The North American Whiskey Tasting

Before we get too far past last weekend, I have to tell you about the North American Whiskey Tasting that our friends Bob and Inger hosted last Saturday.  I had heard that Bob was a connoisseur but I was amazed when I saw his collection of about fifty bottles of good to fantastic whiskey all arrayed on the kitchen counter.

This photo shows one third of what was laid out for us.

Bob is an engineer and approached the event in a scientific manner, arranging the bottles by type (Bourbon, Rye, Canadian) and supplying us with a list of all the offerings.    

We all made notes as we sipped tiny pours from bottles we selected. Several of the guests were also connoisseurs and made their selections in a very systematic way, but being a neophyte I choose my pours by the name of the whiskey or the bottle design.

I decided that the best name was Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve.

And the best bottle design was Blanton's Straight From the Barrel with its great racing horse topper.  

Lest you think that the tasting was totally lost on me, I assure you that I did actually notice differences between the whiskeys as I sampled them.  

And lest you think that we all ended up drunk by evening's end, I assure you that the pours were anywhere from a quarter inch to an inch and I don't think anyone tried more than ten or fifteen selections.   The drinking was paced with sampling from a delicious array of food that our hosts provided.  

I've never been to a whiskey tasking before and wasn't sure how I would like it.  But I had a great time and really enjoyed this "first" for me.