Glengoyne 17 yo (Wo-o-oh, sweet child of mine)

This whisky is just... wow. It's a brilliant digestif, and certainly better than any sherry, cognac or brandy I've ever tasted. It beats calvados, ouzo and any beer out there (sorry, my pint of black gold, but you've been surpassed) as an after-dessert tipple. However, given the flavour profile, the objective of this particular exercise in whisky and food pairing is to make this whisky the dessert itself.

My trusty tasting notebook says:

Glengoyne 17 yo (OB)
Single malt - Highlands
Orange honey gold
43% ABV

Nose: Chocolate covered raisins, dark chocolate and oak. Grapes and apricots. Some faint minty, grassy notes.
Mouthfeel: Thick and viscous.
Taste: Sweet, winey and rich. Chocolate and grappa. Sweet, juicy California raisins.
Finish: Medium length, salty and sweet. Coffee and toast. Chocolate bonbons.

And so on to the experiments. There must be there must be a dessert out there that will fit this whisky like a glove.

1. Chinese white pear.

While I was initially considering warm dairy-based desserts as a complement to the chocolate and oak notes, my nose caught the scent of two ripe Chinese pears in my fruit basket. Definitely worth a try. These pears have firm juicy white flesh, and taste like a cross between pear, apple and orange. The juice is sweet and fragrant, almost floral, with a tartness at the finish. It changes the flavour profile of the Glengoyne, toning down the chocolaty notes and transforming the oak and raisin into something savoury, almost rancio. Cheddar and boiled beef notes appear, followed immediately by apple cores, woody and bitter. Very interesting - probably takes some getting used to. Better than the whisky alone? I can't decide.

2. Sticky toffee pudding.

I chose this as a generic warm dessert to see how that goes with the Glengoyne. Oak, raisin, and sweet luscious sticky toffee pudding - sounds like a match made in heaven. Well, almost. There are good bits and bad bits.

The good bits first. The sticky toffee pudding mutes the Glengoyne's natural sweetness, making it wine-like and oaky. This is very powerful - the whisky actually tastes like an oak-laden Cabernet Sauvignon, with spicy chocolate cherry notes. It shows how much oak actually hides within this Glengoyne expression.

Now the bad bits - the heat of the pudding (cold sticky toffee pudding just doesn't work) evaporates the alcohol in the whisky very quickly. It really prickles, like good wasabi (the usual remedy for wasabi works too - open one's mouth). Not particularly unpleasant, but probably not my bag. Slightly cooled pudding works better whisky-wise, but the pudding isn't as good.

3. Chocolate ice cream.

After the generic warm dessert comes the generic cold dessert. I chose chocolate flavour to see whether or not I could develop the winey richness of the whisky. Heat seems to make the chocolate and fruit pop out, perhaps cold can mute these notes.

Unfortunately, with the ice cream, the Glengoyne tastes a little flat. The oak has become quite subtle, fainter than when drunk neat. Not much spice either, just alcohol and sugar. The chocolate ice cream acquires a fruity tang though, which is quite tasty.

And the winner is...

I think the most interesting combination is the pear, as it changes the Glengoyne into something different and unusual. As a dessert however, it doesn't work very well. Perhaps as an amuse bouche, or even an aperitif, but not as a dessert. The other two desserts are not noticeably improved by the whisky, nor is the whisky improved by them. So Glengoyne 17 yo remains unpaired, best and most delicious as a dram on its own.