Minutes generic - Norwegian Scotch Malt Whisky Society

MINUTES from meeting #37
The 37th meeting of the Norwegian Scotch Malt Whisky Society was held at the abode of Dr. Marc H.G. Berntssen.

The meeting was opened by an introduction of Dr. Berntssen on chill filtering of whisky and its taste. This in reference to the whisky of the evening, a non-chill filtered 13-year-old High land Park (43%). In addition a Balblair, 12 year (43%) was tasted. Mr Haldorsen found the explanation of the chill filtering process so confusing that he demanded, "We have to get to the bottom of this issue". Indeed, eventually we got to the bottom of the non-chilled filtered High Land Park by the end of the evening.

Secondly, the new "Tasting and Grading Guidelines" as well as the "Tasting Competition" draft proposals by Mr. Augestad were heavily scrutinised by the members present. Apart from finding several spelling mistakes, the members strongly suggested the following alterations to the original documents.
- To include the appropriate NSMWS title
- To include the aims of the NSMWS (see articles of the society)
- Score for super test should be set on 4 points
- There should be a biannual 1st Prize
- The prize should be a (tasteless, male syndrome like) symbol
- The super test should include; 2 single malts, 1 blend, and 1 VSOP cognac

It had to be said that the members were very content with the new cluster tasting compared to the earlier regional tasting. It was also pointed out that Mr. A Kårstad was expected to give his expectance speech on the 38th meeting. At this point Mr. Valland started to present two microscopic bottles of some obscure whiskies. By this low action Mr. Valland thought to pay his debt for to not presenting minutes to the meetings held at his abode many moons ago. However, as was noted in the minutes of the last AGM, the penalty for not presenting a minute to the meeting before the next meeting was to be a bottle of Single Malt Whisky "not to contain less than 0.7 litres of the genuine stuff". By this action Mr. Valland will be the first member to walk into the Hall of Shame.

Speech
Most malt whiskies are bottled from a marriage of several different casks. These big cask vattings are then chill-filtered and coloured with the addition of varying amounts of caramel before being bottled. Even whiskies that are not chill-filtered are normally bright-filtered. This high level of filtration is carried out for cosmetic reasons as it removes any possibility of cloudiness. Unfortunately, it also removes many of the natural fats, oils and flavours in the whisky which in turn removes a great deal of the individual character of a whisky as the esters, or flavour congeners, in the spirit tend to gather around these fats. The more a whisky is filtered therefore the greater the proportion of fats and esters are removed. And caramel has its own flavour, which is added to that of the whisky.