Saturday 26 April 2014

#GGDrambassador


It all started with this email Ansgar got from the team of Glen Garioch distillery...

Congratulations!

Our master blender, Rachel Barrie and the Glen Garioch team has selected you from hundreds of applicants to become a Glen Garioch Drambassador! This means a package is in the post to you containing a new not-yet-released mystery Glen Garioch dram. Within this package, you will also find some cryptic clues to help you identify the origin and perhaps even tasting notes of this delicious whisky. We think you have a fantastic blog, so we would love to see a review of this new mystery dram on there, along with your ideas on the identity of the dram itself. Once you have posted your blog, please share it with us and use the hashtag #GGDrambassador.


Very surprised and happy about this we waited for the package to arrive with great anticipation. A lovely box arrived with some nice things included next to the sample bottle labeled with an ? on it.

The box included a jam, chocolate bar with candied ginger and some hints on the origin of the casks used for this new expression.

Clues

- The entire batch of this expression was distilled one Summer's day when Scotland took part in a global sporting event. The country where this event took place is closely linked to our tasting notes.

- Our whisky is a perfect marriage of two regions, and you may find our whisky's robust structure and complex flavours remind you of something else.

- The cask were previously stored in a cave, 100 km from the Atlantic Ocean.

- The Oak shares its name with a breed of cattle

- The pairing items in this package may also provide you with some clues.

We love our selfs this sort of challenges! We decided to have our selfs a little tasting of some other Glen Garioch samples we had in the house, while we started to work on the clues given to us.

At first we thought of Portugal with Madeira or Port, due to the chocolate, ginger, spicy and jam notes. The though thing is to find the global sporting event where Scotland took part in. For Portugal we only could find a connection to golf...

Went after Portugal to Spain, also due to the content of the package that led us to maybe being Sherry casks. But that would be maybe a bit too easy? We found out that there was a FIFA world cup in Spain in 1982... Mhmm not sure. 

After trying the Founders Reserve and the 12 year old we nosed the mystery dram a bit. This send us directly to the other side of the ocean, to Cuba, and then straight to Mexico. But is technically not on the Golf of Mexico or can you call it the Atlantic still. Maybe back to the rum instead of the tequila then? 

For a couple of hours we sniffed and tasted this dram, trying to pin point the right notes, and to determine the origin of the cask. When nosing some rum like flavours came to mind, but also some south european influences are traceable in here. Pulling hairs out on this one, it is trowing us many different ways, but in the end we think we got it... You can read all about it here in Ansgar's tasting notes and here in Thomas'.

On the 30th of April Rachel Barrie shall select the review that is closest to guessing the identity of this dram, and to win an exclusive VIP trip to the Glen Garioch Distillery on the 22nd and 23rd of May 2014. Would that not be awesome? Looking forward to the winner and hearing about the experience...

We planned to visit Glen Garioch the 6th of May on our Speyside tour, so looking forward to it! When we come back there are sadly no more vacation days to spend, so we know we can not be running for the grand prize sadly, but loved participating in this challenge to the senses for sure!
It is lots of fun doing this together and learning along the way about different spirits. Thanks to Glen Garioch for sending us this mystery to solve. It was great and we loved doing it!

Slainte!



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