointing/Ho-Hum Range 65 - 69 Thoroughly unimpressive 70 - 74 Drinkable, but that's about it The OK/Good Range 75 - 79 Average, pleasant, but not without some flaws/negatives 80 - 84 Good whisky - pleasant, enjoyable, and worth buying The Great Ones Range 85 - 89 Very good 90 - 93 Excellent The Off-the-Chart-Bottles Range 94-97 Superstar whisky 98 - 100 Hall of Famer - One of the best I've ever tasted! 41st Tasting (6-10-17)
Theme - Island
Whiskies and New England Oysters Host: Hugh Our 41st tasting was a reprise of last year's oysters and scotch tasting but with different whiskies and some different oysters. This time all our oysters were New England oysters and all our whiskies were Island whiskies (Islay included). We chose three different types of New England oysters for the evening, four different single malts and one blended malt. For this tasting, unlike all our normal tastings, we did not do a blind tasting of the whiskies). We did not rate all of the whiskies (we only rated the three whiskies our group had not tasted before as a group) or each whisky and oyster pairing specifically. Instead, each member received their five whiskies at the beginning of the tasting and explored each type of oyster with each of the different whiskies as those chose to. Unlike our oyster and scotch tasting last year, this year's whiskies were all peated. The group's consensus was that the Island whiskies with their maritime notes and smokiness paired better with the oysters than did last year's non-peated whiskies tasted. Once again it was a very interesting evening! Oysters Tasted:
Whiskies Tasted:
40th Tasting (4-23-17) - Theme: Host: Mario Our 40th tasting was generated and inspired by the Spring 2017 issue of Whisky Advocate. While every issue of Whisky Advocate is packed with great articles and lots of great whisky reviews, this particular issue featured an article discussing different oaks by Jake Emen. The article discussed five different oaks used in barrels for aging. While most whisky enthusiasts are familiar with American (Quercus alba) oak, Spanish/European (Quercus robur),an Limousin (Quercus petrae) oak, the article also discussed two less familiar oaks, Mizunara (Quercus mongolica) and Garryana (Quercus garryana). As we all know much of the flavor of whisky comes from the barrels it's aged in and Emen ended the article with suggestions about whiskies to try to experience the different woods. We decided to take his advice and put together a tasting using four of his suggestions and one our host Mario wanted to try. By the end of the evening felt that the trip to the woods was definitely an experience to savor. The ratings and tasting notes below tell the story. Kudos to Emen and Whisky Advocate, the recommendations were spot on! Whiskies Tasted:
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