Dustin Johnson had quite the strong 3rd round, got a good 4 stroke lead going into the final round tomorrow, will he hold on and will he win you this pool?? Stay tuned to find out!
All posts by Paul Dietrich
Masters 2020 Round 2 Update
Here’s the early morning update from Round 2 that just completed. Looks like Mike Weir might make his first cut in quite some time!
Masters 2020 Round 1 Update
Here is the first update from a great first round yesterday! Stay tuned for more results over the weekend.
Masters 2020 Entrants
Here are the entries for the ETKW Masters 2020 Pool! Good luck to everyone!
Masters 2019
Well, here we are again with yet another record breaking year for participants in the annual Expensive Taste Masters Tournament! The club would just like to thank everyone for joining us in this and to wish everyone the best of luck as this great tournament progresses throughout the weekend!
As always, you can stay up to date by visiting our website or following us on Twitter and Facebook!
Cheers!
ETKW
An evening with Jameson Irish Whiskey hosted by Connor Timmonds
On Feb 24th, 2017 the club had the pleasure of having a guided tasting hosted by Jameson Irish Whiskey Canadian ambassador Connor Timmonds.
Where to start? How about the incredible lineup of whiskies that Connor brought with him in his travels down the 401 to Waterloo Region.
Jameson Original Irish Whiskey
Black Barrell
Caskmates
Rebreast 12 Year
Crested
Blenders Dog
Coopers Croze
Distillers Safe
Connor presented a fantastic story of the history of the distillery inter woven with timely tastings of each of the 8 expressions. I must say it was quite the treat to sample the new lineup of the 3 special expressions, Blenders Dog, Coopers Croze and Distillers Safe. Each had a fantastic story behind the blends.
Thank you Connor on behalf of Expensive Taste for the fantastic tasting.
Tasting write ups coming shortly.
Jameson Whiskey Makers Series – Distillers Safe
This was one of the samples we had on our guided tasting with Jamison’s Irish Whiskey. It was by far the youngest and lightest in colour compared to everything else we had this evening. Distillers safe is a tribute to Jamison’s head distiller Brian Nation, and the tool of his craft, which is a spirit safe. You can find out what a spirit safe is here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_safe
When you taste whiskey that has matured in casks, it really is something. You have the flavour of an alternate liquid (usually sherry or bourbon) that seasoned the barrel. The barrel itself is either European or American oak, and than it is toasted to varying levels. All of these combine to overwhelm the senses when that bottle is uncorked and pored into a glass. The aroma, the mouth feel, the smoothness and flavour all work in harmony and balance. All of this was pre conceived years, if not decades before coming to this single moment of fruition. Distillers safe had some of these characteristics, an amazing feat considering it is only 4 years old, and just incase your wondering, it takes 3 years to officially become whiskey.
The nose on this was fruity and sweet. I could detect grapefruit, among the fruits, and should be noted was extremely light in colour. The palate was light, silky, zesty, and finished quickly. Of all the tasters Jameson’s brought with them, this one was my least favourite. I found this to be to light in every aspect. Light on the nose, light on the taste, and light on the finish. Nothing surprised me during this experience, It tasted exactly how it smelled, and finished with a quiet whisper.
To me, good whiskey needs a balance that I did not find here. I do recommend trying this one as I find it interesting that being only 4 years old to have the characteristics it did. I’m sure much if not all of those came from the ingredients that Brian decided to distil. Jameson’s line of whiskeys pair well with pickles or anything salty, as would be the case with this. I would also make my own recommendation and pair this with a zesty shrimp salad, arugula, green onion, garlic, lime, cilantro, and kimchi, would balance the sweet and the salty to pair nicely.
Although this was not my favourite, it is by far not the worst I have ever tried. Brian should be commended for making something so unique out of something so young. His skill as a distiller shines in this bottle. I will skip this one for my personal collection, but if you ever have a chance to try this, don’t pass this one up.
Macallan Edition No. 2
Whenever I hear we are going to be tasting a Macallan, my taste buds light up. This time around we were graced with two bottles of which I had not heard of. After a previous sampling of the Macallan Gold, I became a bit hesitant to immediately fall in love with anything that was not a standard aged bottle (i.e.: Macallan 18, my personal favourite). First up, Edition No 2.
