Minutes generic - Norwegian Scotch Malt Whisky Society

MINUTES from meeting #29
The evening commenced at 8 p.m. and ended at 1.30 a.m.

The Whisky of the Night, Dalwhinnie, dist. 1981, Double Matured, Single Highland Malt, Special Release, D. SD. 312 limited edition (43%).

The Whisky of the Night was not to be confused with the more known, and previously tasted and tested Dalwhinnie, which also was put on the table by the host for comparison.

The Dalwhinnie distillery was founded in 1897 and is still operating. It is the highest distillery in Scotland, midway between Perth and Inverness and situated at 326m/1073ft. It is in a glen with the Monadhlaith Mountains on the one side, the Forest of Atholl, the Cairngorms and the Grampians to the other. Dalwhinnie is Gaelic for "meeting place" and the village stands at the junction of old cattle-droving routes from the west and north down to the markets of Crieff and Falkirk in the Central Lowlands.

Dalwhinnie is a barren and isolated spot and has, for instance, to be completely self-contained. It has a special hostel for catering for staff when blizzards or torrents cut them off from their homes.

Much whisky smuggling went on along this route. In front of the distillery is the river Truim, one of several that feed the Spey though it takes its water from the Allt an t'Sluic burn. The Dalwhinnie distillery was founded by James Buchanan and called Strathspey when it opened in 1897. Buchanan became well known for his "Buchanan" and "Black & White" blends. Stretching a point the distillery can regard itself as being on Speyside, though it is 5 miles or more from the beginning of the dense distillery country to the north. Dalwhinnie was damaged by fire in 1934 and reopened in 1938. The distillery also serves as a meteorological observation point and every day the distillery manager treks, wades or slides across the lawn to the 'Stevenson Screen' to record the day's observations.

Their water comes from the Allt an t'Sluic spring, bedded in granite and which feeds the Spey. James Buchanan used Dalwhinnie as the core malt of the Buchanan's and Black & White blended whiskies. Like many other distilleries the current management will stress the traditional wooden washbacks and distinctive lye pipes leading from the tops of the stills.

Other Whiskies were served and the members allocated points accordingly (listed above).

Whiskies
1. Glen Ranoch - special reserve, Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky (40%)
2. Tomatin - Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky, 10 yrs, Tomatin distillery (40%)
3. Miltonduff, Highland Malt Whisky, Single Malt Whisky (43%) (Glenlivet)

In addition to the host's notes on the whisky of the night, Vivienne B. Knowles gave the following speech:
The terminology of whisky continues to be refined and developed by the experts. Language is itself an evolving and imprecise science, but Pentland's achievement is to have defined a universal vocabulary, based as far as possible upon scientific and analytical foundations.

Hugh Macdiarmid, the greatest Scottish poet of modern times and himself a devotee of Scotch, wrote:
I have little patience with the psuedo-poetical attempts to describe the differences in flavour of various malts. It was once explained to me..'Scotch whiskies are like an orchestra. The Islay malts are heavy and sombre as cellos. Highland malts are violas. Lowlands the discursive violin, and grains are like pianos - sometimes fortissimo, sometimes pianissimo.' But such efforts are futile. You can only know any or all of them by actually drinking them.'

The NSMWS collectively agreed with that statement.

Among the other topics for the evening, were codpieces and fragmentary visual artistry.

Synopsis written by Mr. Bjaarstad