MIT Old and Rare Scotch Tasting

We finally made it happen!

I'd been really wanting to do another old and rare tasting with our friends from Gordon & MacPhail, an outstanding independent scotch bottler with whom I'd done a few tastings before. Through a lot of planning with Nick Taylor from Gordon's Liquors as well as Joe Swanson from G&M, we made it happen at Gordon's on August 17th, 2016.

Here's the lineup of what we tasted, along with 33 MIT alumni and guests:

• Benromach 10 Year
• Benromach 15 Year
• Speymalt Macallan 1998 17 Year
• Linkwood 21 Year
• Bladnoch 21 Year
• Highland Park 24 Year
• Glen Grant 1954 58 Year

That's 166 years of whisky maturation in one evening!

I was super excited to have a 58-year-old whisky, as that's the oldest whisky I've ever tried. It was fantastic, and still had a youthfulness that I hadn't seen in other old whiskies. It was a nice surprise.

We asked folks what their favorite whisky of the evening was, and the room was pretty evenly split across the last five whiskies. I personally really enjoyed the Linkwood; it's a distillery I've only ever had one other bottling from (that was by Signatory) and this one seemed really creamy and full-bodied to me, but the flavor was still fruity and fresh enough to work really well with the warm weather we've been having.

The highlight of the night for me, though, is always the people. Joe and Nick did a great job leading the tasting, and my favorite part was getting to meet my fellow MIT alumni and talk about whisky and life. Very much looking forward to seeing familiar faces - and meeting new ones - at future events!

MIT Madeira Tasting Recap

This is a follow-up to my previous post about the MIT Club of Boston Madeira tasting, held 6/16/16 at Gordon's Liquors in Waltham, MA.

The reason it took me so long to actually post something about it is that I'M STILL REELING FROM THE AWESOMENESS.

If I wasn't a total lover of Madeira before that event, I was after it. All the bottlings were excellent, with my favorite value Madeira being the Rare Wine Company Savannah Verdelho, and my favorite vintage Madeira being...you guessed it, the 1875 D'Oliveira Malvasia. That wine was absolutely stunning. It almost brought me to tears. It broke me down into my constituent atoms, and then reconstructed me a better person.

To try to reduce the tasting notes to words feels almost shameful, but it really made me feel like I was deep in a cellar or some old earthen catacomb, sipping the last of something that is all too rare.

I'm hoping to do another old Madeira tasting but these things take a while to put together, due to the fairly complex supply chain. Stay tuned if you're interested...

On a personal note, I got to meet a lot of great folks at the event whom I would not have met at one of my scotch tastings. Looking forward to getting to know them - and Madeira - even better!