This year I have unfortunately missed 2 out of the 4 Flavour Camps days, which is 4 classes out of 16; but I was not about to miss this one.
Our Whisky Muse and guru, Reese is permanently moving to Calgary. She says she will be back and forth to Vancouver to host future Flavour Camps in 2025, but it just won’t feel the same to not have her in the city.
So I made sure to make myself available for this weekend’s American Whiskey and Single Malt Whisky sessions. Both of which I had attended during previous camps, but done with different whiskeys. So it always feels like a new adventure, and even more so today as she has restructured the classes.
Instead of speaking so heavily on each individual bottle and their background, the focus for today’s classes are all about why each spirit tasted the way it did through the distilling and ageing process. Coupled with tips on how to discern each using their over arching Flavour Camp category, then dissecting them further with secondary and third Camps to truly identify. So instead of just the lone tasting and trying to figure out what Flavour Camps you are having to guess what bottle is which. You already have the Flavour Camps for each bottle, so after figuring out if it is either smoky, candied, or green in Camp, you then boil it down to what other notes there are, in order to better discern what it is you are tasting.
However, what seemed like a great method and had me feeling confident in my guesses, still saw me falling short on the correct answers. Thankfully this is meant to be
a fun activity, so you don’t lose anything by making mistakes.
I won’t be going into great detail on each sample or going over what makes up an American whiskey or a single malt. That you can reference from any of my previous posts Flavour Camp review posts. Instead, I will offer my learnings, fun facts about the brands, and that we tried.
I always say that these classes are a creative way to drink. Great value for the amount of liquor you get to try, from brands you may not otherwise purchase to. And often this selection includes limited releases or sub category casks. Today there was a bottle that was not even released yet.
This was the Glenmorangie 12 year old, meant to replace the 10 year old on market, caring on the same price point. So basically you are getting two additional years of ageing for what should be a better quality product, at the same cost you would pay for a 10 year old.
I was especially impressed with the single malt tasting as it included several 12 year old age statements, and even a 15 year old Bowmore. All of which were over valued at over $120 per bottle. And for that alone you are getting your value’s worth for ticket price.
These classes are more fun to do with a group of friends, to work through each tasting sharing thoughts and creating discussions. You have the ability to go back and forth to compare and contrast, to change your answers as needed. Like the best open book test you have ever taken.
I also love that each class has its own personality and Reese always goes out of her way to surprise each. For those who signed up for the 12pm American whiskey tasting class, you were rewarded with a goodie bag from Jack Daniels. This included a shot glass, a miniature bottle of Jack Daniels Black Label, and a braided T-shirt. I was most excited for the swag to wear.
For the 2:30pm single malt class we were treated to a Tim HORTON’S chocolate chip cookie. This was playing off of Reese’s online campaign to pair cookies with single malts as an alternative wine and cheese pairing. This definitely made for some additional excitement in the room.
The best part of each session is the reveal. We go over the answers as a whole. It is always a good time, celebrating the correct ones and/or moaning over the mistakes.
Is short, another consistently great Flavour Camp, and I am so glad she will be continuing to host these in town, for those like myself, who are her day one fans. She revealed that next year she will be working on a premium whisky tastings with higher end bottles. This, I will definitely be interested in attending, seeing as I most likely will not be purchasing such bottles for myself.
