Monday, April 20, 2009

Glenmorangie Tasting Session with Newman

It's one of those days where I got 2 places to go at one time.

A food reviewing session with fellow food bloggers and Glenmorangie Tasting Session with Newman. I chose the latter.

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It was at the Heritage Mansion, a lovely place near the Heritage Row, behind Maison. I parked opposite Maison and walked over there.

To avoid the traffic jam, I reached there early. I was actually the first and Shanice (from Newman) was like, "You want to come so early meh?"

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The lovely people from Newman then toured me around the area where I was greeted by a bottle of Glenmorangie.

I knew it's going to be a great night as they asked me "please help yourself with the drink".

There were 20 lucky selected guests for the evening. I was one of them and we met each later on and started to mingle around.

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We were then served with lovely foods before the whisky tasting session.

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We were briefed by this gentleman by the name of Ben Ng. Ben was the walking dictionary or wikipedia of whisky.

He explained in details the varieties of whisky and the most important of all, the history of single malt Scotch whisky.

Glenmorangie is one of the GREAT single malt Scotch whisky and also a PIONEER in art or science of oak aging. Handcrafted since 1843, Glenmorangie offers a great sensory experience in their whisky.

I kid you not.

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From left: The Original, The Lasanta, The Quinta Rubon, The Nectar D' Or

We were treated with 4 lovely whisky from Glenmorangie. They were The Original, The Lasanta, The Quinta Rubon and The Nectar D' Or.

We were taught to smell the aroma, to taste and to finish a whisky. It was one hell of experience!

The Original

The Original is a Ten Years Old whisky mainly matured in ex-Bourbon casks that's made from slow growth, air dried American Oak from the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. The selection of casks were important to bring the lemony gold colour as well as the aroma of mandarin, lemon, apple, pear and peach fruits with hints of Vanilla.

Well, I couldn't pick up all the aromas but I did smell a few aromas. Noticeably, vanilla and peach.

The taste was smooth, hints of vanilla and peaches alike aroma.

To me, The Original was like The First Love.... Happy, young and joyful!

The Lasanta

The Lasanta in Gaelic means "Warmth and Passion". The Lasanta goes through extra maturation in Spanish Oloroso Sherry casks after in ex-Bourbon casks. For such process, the aroma flavoured with honeycomb and caramel toffee.

The taste of this light russet coloured whisky differs than the original. Slightly sweeter with hints of toffee most notable to me.

Well, to me Lasanta was like The First Girlfriend... Sweet, passion and exciting!

The Quinta Ruban

The Quinta Ruban goes through extra maturation like Lasanta. In this case, in port pipes (Port Wine), shipped from the estates of Portugal. By the way, Ruban in Gaelic is Ruby.

The distintive colour of the whisky will be the rose gold. A sniff from this whisky, easily smell hints of dark chocolates as well as peeled mandarin oranges. The smell of the dark chocolates are more notable to me.

The taste was slightly stronger to me. To me, The Quinta Ruban was like The First Wife... Slightly Strong, "Experience" and Sensual

The Nectar D' Or

Lastly, we had The Nectar D' Or. "'Or" means gold in Gaelic and French, while "Nectar" is the drink of Gods. Such interpretions means this must be very good!

The Nectar D 'Or goes to extra maturation in specifically hand selected Sauternes wine barriques.

The aroma is more unique. Notable hints of coconut, dates and lemon to me.

The taste well, was lemonly warmth. A pulsating warmth experience.

To me, The Nectar D 'Or was like The First Affair.... Strong, Daring, Wild and Explosive...

After a journey of 4 great Scotch whiskies, I asked Ben what if I mixed four of them together. Ben recommend me not to do so even though he tried it before. He said as good as he is, he can only sense the aromas after a few sips.

So then I asked myself in assumption, what if I mixed "the first love", "the first girlfriend", "the first wife" and "the first affair" together?

The answer is simple....

MOTHER IN LAW!!

Of course that was just a lame joke I thought of it at that time. (Please ignore the coldness of the joke)

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There were lots of Glenmorangie later on the evening. Everyone had great time mingled around with Glenmorangie on their hands.

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Glenmorangie Tasting Session with Newman was a great experience to me.

Many thanks to the lovely people of Newman and Glenmorangie for the invite.

* Tips for whisky lovers, enjoy a few sips first to taste the aroma and then drink the whole glass. However, this only works with Glenmorangie Single Malt Scotch Whisky though.

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