Balvenie 12 yo DoubleWood (Hit me baby one more time)

There are a whole host of bloggers who are dedicated to the fine and noble art of whisky tasting (see, for example, Dr Whisky, Serge Valentin, and Colin's great effort to harness the creative commons). It's hard for me to add a great deal to what's already on their sites with regards to how whisky tastes (besides, they all get to drink a lot more, both in quantity and variety, than I do - isn't envy ugly?).

Instead, I want to try to pair whiskies with food. Most formal tasting is done without food (except for cleansing the palate, and this is done with bland foods that don't interfere with the whiskies - say an oatcake). I confess that this is the main way I drink my drams, on the sofa, out of the tasting glass, and in contemplative mood. However, since we enjoy wine with food, it must be possible to pair whisky, which is just as complex and interesting, with food as well. Not all combinations work well, but that's exactly the same risk one runs with wine. Somewhere out there, there's a perfect companion for each whisky. I only hope my supplies don't run out before I manage to pair them up.

First stab at this mini-project is with the Balvenie 12 year old "Double Wood". The extract from my tasting notebook runs as follows:

Balvenie 12 yo Double Wood (OB)
Single malt - Speyside
Amber, tinge of pink
40% ABV

Nose: Oak, sherry (typical Speyside), then lots and lots of oranges (peel, marmalade, juice etc).
Mouthfeel: Medium body, expands in the mouth, turns watery.
Taste: Vanilla, toffee, honey, lavender and something very like raspberries.
Finish: Medium to long in length, faint but lingering, peanuts and burnt sugar.

Experiments:

1. Sliced oranges.

Slightly counter-intuitive perhaps. The nose of the whisky screams oranges in many ways, shapes and forms - you can taste the marmalade, the dried peel, and freshly cut oranges redolent of d-limonene. Why put more orange in?

Probably because while whisky suggests pleasant impressions, and it's fun deciphering them all, sometimes I want to confirm my impressions with a little of the real thing. Whatever the reason, munching on an orange segment then sipping the Balvenie (with hands coated with limonene) intensifies the other flavours and scents, particularly the honey and raspberries. I end up thinking of raspberry jam, while imagining sitting in an orange grove where the fruits are just ripening, and beginning to give off their scent.

2. Smoky bacon.

This may well be a personal peccadillo. I recently developed a thing for marmalade and bacon sandwiches, as I like the combination of bittersweet orange and smoky meaty charred-fat-smelling bacon. Pairing the bacon with the whisky seems a reasonable way of replicating the experience. Alcohol improves all foods right?

Not always, it seems. The mistake lay in assuming that the orange in the nose of the whisky could provide enough scent and sweetness to create the effect of sweet-and-smoky. There's a texture difference too - thickly slathered marmalade melting over hot bacon is part of the pleasure. Smoked bacon overpowers the whisky, cutting out all the subtle flavours, like the lavender. It's like shutting a window when a band is playing outside.

3. Manchego cheese.

Sounds logical - sherry (vino de Jerez) and Spanish cheese go together don't they? This expression of Balvenie has a sherry thread running through it, as it spent 6 months in a sherry cask after all. So, I tasted a dram of the Balvenie with a slice of Manchego and some membrillo jelly.

Result - nothing remarkable, objectionable or otherwise. The nuttiness of the cheese and the sweetness of the membrillo went very well together as always, but the whisky didn't add anything. The cheese and quince muted the sweeter flavours and brought out some woody notes (damp pine, some cedar) that weren't there before, but somehow the Balvenie became one-dimensional. Not a good use of the whisky, unfortunately.

4. Chinese preserved plums - the sweet black kind.

Randomly selected, just for experimental purposes. They come from a big bag left on my shelf by my sister (for future reference, the Tough Cookie). Dried and preserved with sugar and salt.

Again, no joy. Sometimes these random things work, but most of the time they don't. Really woody this time, cedar and oak barrels, all damp and pungent. No sweetness at all, and precious little other flavour. Maybe some toffee. Again, not a good use of the whisky.

And the winner is...

The sliced oranges come out the clear winner here. I stumbled on the combination by accident, but it really works very well. This Balvenie doesn't need to be accompanied by something sweet to bring out the more complex flavours, it needs an accent, a smell, to mute the primary notes in order to bring out the shyer scents lurking underneath. Oranges do the job well - the orangey scents just keep hitting the nose again and again.