There was a time, when terms like "bourbon", "rye", "single malt" and "blend" intimidated us. It belonged to one of those scenarios, alongside Game of Thrones lore, wine-talk and any sort of political discussion, where you hear a lot of familiar soundings jargons that you feel you should know, but have no idea what they mean, and so end up silently nodding in agreement throughout the conversation in attempt to feign intelligence. Not anymore though. We now drop these terms with reckless abandon, after having participated in three whisky tastings led by tasting experts that taught us the ins and outs of the whisky world.
The series of tastings were held in collaboration with new subscription based wine & dine membership mobile app, Happy Owl, which lets you redeem one drink a day at any of their participating bars at only $99 per month.
**As a special Foodie discount, Happy Owl is offering Foodie Club members the chance to subscribe for only $99 (instead of $199) per month. The discount is perpetual. Simply use the code happydiscount and discover 50 bars in 8 districts with a free drink a day.**
For the first tasting, we headed over to Malt Whisky Bar and were educated by none other than the co-founder of the bar, Nathaniel Chan, who guided us through four quintessentially Scotch whiskies. Did you know? Scotch whisky has to be Scottish through and through in order to claim the title, meaning they have to be processed, fermented, distilled and matured all in Scotland.
The second tasting was held in Whisky@Stables where we sampled a selection of Highland Park whiskies of different ages, headed by Ron who is a certified educator on wines and spirits. Did you know? Older whisky are not necessarily better. They absorb more flavours from the wood of the casks where they mature in, but these flavours slowly obscure the flavours of the grain from which they were distilled too.
The third event was carried out at Nocturne, where we tried a list of Japanese whiskies led by sommeliers Carlos Wong and Yuko Nomaguchi, who have handled more than 400 different whisky labels over the last 3 years. Did you know? The popularity of Japanese whisky has exploded in the last few years, and for a good reason. Japanese whisky is made in a very similar way to Scotch, but more versatile. Scotch whisky is about tradition, about maintenance of old methods and flavours. Japanese whisky puts less weight in tradition and is all about experimentation and coming up with a wide array of continually evolving flavours.
So yes, we don't want to brag, but we're pretty much whisky experts now thanks to the tastings. If you want to be cool like us, sign up for Foodie Club and pay attention to upcoming events.