Whiskey Tasting-- Anyone??

A day before my 23rd B’day my super boss offered me an interesting proposition. He forwarded me an invite to a whiskey-tasting session from a famous whisky baron, from Scotland. At first I though he had sent the mail as an error, but on having cross-checked some 4 times, he really did want me to experience the fine joy of whiskey tasting. All excited and perked up to know what whiskey is all about, I exited office, only to have my boss call me back and say “I don’t want you back…drunk in my office”…Meekly I replied with a affirmative no…..not knowing how he’d expect me to be sober after the intoxicating ordeal…

I reached the venue and was seated in a bar, 3 people representing the PR firm (that handles the whiskey brand ) sat me down and told me about the company and man behind the same. Soon after a man in Scottish kilt appeared with little knobs of wood and barrels in his hand…and then we started…

So in the next 1 hour I was to be subjected to 4 kinds of whiskies starting from 7 year, 11, 15 and 17 years old….I couldn’t have been more ready!!...and what the heck I was turning 23 the very next day…I informed the little party of 4 about the same and we all drank to it…

Ok so how does a whiskey tasting session work?? There is a lot that goes into producing high quality whiskey, from barrels, to distilling machines, to the right amount of ageing. The oak barrel is the main agent in the fermentation of the whiskey the kind of wood used in the barrel actually modifies the taste of the liquid to up to 70%.

So he gently poured out each of the 4 whiskies into a glass, made me twirl it around, smell the aroma, sip it and keep it in my mouth for a few minutes and then swallow….
Each whisky tasting was followed by a bite of crackers and cheese to ensure the taste dilutes as I tasted the next one…

So there I was, smelling, sipping… trying to distinguish the oak from the cherry from the musk in the whiskey, all when my senses had somewhere momentarily been diluted due to the strong dosage of the alcohol…
But i was fit enough to distinguish the difference in taste, the pungence, the smell and the warmth of the liquid from the difference in it's age.

After a gracious number of sips and bites of crackers, my head felt just exactly it should have after the amount of alcohol consumed. Although I hadn’t had much, (only a few sips I repeat) but the sheer impact of the strong alcohol consumed without any dilution did the trick…and did I feel good!!...

I walked out and avoided heading back to work, lest my boss found out about me being a wee bit drunk, but I showed up…and his first question ? how was it and I hope you’re not drunk… "No Sir, hardly, I only sipped onto 4 different kinds of whiskies and that’s it”… “sure” he said, “after even 4 sips of neat whiskey, I expect you’d be drunk”…I just shrugged and continued to pretend I was sober…
I still look back at that day, where I sat with a bunch of strangers....who drank to my b'day and gave me an experince worth blogging about!!:)