Toronto Whisky Society’s Inaugural Feather’s Night

last night was the inaugural Toronto Whisky Society meet-up (not that we called ourselves that back then… more of a /r/canadawhisky subreddit meetup), and we had a big crowd out at the Feathers Pub in Toronto! had a great group come out around 8 and i think we stayed till 12:30ish. everyone had a bunch of drams and from what i could tell, a really good time! big thanks to the following guys for coming out!

Here are the Drams I tried that night and an album of the pictures

Littlemill 8 – 43%

Appearance: pale straw, somewhat gold-ish
Nose: pears, very floral, red apples, honey
Taste: more pears and honey, vanilla, some oak
Finish: short, sweet, kind of boring
Rating: 73
found this a little boring. I wouldn’t buy it again.

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Mortlach 8 Cadenheads CS – 62.5%

Appearance: one of the palest drams I’ve ever seen. Almost no colour.
Nose: lots of honey, somewhat grainy.
Taste: very light, fruity, no heat for cask strength, some berries
Finish: long and sweet. A little acidic
Rating: 82
very enjoyable, not what I expected at all though from descriptions of Mortlach.

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Clynelish 10 Douglas Laing – 50%

Appearance: very pale again (love these IB offerings with no colour!) thick legs.
Nose: honey, graham crackers, oak, apricot, dried fruit, pineapple
Taste: molasses, honey, sweet fruit
Finish: short and sweet, a little musty
Rating: 76
another one with too much honey/sweetness. Moving on from these soon. It was tasty but I think I was biased against sweet drams at this point.

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Bruichladdich 16 Bordeaux Cuvee A – 46%

Appearance: looks exactly like Tim Horton’s Peach Drink, I pointed it out right away. Everyone around the table thought that was funny, but some of you non-Canadians might not get the reference 😛
Nose: lots of sweet notes, berries, strawberry, definite winey characteristics
Taste: tobacco smoke wow! Berries again. Pretty hot for 46%. Some oak.
Finish: smoky, sweet, delicious.
Rating: 86
a very unique and tasty dram, but not what I expected from Bruichladdich!

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Laphroaig 10 1999 Murray McDavid – 46%

Appearance: pale yellow
Nose: smoke, peat
Taste: tons of smoke, not much else.
Finish: smoke, peaty.
Rating: 81
tasty but kind of disappointing that it’s really very similar to the standard 10yr

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Ardbeg 9 Provenance – 43%

Appearance: super pale again. Love it
Nose: earthy peat, sugary, briney salt
Taste: sweet peat, salty, honey, light smoke
Finish: long and smoky with that saltiness just staying on the tongue.
Rating: 87
I like it. Does taste young and actually reminds me more of talisker with the saltiness

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Talisker 11 1988 Douglas Laing – 50%

Appearance: very pale yellow
Nose: sweet salt, bananas! Salty peat
Taste: bananas again, cinnamon wow! Salt and pepper, holy shit this is amazing.
Finish: wow, long, smoky, salty, spicy
Rating: 92
I was blown away by just a small sip, asked the server if I could get a dram… NOOOOO! My buddy had finished the bottle AND they had none in reserve either! This is the best Talisker I’ve ever had and I’ll be looking for it at auction in the future.

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Longrow 10 – 46%

Appearance: yellow gold
Nose: light peat smoke, briney
Taste: salty, peppery, peaty, smoky
Finish: long and salty
Rating: 86
tasty. Big step up from the last C-town I’d had!

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Cragganmore 1990 Murray McDavid

Appearance: pale straw
Nose: very light, floral, honey
Taste: very oaky, ex bourbon cask is apparent. Mustard? Weird. Bit floral and spicy too.
Finish: very spicy and long too
Rating: 83
this was enjoyable. Glad I ate food before it or I’d have felt it boring I think compared to the peaty drams earlier.