(Not) Just Desserts - Auchentoshan 12 year-old

An important occasion to celebrate provides the best excuse (er, reason) to open a new bottle of whisky. When my friend Jeff turned 30 a couple of weeks ago, it seemed the perfect opportunity to celebrate his three decades of life by encouraging his nascent interest in the water of life. My wife and I spent some time discussing which bottle would make the most appropriate gift; we wanted a single malt that was out of the ordinary (to help pique his interest), but nothing too strong, that might turn him off or limit his enjoyment of the drink. This has proven to be the bane of many whisky enthusiasts when trying to lure (does that have a negative connotation?) their friends into the world of whisky appreciation: Going too strong too fast. In our zest to share our love of aqua vitae with novices, we can push the stronger tasting stuff too quickly: You like a bit of peat? Here, try some Ardbeg!

Slow down, cowboys. Although we all experience the just the teensiest bit of schadenfreude when watching a novice experience the uniquely startling pleasures of tasting a heavily peated malt for the first time, chances are you didn’t start off that way, either. In my opinion, it’s much better to ease in to the heavy hitters after acquiring a palate and appreciation for the lighter stuff. You don’t lead off with your strongest batter, right? With these things in mind, we decided to pick him up a bottle of Auchentoshan 12 y-o.

Auchentoshan is a lowland distillery located very near Glasgow, Scotland. Although the vast majority of Scottish distilleries perform two consecutive distillations in the production of their spirit, Auchentoshan does three. This triple-distillation process is more characteristic of Irish distilleries, and results in a cleaner, lighter spirit. This is due to the loss of oilier, heavier flavours and character during the extended distillation process. In this way, Auchentoshan is very representative of“traditional” lowland malts, in that it has more of a light, floral character than the majority of malts from other regions of Scotland.

In this highly-anticipated (by us) cross-over event with our friends from the food blog “A Foodie’s Thoughts”, Amanda created a pecan pie recipe substituting the Auchentoshan 12 y-o in place of the more traditional bourbon. The result: Delicious! Amanda used slightly more whisky than in the usual recipes, in anticipation that the lighter flavours of Auchentoshan may be muted somewhat in the pie. It proved to be a good decision, as the flavours of the whisky blended so well with the pie that in smaller amounts they may have been lost. The pie was a big hit and your blogger couldn’t help but imagine future pies using other, more strongly flavoured malts! Note that although it is the Auchentoshan Select Reserve pictured in the photo with the pie, it is the 12 y-o (first photo) that was used in the recipe. Make sure you check out the companion blog posting at “A Foodie’s Thoughts” for more info on this dish.

http://www.afoodiesthoughts.blogspot.com/

As for the whisky, we do two separate tastings – one before the Auchentoshan-laced pecan pie and one afterwards. The tasting notes that follow represent an effort by four different people and anything described was at least corroborated by two within the group.

Nose: Toffee, vanilla, dried figs and a fresh floweriness of heather with honey. Just a whiff of smoke.

Taste: Starts sweet at the tip of the tongue with some nuttiness, then a crisp, peppery middle. Good complexity and lots of light, subtle flavours to explore with this bottle. Unfortunately, the flavour is somewhat bitter at the end.

Palate: Medium body, a little oily with nice legs on the glass. The finish is interesting: Initially we thought it was short, but then realized that although the taste intensity drops off quickly, a shadow of it remains on the tongue for a long time.

Value: It scores well in this category, not because it is a phenomenal whisky, but because it is not very expensive. It certainly compares well to whiskies in this price range (~$55-70 CDN), while offering a different flavour profile than most of the others.

The Auchentoshan 12 y-o was a pleasant surprise, offering more complexity and character than I was expecting from a triple-distilled, lowland malt. On the negative side, although the finish starts strong it fades quickly and there is some bitterness. Overall, we were very pleased with the bottle and it was a great expression to start with as a foundation for future whisky appreciation. As Amanda’s pie displayed, this whisky is well suited not only to accompany a dessert, but as an ingredient. Both Amanda and Jeff are interested in doing more tastings and inventing other recipes using whisky, so any way you slice it (ha ha), the Auchentoshan 12 y-o was an unqualified success!

Special thanks to Amanda at "A Foodie's Thoughts"