Tasting #47: The Whisky Hoop

by Saratoga Whiskey Club | Mar 12, 2020 | Tastings

Tasting #47: The Whisky Hoop

On Wednesday, February 19th, the Saratoga Whiskey Club held its 47th tasting as a club. The theme for this tasting was The Whisky Hoop Independent Bottlings. These bottles were brought back from Japan. The Whisky Hoop is a members-only independent bottler that sells mostly to Japanese bars. It was an incredible tasting.

The whiskies that we tasted included:

Talisker 6 Year
Arran 16 Year
Clynelish 23 Year
Glendronach 22 Year
Tobermory 11 Year
Bunnahabhain 4 Year

23 members were in attendance for this tasting.

Tasting #25 Recap: A Scotland Tour

by Saratoga Whiskey Club | Jan 9, 2019 | Tastings

Tasting #25 Recap: A Scotland Tour

On Wednesdays, October 24 and November 28, the Saratoga Whiskey Club had great tastings of bottles that were brought back from Scotland on the 9 Maple Scotland Tour in September. The Tour focused primarily on the Speyside and Upper Highlands region of Scotland. A total of 22 members took part in this tasting.

Here is a list of the whiskies we tasted:

Balblair ’91 – 27 year
The Singleton of Glen Ord – Distillery Exclusive – 14 Year
Gordon & MacPhail’s Glenturret 14 Year Shop Exclusive – Spirit of Speyside edition
The Arran Wee Double 10 Year
Aberlour Hand-Filled 13 Year Sherry
Tomatin Hand-Filled 16 Year Pedro Ximenez

For scores from the tasting, please go to Scores.

It was a fun tasting and a great recap of our Tour to Scotland.

Cheers!

Whisky Selection for Scotland Tour Tasting

Tasting #8 Recap: SMWS – Scotch Malt Whisky Society

by Saratoga Whiskey Club | May 30, 2017 | Tastings

Tasting #8 Recap: SMWS – Scotch Malt Whisky Society

The Saratoga Whisk(e)y Club had Tasting #8 on two nights, May 10 and May 24, 2017. The focus of the evening was a special selection of bottles from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. It was a great turnout of 23 members. We had four different whiskies at our tasting, three from the Speyside region and one from Arran. Here is a list of what we tasted:

We started with a Bell’s Lager of the Lakes
SMWS 7.133 ‘A Boiled Bag of Sweets’ – Longmorn 12 Year Old
SMWS 39.110 ‘Builders At Breaktime’ – Linkwood 14 Year Old
SMWS 121.89 “Sweet As A Nut’ – Isle of Arran 16 Year Old
SMWS 44.65 ‘Subtle Complexity’ – Craigellachie 24 Year Old

Overall it was a fantastic tasting with lots of special whiskies! This was our first time sampling some of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottles.

Please sign up for our quarterly newsletter if you are interested in learning about future tastings. Sometimes there are extra spaces available for non-members.

Here are some photos from the tasting.

Tasting #7 Recap: Scotland Islands (non-Islay)

by Saratoga Whiskey Club | Apr 28, 2017 | Tastings

Tasting #7 Recap: Scotland Islands (non-Islay)

The Saratoga Whisk(e)y Club had Tasting #7 on two nights, April 12 and April 26, 2017. The focus of the evening was Scotch single malts from the islands around Scotland, excluding Islay (since we did this in December 2016). It was a great turnout of 30 people. We had five different whiskies at our tasting and did a journey around Scotland as we started with the island of Arran and worked our way up to the Orkney Islands. Here is a list of what we tasted:

We started with a Belhaven Scotch Ale
Arran Smuggler’s Series: The Illicit Stills, Volume I
Arran Smuggler’s Series: The High Seas, Volume II
Montgomerie’s Rare Cask Select Tobermory 21 Year Old
Talisker 18 Year Old
Gordon & MacPhail Highland Park 15 Cask Strength

Overall it was a fantastic tasting with lots of special whiskies! In the future we do plan to go to Scotland and do this trip visiting the islands on the west coast and ending in the Orkney Islands. 2018!

Please sign up for our quarterly newsletter if you are interested in learning about future tastings. Sometimes there are extra spaces available for non-members.

Here are some photos from the tasting.