Japan Vs. Scotland tasting
Eddie Ludlow
A new company is giving whisky lovers in England a chance to sample some of the best Japanese single malts alongside their Scottish cousins.
The Whisky Lounge, run by former Glenmorangie and Ardbeg brand ambassador Eddie Ludlow, will hold the "Japan Vs. Scotland" tasting on Tuesday April 29th in The Hide Bar, Bermondsey St., London. (Phone Eddie on 01904 466227 or email eddie@thewhiskylounge.com for tickets.)
If you live further north and really get your skates on, the Sun Hotel in Lancaster is hosting the same event on at 7pm on Monday (April 21, contact Tom on 01524 66006 ).
For the cost of a cheapish bottle of single malt (20 pounds), participants will get to try a Karuizawa 1971 Single Cask, the very excellent Yoichi 15 and a Yamazaki 12.
The Scottish team is made up of Old Pulteney 12 Y.O, Ardbeg 1990 Airigh nam Beist, and Dalmore King Alexander III.
Ludlow says he hopes it will be a "blinding" blind tasting: "We will be tasting the oldest currently bottled Japanese single malt - a Karuizawa 1971 Single Cask. I believe we will be among the first to taste and evaluate this potentially iconic whisky which is obviously a very significant plus for us. It should be a fantastic night and I'm hoping to attract a truly interested and interesting crowd.
"The objective of The Whisky Lounge is to help enlighten and bring fine whiskies to all," says Ludlow, who gave up his day job in January to go full time with the enterprise.
"A huge part of this mission relies on rather than one person reviewing a whisky - which will always be a flawed method of assessment - that a whole group will review them blind and without prejudice. As more and more of these tastings take place, a more rounded assessment of every whisky we review becomes apparent. It is almost an 'organic' form of whisky review and I'm hoping it could become a real industry benchmark in the next few years."
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2 comments:
Interesting! I just want to chip in that lately, on numerous occasions here in Sweden, where Japanese whisky has been tasted blind alongside Scottish ones the Japanese one(s) are almost always voted the favourite(s). Personally I'm hardly surprised though :)
If anybody is holding a tasting of Japanese whisky anywhere, please tell us and we can give it a bit of advance publicity. I have to say, it is a bit like France wine v. New World wine. All that I would be arguing is that people do not discriminate against the Japanese distilleries. It would be foolish to try to say New World was superior to European wines, just as Japanese whisky would be fighting a losing battle if it tried to convince the world that it had the beating of Scotland, IReland or US whisky. IO think the whisky world is big enough to take all their differnt styles. Nice, though, to see the Japanese distilleries continuing to show their excellence.
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