This dram had a wonderful dark caramel colour and on the glass showed some LONG legs. Brought to the nose, slowly albeit, I was hit with a very strong fragrance specifically caramel and spices. Preparation for a strong taste ensued.Well, on the initial taste it felt like it broke apart into a million pieces and left with what felt like no flavour. A second later all those pieces felt like they themselves exploded into millions more pieces, but this time with a typical warmth I expect from a Macallan. The colour and nose look and feel continued into the flavour. Sweet, chocolatey caramel flavours that built on each other the further down it went. The warmth lingered on for quite a while and just begged for another sip.
For a $175 (CDN) bottle I was very impressed and would definitely look at adding this to the collection. The only thing that would hold me back is the initial drink of this as it almost felt watery when it hit the tongue. But as it continued, my wallet started to open up.
Jura Cask Strength
I was excited to try this from the beginning of our meeting. Let’s get the first part of this review finished quickly so we can get to the tasting……. The pleasantly golden amber, blah, blah, blah. Sparkled ever so subtle in the right light, blah, blah, blah. And so on. Now that all that garbage is out off the way, lets begin.
The nose immediately punched me like a heavyweight prize fighter. Despite my best efforts to hide it, I’m sure anyone watching me noticed my head swivel back and to the side as if actually hit by that haymaker punch. Again, but more slowly, and with a degree of caution I didn’t know before, I brought my nose close to the glass. Strong heat, with just a touch of smoke as if someone were barbecuing in the neighbourhood, but you couldn’t tell from where. This had all the characteristics of burning all the way down like drinking pure hot sauce.
What did I get myself into? This, the loudest of my many regretful thoughts going through my mind as I prepared to drink and pulled the glass closer. Initially my gut was telling me I was right. This started to burn with no sign of stopping, making me regret not having any heartburn medication on me. I was not prepared for a sleepless night of tossing and turning. But I was wrong. All of a sudden this opened instantly like someone threw open very heavy and thick blinds in a dark, black painted room, allowing the sunlight to rush in. New flavours started to come to light. Dry spice, fresh ground pepper, clove, waxy smoke, oak, and a sweetness, maybe slight cinnamon. What I once thought was pungent on the nose, turned and became pleasant. How could I have been so wrong?
I was a little braver with my next sip and held it on my tongue. My tongue immediately went fuzzy as if covered in thick fur. But the flavour was worth it. Strong waxy smoke, if there is such a thing, and a slight sweetness. I wanted to try this with a drop of water to see how the profile changed. Although quite tasty, but much better without the water. Drink this one neat.
Never judge a book by its colour is what I was taught, but tonight, this whiskey taught me another lesson. Never judge a whiskey no matter how repulsive that first nose is. This would pair well with sweet fruit like pear. In fact this would be a perfect sipping whiskey for an antipasti platter. Nice stinky blue, or stilton cheese, spicy, salty, and fatty cured meats, bitter olive, sweet pear or grape, crostini, and a smoky dram of Jura.
Cheers friends!
Macallan Rare Cask
The second Macallan bottle on this ninth anniversary of the club was yet another high-end bottle… Rare Cask. The presentation of the package, as you can see, obviously makes you want to just crack it open immediately and drink.
Once poured in the glass, it gave off a very familiar look to the Edition No 2. A medium dark caramel colour and nice long longs. A little less hesitant than the Edition No 2, I smelt this glass immediately. Expecting a strong nose, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was much more mellow. The difference this time was a growing spice smell that became more present with each waft.
The taste was much the same as the Edition No 2 in the sense of the not very strong flavours. The biggest difference was the warmth just never came. Chocolate and sherry came through and the complexity was great, but at the end of the day it felt like it was missing something. It did not last very long, but it was warm. Seeing the rest of the crowd adding some water, I did the same. This definitely proved to open up the flavours more now getting a stronger spice flavour profile, including some honey that I had not tasted on the previous sip. This now lingered a lot longer and warmer but did something strange.. it just disappeared. Then 30 seconds later it came back with a warmth low in the belly that lasted for the duration of the glass.
For the $400 (CDN), I was not overly impressed. While it looked like a step up from the Edition No 2, it just did not live up to the hype. If I had the money and had to choose between these two, I would choose the former any day.