Thursday night was an evening with a dozen other whisky lovers meeting in the back area of Zipp's to try about ten different Scotches from Diageo/Johnny Walker. Their brand ambassador for the midwest brought these ten (from six different distilleries) as a way to expose these drinkers to the single malts they consider to be typical of the regions they represent. They were:
Glenkinchie (2)
Cragganmore (2)
Dalwhinnie (2)
Oban
Talisker (2)
Lagavulin
The cases of two expressions, the second was the Distiller's Edition for 2006. They were all nice, nothing too explosively great, but of them the Dalwhinnie Distiller's Edition was worthwhile enough to grab a bottle.
But the real experience was being able to pick the brain of a company represenative and answer many of the questions that you're not likely to find on the web.
On the subject of closed distilleries, the company position was that some distilleries are just not efficient enough. The style of the distillery can easily be replicated at a nearby location. That it's possible to replicate a Rosebank in Glenkinchie's stills.
As for Non-Chillfiltered (UCF) whisky, the company spins the perspective on its head. The feeling was that if it made that much of a taste difference that no one would filter the proteins out. The feeling is that the people pushing UCF whisky are using it as marketing and a way to make their product more unique and charge a greater price. The actual taste difference isn't that big to Diageo's distillers.
In all it was an informative night. This pretty much convinces me that I'll be at WhiskyFest in Chicago in April, so expect another post similar to this when that happens.