Bruichladdich Day had a Hawaii Five-O theme, with Laddie Five-O celebrating Jim McEwan’s 50th year in the whisky business! A themed day! Fantastic, let’s get involved!
Now, how does one go about dressing as Hawaii Five-O?… 1970s suits?… It struck us that there was another Hawaii-based investigator with a fantastic theme tune who would provide some much more satisfying fancy dress…
Looking good.
Getting in on the act. (These ladies can grow moustaches that are almost as good as Michael’s and my own!)
Our Caol Ila cask on wheels went down a storm (with almost everybody), spreading the That Boutique-y Whisky Company love and plenty of whisky too!
There was quite a crowd to negotiate…
Luckily Michael’s driving is coming along nicely.
This chap couldn’t wait to find a glass so he drank out of one of our leaflets! #lacquersealed
Laddie Five-O Feis Ile 2013 – 47.7% abv
This year’s festival bottling from Bruichladdich, Laddie Five-O, is a tribute to Jim McEwan for an impressive “50 years of whisky creation”. A vatting of various selected vintages, 700 bottles have been released.
Tasting Note for Laddie Five-O Fèis Ìle 2013
Nose: Sweet barley, yellow and green Wine Gums, hints of corn and raspberry. A little grist develops with butterscotch and Kettle chips.
Palate: White pepper and pear skin.
Finish: Slight saltiness and light fruit tang.
Overall: A tasty Bruichladdich. Sláinte Jim!
We were also able to taste a Bruichladdich 15 Year Old (1st Edition) courtesy of Simon Roser from Simply Whisky (drummer extraordinaire).
Tasting Note for Bruichladdich 15 Year Old (1st Edition) (46%)
Nose: Summer fruits and masking tape, just a hint of ashtray and some fruit syrup of some kind…
…then this happened:
Boom
My new best thing. Video courtesy of our Maltstock friends – I had no idea it was being taken at the time!
The cigars were Partagas Serie D No.4s, the ones Richard Paterson used to pair his reinvented Dalmore Cigar Malt with – perhaps not the perfect accompaniment for the Bruichladdich 15 Year Old, although it brought those summer fruit notes right back to the fore, delicious stuff. We also had some Botanist G&Ts. Yummy.
These lucky guys found a message in a bottle washed ashore on Islay!
I came up with an idea a little while back for a new sport, which I thought would keep us amused. Whilst watching a video of Jim McEwan showing Oz Clark and James May around the distillery, he explains to them the history of the quadruple distilled X4 dating back to 1695 (“If you take one teaspoon-full you’ll live forever, two teaspoon-fulls you’ll go blind, three your heart will stop.”) and pours them a sample from a tiny cask. A tiny cask not unlike the ones that we sell on the site.
I decided that these would lend themselves to being bowling balls almost as well as well as they lend themselves to maturing spirits and envisioned that we could use some cans of XXXX (4X) as pins (see what I did there?). Unfortunately, XXXX was withdrawn from the UK back in 2009, so we had to make do with an actual bottle of Bruichladdich X4 (bottled at 50%) and some priceless Malt Mill new-make*.
Let’s just hope everybody bowls in a soft and controlled fashion…
The X4 Barrel Bowling Team sporting their Tour T-Shirts (find out how to win one here!)
Some of the bowling was a little wayward (at least the bottles were safe!)
Michael ‘Twinkle Toes’ Vachon also had a FEW problems
Whilst Ben’s technique of not having the cask touch the ground before the pins was cause for debate…
…but was undoubtedly effective!
Yours truly opened with a bowl between his legs (pins fell) followed by possibly the best bowl in X4 Bowling history (yet somehow one pin was left standing!?)
Then this happened. Game over.
Good game, time for a celebratory drink (of Bowmore Feis Ile 2013 for some reason…).
X4 Barrel Bowling: The sport of champions.
Tasting Note for Bruichladdich X4 (50%) (some survived)
Nose: Lemon zest and pink grapefruit juice. Orange, lemon and lime zest. Salt dough, lemon custard, possibly candy sticks too.
Palate: Tangerine and Orangina.
Finish: Orange peel.
Overall: Interesting.
The Bruich-Lads… but where is Higgins? – (…can you spot Peaty?)
Book ‘em Danno
This just in: we’ve discovered today that some bottles have washed back ashore. Follow us on Twitter @masterofmalt for more explicit information, and don’t forget the Treasure Map!
Treasure Map
*Okay, okay, we’re only joking. Please read our last blog post Feis Ile: Day 1 (Lagavulin) – Master of Malt Mill
Jake
