Memorable Whiskey Experiences

My best and most memorable whisky experience is when my wife and I were in Melbourne on our honeymoon. My wife DID NOT like alcohol of any kind, wine, beer, spirits, any kind. My sister and law and brother in law who also were in Melbourne on a kinda group holiday and found this awesome little whisky bar near the hotel. We all went to the bar our second night and myself and my brother in law really enjoyed ourselves.

Next day (our anniversary) my wife and I were talking whisky all day as she had lots of questions, what's the difference between scotch and bourbon and irish whisky, etc. That night after our dinner we went over to the whisky bar just the two of us. We had LOTS of different whiskies including one of our all time favorites Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix. My wife was sipping from every sort of whisky. Some she loved. Some she hated. Introduced her to young whiskies, old whiskies (40+ yrs old) Islay, Speysides, bourbons, Irish, good whiskies and bad.

After that when we got home my wife went looking for a bottle of Snow Phoenix for me, the one shown in my profile picture and found one for around $250 and bought it for my xmas present. I have since picked up 2 more bottles of it. I'd like to get 2 or 3 more bottles before you cant find them anymore.

Is Snow Phoenix a good whisky? Sure! Is it worth $200-300 bucks a bottle? Nope. Do I care? Nope! That night with my wife was phenomenal and it made that bottle that much more special so that the price of Snow Phoenix really isn't too much of a concern for me. I want it because of that night.

Ever since that night every whisky I taste for the first time, my wife tastes with me. I bring out a dram and I won't touch it until she's in the room to have a taste. And that's the way it's going to be for the rest of our lives.

Who you're with and what you're doing totally plays into your whisky experience.

I was recently project leader of a Star Wars fan based project 'Save the Lars Homestead' where we restored Luke Skywalker's house in the Tunisian desert to its full movie glory. To celebrate the succesful completion of this project, we cracked a bottle of Highland Park and a bottle of Bowmore. I think this counts as a 'Memorable Whisky Experience', no? savelars.com for the details. My tasting videos are up on YouTube. Enjoy!

@markjedi1 Yes that does my friend!!!

Mine would have to be camping up in the Victorian high country after a full days fly fishing. Sitting by a campfire with friends, swapping stories and working our way through a bottle of A H Hirsch 16 Year old with no one else for miles around and the sound of the river bubbling along in the distance.

@markjedi1 Well played. I've new found respect for you for your "Save the Lars Homestead" project. Very interesting. Now, about the post party, will Ms. Portman be attending?

Haha @Wodha. Combine the nice campfire story of @DramFineWhiskie with Natalie Portman joining you and you get a really perfekt whisky experience :)

There always seems to be one thing in common with all of my most memorable "whisky experiences" other than the spirit itself. It's always the people you share the experience with for me. That said the most memorable experience is incredibly hard to pick out as I've been lucky enough to try some incredible drams with fantastic people on many different occasions. The most memorable is probably spending time on Islay with Jim Mcewan at the Bruichladdich distillery. It was just us and two other people and as well as doing everything you'd expect on a tour we had an incredible insight into the distillery watching the production of their gin (The Botanist), visiting all the warehouses, tasting single cask whiskies and helping out in the bottling plant. To finish it all off we went up in a cherry-picker above all the casks in the old dunnage warehouse and had a tasting of Dark Arts 3 and picking a bottle each from the production line (before it hit even the distillery shop!) which Jim then signed and numbered 1,2, and 3. It was a truly incredible day and because of the location and who we were with (not to mention his expertise and enthusiasm) heightened every whisky we tasted.

Just recently got into whisky and had a small family get together with my brother and a long time friend and we each brought a bottle along with a gift pack I had, so all together we had 7 whiskys to try for the first time. We only got to 6 because of talking and whatnot, The girls of course made fun of us grown men drinking out of little glasses and trying to pinpoint flavors. Its safe to say we are all hooked now and plan on making nights like that a habit in the future, with new bottles to try or maybe some favorites down the line.

Here is one of my memorable whisky tastings... a family tasting of seven Highland Park & Macallan single malts.

My family got together on the Saturday of the Victoria Day weekend in May this year - single malt tasting in the afternoon, followed by a barbeque dinner. What a wonderful day!

My wife, Kathy, created appetizers to pair with each single malt, and she certainly succeeded in matching complimentary and contrasting tastes and textures with each of the expressions!

We started the afternoon with cocktails - Macallan 10 year old Fine Oak (one and a half ounce) poured over an ice filled tumbler, add to that a teaspoon of lime juice, and top with ginger ale (even better with ginger beer, IMHO).

Following, we got straight to business and tasting six more single malts. Here are the single malts with the food pairings: • Macallan 12 year old Sherry ? Angus beef slider, seasoned with home-made Forty Creek Barrel Select Whisky BBQ sauce • Macallan 17 year old Fine Oak ? Bacon bits (real!), finely diced onion mixed with Dijon mustard on a water cracker, topped with a slice of 8 year old Ivan Hoe Canadian white cheddar and a thin slice of green apple • Highland Park 21 year old ? Smoked salmon with a lemon thyme dip on pumpernickel square • Highland Park St. Magnus ? Asparagus wrapped with camembert and prosciutto • Macallan 18 year old Sherry ? Raspberry white chocolate mousse in a milk chocolate cup • Highland Park 25 year old ? 70% & 85% dark chocolate

My wife, Kathy, created the appetizers and matched them to the whisky expressions – some appetizer ideas were from previous whisky tastings, some were made up from scratch. I think she did an ‘over the top’ job of mixing & matching both complimentary and contrasting flavours in the foods with each whisky!

Additionally, Kathy made a brie and pear soup, caramelized onions on flat bread with brie and pear, and three kinds of stuffed phyllo pastries: Shrimp and onion with cream cheese in phyllo; Mushroom,onion and peppers with cream cheese; Spinach and feta.

Here’s a link to my wife's facebook photo album (I think you need to be logged in to Facebook before clicking the link...) with a few pictures she took: facebook.com/media/set/…

It was a memorable experience - and as Sroberts86 wrote, the memory is only enhanced by the company you shared it with.

I would love to see those pictures, but I don't have facebook. Why you'd have to be logged in there...

Anyway, nice story. Sounds really yummy.

I've told this story before, but briefly, drinking most of a bottle of thirty year old Macallan on my thirtieth birthday on Skye with a view of the Cuillins. Something else.