The end of an era

Tonight marks the sad end of an era. I am a member of the Scottish Malt Whisky Society and buy the occasional bottle that I like.

For those not au fait with scottish whisky there are essentially three types; blended, where the whisky is a combination of whiskies from several distilleries blended together to make a homogeneous drink that is OK for being mixed with coke or lemonade; single malt which is a blend of many casks from the same distillery to get a common taste; and finally the daddy of them all, single cask which is whisky from one cask at a specific distillery.

The society only stock single cask whisky which means when the bottling from a cask is gone it is gone forever. Tonight was the night I finished 125.33 which is called "Tutti frutti beauty" and is described thus;

"The nose starts shyly with dry grass and toffee; then wakes up, delivering peaches, tutti frutti ice-cream, orange, sawdust and flowers. The palate is fruity and floral, with honey, ginger and garam masala; liquorice, coffee and embers embellish the coda."

The 125 describes the distillery the whisky comes from, which in this case is Glenmorangie and the 33 tells how many casks the society has purchased from the distillery.

So long 125.33, you have served me well and I will miss you immensely.