One hell of a drinking party

Last Friday, the Pretty Lady and I went to FM's flat with some other friends for a wine tasting party. For wine, read champagne, red, white, whisky and brandy... although it started as a tasting party, within a few minutes it became a drinking party - and rightly so. FM knows his booze, and everything he served up, including the food, was delicious. It would have been a shame to spit any of it out.

We started with a Canard-Duchene champagne - don't think there was a vintage year attached. Very nice - my kind of champagne, tart and dry, very bready, hint of floral perfume at the end. To accompany - hang on, I say accompany, to clarify it actually means scoffing food as fast as we could, while juggling the champagne flute, chatting, and simultaneously trying to pat Tootsie the Highland terrier. Anyway, to accompany, we had cheese (Stilton with blueberry, gouda, and a camembert with truffle oil are the ones I remember), cherry tomato upside-down tart, stuffed peppers with mozzarella and basil, and seared aubergines and courgettes.

Then we moved on to a Spanish white - albarino in this case. Can't remember exactly which bottle it was, but it was rounded and semi-sweet, with some faint peaches lurking somewhere - not too dry, and therefore very nice. I do agree that dry Chablis goes very well with fish, but with little else. If you want refreshment, drink water, Guinness or a mizuwari (make it with crap whisky please, don't waste the good stuff). I had some more cheese, and ciabatta slathered with pate, by the way.

FM then opened the oven and took out the pork rack that had been roasting in there for the last hour and 20 minutes. Brilliant - marinated with white wine and cider, roasted on a bed of green apple. Tender and flavourful (shame about the crackling - I think I had the one nice piece), and went very well with the spicy Australian shiraz. My memory again fails me as to which bottle it was, but it had overtones of lemon and chilli, with loads of oak.

Then we moved on to dessert, which I declined but the Pretty Lady had. I think it was creme caramel with whipped cream and raspberry sauce - pretty tasty, but I only had a mouthful, so can't judge.

FM whipped out his whisky tasting glass and we opened up a Scapa 14 yo. The Scapa 12 yo reminds me of pineapple, and with this expression it was closer to the top. It might have been the pork, but the 14yo was had beefsteak tomatoes and some big meaty notes in the tasting. Pretty nautical nose too - wet stones, sea salt and seaweed, which appeared again in the finish.

We then had 2 bottles which I brought along - Dalwhinnie 15 yo (cotton candy, peanuts, salted caramel - a fairground whisky, but more later, as my new cousin 飞 has kindly given me a bottle to taste and match), and a SMoS Clynelish 13 yo 1992 Cask Strength (spicy, sweet oak, big fruity flavours, vanilla - very very good indeed, and I do have something from a sister cask waiting to be tasted).

And FM then broke out the best whisky of the night - this year's birthday gift, Bunnahabhain 27 yo 1978 Cask Strength. I was pretty sloshed by this time, but was still sober enough to appreciate the wonders of this dram - sweet burnt sugar and walnuts in the nose, accompanied by burning driftwood (salty smoky), papaya, fermented fruit and limes in the tasting, in addition to delicious sherry, toffee and caramel. Big sherried beast.

So we closed with 2 brandies, Hennessy XO (opened for Shy Lion), and Louis XIII de Remy Martin. Wow. I ran out of words while trying to describe the whisky, so I can't really say much about the Louis XIII except that it was one hell of a dram. Full on, rich winey grape, with mushroom, apricots and hints of truffle and coriander. My palate was pretty much saturated by this time, and I wish it hadn't been, so that I could have appreciated this lovely cognac more. Hey ho.

A massive thank you to FM, whose hospitality, cooking and generosity was immense.