Today we were at a unique whisky tasting hosted by Whisky Cask curator Terri Lam, a prominent figure in Vancouver’s wine and spirit scene.
She is one of four specialists who are invited by Bruichladdich to host a handful of such tastings, this being her first. She curated it to be a gathering of women who are active in the whisky world, myself included.
The day’s agenda included tasting a classic and deeply peated whisky than discussion over lunch and dessert. It ended up being a causal affair, that felt like a gathering amongst friends, especially as Terri opened her home and entertaining space to us.
The session began with an educational piece where Terri spoke to her personal experiences. She enlightened us on the fact that where whisky is aged affects the end product, referencing quadruple distillation, which is not commonplace for Scottish whisky.
When the map came up on the screen, stories were told by those who have visited Islay, which was humorously described as a cold Caribbean with a poor transit system.
Our first taste was The Classic Laddie, an Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky. It is conceived, distilled, matured, and bottled by the Laddich Distillery. Laddich is known for their preference of bottling at a higher strength, typically 50%.
I got plenty of sweetness with honey and caramel on the nose. This was followed through with burnt sugar and butterscotch on the palate, with secondary notes of almond flower, green walnut, and dried apricot.
This we paired with a take out lunch from La Taqueria. Each guest placed our own individual orders of burritos and tacos, and then shared bags of their crispy thick cut tortilla chips with guacamole and pico de gallo.
I went rogue and ordered their Birriamen, which is basically the birria dip they use for their tacos, but as a broth for noodles instead. Jalisco style birria tatemada, birria broth, handmade noodles, diablo soft-boiled egg, pickled red onion, white onion, cilantro, and crispy birria taco. However, in the mix up I lost my aforementioned taco, just as well, as I was obsessed with the chips and ate more than my share anyways.
With our mains long forgotten we moved on to dessert and its pairing of the Octomore super peated whisky at 61%. This is an Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky made with Islay barley from local farms on the island. This super peated product is listed at over 300 parts per million (ppm), where it is typically 20-40ppm. “PPM” generally indicates a high concentration of a substance, which can be interpreted differently depending on the context (as per Wikipedia).
They have recently rebranded their bottles using B Corp certification, which decreases the weight of the bottle. And we had the old and new to compare.
The smell of the smokey peat was so pungent that I caught a whiff of it from two seats down. This was the strongest peated whisky that I have ever tried.
I got a lingering ashy flavour on the onset, with campfire smoke and burnt marshmallow in tow. It ends with salted plum, liquorice, and pickled dates. Best with a little water to open things up.
This was paired with a La Taqueria churro and its caramel dipping sauce. Both acted as a nice chase, cutting into the smoke with the richness of sugar and butter.
In closing, this was a lovely way to learn about a new and different whisky, in a cozy and casual setting. I am already looking forward to the next one.
