Tuesday 19 October 2010

#389 - Awards Season Is Here!

This afternoon my heart was filled with glee and my eyes were filled with tears. Tears of joy, because the samples for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 had finally arrived. To be more precise: more than 260 samples have arrived! As you can see from the picture at the right, I've cleared out most of my whisky shelves to make room for the little buggers. 

It seems that the folkloric strikes in France may have delayed the awards parcels for a few days, but at least most now seem to have gotten out of the country safely. From what I see on the TV News, the pressure in France is rising to a boiling point. France is a really beautiful country, but I'm glad I don't have to be there at the moment... ;-)

Fortunately, I'm in Holland now, sampling my first "blind" drams for our little whisky competition as I write this. 
The other jurors and me can't afford to waste any time, because we're expected to submit our scores around the end of November. That means that we have around 5 weeks left to sample more than 260 different whiskies. That means we'll have to taste around 50 whiskies every week! 

So, I'm afraid I'll have to give my liver a rest and keep it brief this time. I can confirm that I've now received a copy of the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2011 though. It looks sharp, as usual. I'll use the breaks between the awards samples to write a review for the book - as well as a more thorough examination of Dave Broom's excellent new Atlas of Whisky. 

Watch this space...

Sweet drams,