[MM-MALTS-L] Australian Malt Whisky Competition

Fri Nov 7 22:47:33 CET 2008

Hi Davin and Hans

The competitors are at the mercy of the person who sets the list. There were
two finished whiskies on the list - the Balvenie Double Wood (has claims to
be the original finished whisky) and the Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban.  

All the whiskies are OBs (official distillery owner releases) and were
widely available in Australia.

Sometimes there are more differences between finishes from the same
distillery than malts from different distilleries, usually because they are
using very similar raw materials and wood regimes.

You could make these competitions almost impossible just by putting Aberlour
10, Strathisla 12, Balvenie Double Wood, Dalwhinnie 15 and Tamdhu NAS on the
table.  Even if there were no red herrings, I'd need to practice for quite a
while to get more than 2 right.

Craig Daniels

Chairman

Malt Whisky Society of Australia

Organisers of Australia's Fourth Malt Whisky Convention Hobart 28-30 August
2009 

  _____  

From: mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net [mailto:mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net]
On Behalf Of Davin de Kergommeaux
Sent: Friday, 7 November 2008 11:26 PM
To: MaltManiacs operated former 'MALT-L' Whisky List
Subject: Re: [MM-MALTS-L] Australian Malt Whisky Competition

Yes Craig, good work,

Now that there are so many 'finished' malts on the market, have the key
markers for individual distilleries been blurred or do you guys just stay
away from finished whiskies?  

Davin 

2008/11/7 Wanders, Hans <hans.wanders at atosorigin.com>

Craig,
       Congratulations !. 4 out of 8 is a quit high score. Give me a
laphroaig and a dalwhine and i tell you wich is wich, but the malts you
figured out, man, a hell of a job. Congratulations, again and again

Hans wanders

-----Original Message-----
From: mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net

[mailto:mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net] On Behalf Of cdaniels
Sent: maandag 3 november 2008 0:07
To: 'MaltManiacs operated former 'MALT-L' Whisky List'
Subject: RE: [MM-MALTS-L] Australian Malt Whisky Competition

Hi Lex

The way it basically works is that one a competitor has registered and
paid the entry fee, the competition organizers release a list of 30
common commercially available OBs about 4 months before the Competition.

Ideally, in preparation for the competition I'd try and taste and
re-taste all the whiskies on the list.  However buying 30 bottles of
malt is beyond my pocket so I made sure that I bought and wrote notes
for the 'new'
whiskies on the list, basically those I didn't have any notes for.  I
memorize these notes as you're not allowed to take anything into the
competition with you other than what's in your head.

I ended up buying 12 and trusting 'palate memory' for the rest.

On the day they pick 10 names out of the 30 and then 8 of those end up
in numbered glasses on a tasting mat.

Having an extra two names makes things quite a bit more difficult as
some of the whiskies are very close in profile.

The reason for putting quite a lot of practice in beforehand is to try
and get what I call 'malt markers' for as many of the malts as possible.
To me, some whiskies have particular characteristics that help me
identify them and on the other hand some are either very bland or can be
chameleons that tend to take on different characteristics in different
company.

During the first round, there was only one that was a giveaway to an
experienced taster and that was the Bushmills 10. The grassy characters
made it stand out amongst a bunch of malt scotches.  The other one I was
pretty sure about was Glen Rothes Select Reserve - I get tinned peach
and pear syrup and found it on the day.  I was also pretty confident
about Johnnie Walker Green as there weren't any Islays on the table and
JWG has a hint of mustard cress and sterile bandages that suggests a
little bit of Islay in the vatting and my little bit of luck was working
out that Whisky Number 6 was Balvenie 12 and not Strathisla 12, which
are pretty close if you put them side by side. It's much harder to work
out which is which when one of them isn't there as you're only
referencing palate memory. I thought I'd found Glenlivet 12 but it was
actually Tamdhu NAS. Poured from the bottle and nosed straight away, I
wouldn't get them wrong, but if you let them sit for about 20-30 minutes
they do become similar as the slightly funky earthy note in Tamdhu burns
off and it gets much cleaner.

Two of us got 4 right. In the taste-off I got Bushmills 10 and
Glenmorangie
10 right and once again misidentified Tamdhu NAS as Glenlivet 12.

I've attached a link to the issue of Feints & Foreshots which has a
review of the Competition and an interview between myself and the Editor
of F&F.

http://www.mwsoa.org.au/web_images/FEINTS_AND_FORESHOTS%2024%20Sept.pdf

If the link doesn't work google www.mwsoa.org.au and search for Feints
and
Foreshots # 1 post Sept 2008 aka Edition #25.

Craig Daniels
Chairman
Malt Whisky Society of Australia
Organisers of Australia's Fourth Malt Whisky Convention Hobart 28-30
August
2009

-----Original Message-----
From: mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net
[mailto:mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net]
On Behalf Of Kraaijeveld A.R.
Sent: Sunday, 2 November 2008 8:08 PM
To: MaltManiacs operated former 'MALT-L' Whisky List
Subject: RE: [MM-MALTS-L] Australian Malt Whisky Competition

Congratulations, Craig! And yes, please fill us in on how it all went.

slainte, Lex
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fly, you greatest fool
Why can't you say what they want you to
Why can't you do what they taught you
And show what they wanted of you

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rivers of milk are running dry
Can't you hear the dolphins crying?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dr Alex R Kraaijeveld
Lecturer in Ecology & Evolution
School of Biological Sciences
University of Southampton
Building 62, Room 6031, Boldrewood Campus Southampton SO16 7PX
Tel: +44(0)23 80593436
Fax: +44(0)23 80594459
Email: arkraa at soton.ac.uk
Website: www.sbs.soton.ac.uk/staff/ark/ark.php
School Website: www.southampton.ac.uk/biosci

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

... men ought to be fully assured of the truth of the effect before they
venture to explicate the cause.
(Webster, 1677. The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
________________________________________
From: mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net [mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net] On
Behalf Of Davin de Kergommeaux [maltmaniacsdavin at gmail.com]
Sent: 01 November 2008 22:06
To: mm-malts-l at grsnet.net
Subject: [MM-MALTS-L] Australian Malt Whisky Competition

Does everyone know that among us we have the winner of the above-noted
competition?  Malts-L's own Craig Daniels won the competition earlier
this year, his second win as far as I know.  This is a competition where
malts are tasted blind and the winner is the person who guesses
correctly the largest number of originating distilleries.  It sounds
pretty intense - they have half an hour to sort them out and this year
had to do a run-off to break a tie.  Craig, if you're out there - care
to fill us in on the details?
Davin

p.s. - I'm deliberately asking this on Malts-L given the encouraging
rumbles a few weeks ago.

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