welcome friends we're obviously not in the kitchen today we are out and about
and we're with Jim Murray author of The Whisky Bible and this is the 2019
printing it is yes how many whisky did you taste for
that one every year I do about 1,250 new whiskies okay so I'm working on the 2020
now and very neatly okay during the 2020 I'll be tasting 20 that my twenty
thousand of whisky for this book twenty thousand whiskies different different
whiskies it's a lot it is it is low you still enjoy I enjoy the good ones I know
I never enjoy a bad let's leave Inquisition there shouldn't be a bad
whisky okay even you should make it properly if it's not very good don't
bottle it so if if the whiskey's not very good I'll kick it okay because
people are paying good money so well it won't appear in the Bible yes it will it
will but okay don't kick it okay I know I mean I'll kick it out to the Bible
I'll give it a kicking in the Bible okay
truthful I don't get many Christmas cards for certain I think
is to say so today we're here we're going to talk about Penderyn yeah am I
saying that correctly you're saying it right yeah Penderyn yeah so this is a
Welsh whiskey it is I mean you know I I'm here doing a tasting which involves
Penderyn now the thing is is that I get asked to do lots of events around the
world I just don't have time or the whiskey's not good enough
okay and I'm I'm happy to turn up and do
events for Penderyn because of fact people just discovering them and they've
score consistently very high in the Bible in fact they have won awards in
the Bible okay and I've seen them from the first days when they were just this
you know embryonic company fighting for they're not just market share but it's a
fighting for survival because I had to spend all the money on getting the
Dussehra up and running all the money on producing it all the money
buying the casks yeah and it was just out lay out lay out pay and then you've
got a week and then you got to wait and I saw the hell that the original
producers went through the original owners of the mystery and there's no
guarantee that you're going to make a good spirit yeah and so I'm very very
happy for them that actually they do so which one you want to taste first
well I think what we'll do this one first because this is the legend okay
and basically it's it's a kind of a 41% version of their 46% normal standard
whiskey now what we're going to do is as you can see wonderful weather outside
bring time candidate it's raining it's cold were yeah we're basically in a
freezer yeah in here and so what I've done is that when I do tastings around
the world I show people think of the Murray method which is basically not
tasting at this temperature but yeah if you knows it knows it like this Priyanka
Holly it's just alcohol coming through now what we're gonna do we're going to
submerge it into into boiling water okay is and we will actually just leave
it for a while okay because it's so cold it's going to take a little time so
we're going to get it roughly up to body temperature and then watch what happens
when we do this take it out and now when you knows it hang on
just don't take it now they don't take it too quick okay just breathe in
naturally and then away and then breathe in and then away let it touch your
mustache not miss - right I can see you understand like you've got a mustache I
can see it and as you breathe in its happenin oh you're cute
okay I'll keeping it there there for you just you have to take away it touching
to breathe in as you breathe in and then breathe out and then breathe in and that
way you're not sniffing at it okay now can you see the difference
how it was you can actually knows something yeah how can't you you haven't
before yeah and what you're picking up I
learned something they you go this is the Murray method this is
the way that you actually see a whiskey cool no warm warm yes this is cool
this is all right so you get out to body temperature and and now if you look
carefully you're picking up a little bit of fruits on there onion very very
delicate fruit it's almost like like candy yeah right okay and that's coming
from the fact that what they've done is that they're using Madeira casks on how
there's not many whiskey's that use Madeira gas but they use it in their
basic whiskey yeah it's not a wine see what you've done
I do yeah I do kicking up alcohol okay and that means it that if you kick up
the alcohol you're gonna get a bite and we don't want the vine so it's still
still okay now you're getting it right okay it's really delicate it's yeah
and it's sweet and it's sweet because what they're doing is that the the
actual still it stuff is actually unique they distort to a high strength which
means that that spirit takes out a lot of the flavor from first all they use
American oak and they use then they put it into Madeira okay
and it means that they're stripping out the flavors from the wood much better
than if it was just an ordinary you know 60 70 percent alcohol they just get much
more out and it matures therefore quicker which is better if you're a
small company so it is very consistent and it scores pretty highly in the Bible
now when I taste the first taste
doesn't count you just you're washing your mouth there okay because I've done
about you you've probably had something to eat earlier today yep so you got
sugars on your palate right I'm gonna get myself a spittoon because it's
probably the way to go huh yeah I would I would say okay right so those taste is
just a it's just a throw it away that's right away you're getting rid of
all the other flavors that's in your mouth okay
and now very good very elegant okay okay I can see you need practice on it I you
know so I've been to a lot of whiskey tastings yeah this is probably the best
one right off the top really yeah good man I've learned
several things already right okay yep that whiskey and water don't mix
right sir so you nose it again okay the foreplay
okay okay and now you taste and then watch how I taste it
I'm chewing you're chewing it yeah chewing it it goes all around the mouth
I'm opening the mouth and chewing it and it's bit okay keep it keep your eyes
closed
and now spit how soft is that it doesn't burn at all there's no in essence there
is no but that flavor just completely throws - oh you're concentrating on the
actual flavors of the whiskey yeah I mean this works not just with Welsh was
it was always but you're now instead of getting it the alcohol yeah and also
because you've actually warmed it the surface tensions changed it's not
hitting your palate and attacking it it's it's a soft caress yeah it really
is yeah and it means that you can see what is going on your cut you can
concentrate on eggs on the flavours nothing else and you got it you know
it's a really it's a delicate soft complex whisky there's an intermingling
between the the fruit the vanilla it's just really really Pleasant and very
consistent whisky no coloring added okay when pinned there in first came out they
used to put colouring in and I gave my kicking in the Bible okay I marked their
score down and I said this is you know you've you've bought your whisky what
have you done this and in fairness to them they contact me I said well we were
told it doesn't make any difference as everywhere yeah it does
and in finished and they've taken out ever since so you know that pen daring
the flavors you get is absolutely natural just just what's supposed to be
in the bottle yeah yeah I'm not saying that every single bottle they ever do is
a success mm-hm but I've got I've also infinite Scott to
say that they are one of the more consistent brands going
there's no age statement there's no statement I think that's probably a good
idea because if if you've got a young distillery like that yeah and who cares
about age it's actually what once you put an age in there you're you're
constrained in what you can I would much rather see people pick the
whiskies that work together rather than hammer to do it you know if you've got
if you've got a you know an apple tree yeah
you don't actually you don't actually picked the the apples because it's
September the 6th you pick them when they're ready you pick them when they're
ready yeah and it should be exactly the
same whiskey but I find a lot of people are
very hung up on on the age statement fine let them be it doesn't matter but
it doesn't matter it doesn't matter at the end of the day yeah and the other
thing is ok I'm a consultant blender I'm you know I travel around the world
training blenders and you know sometimes correct crating whiskeys for whatever
when I'm if someone says oh we want to I don't know a ten-year-old I can create
probably about eight different ten euros depending on the type of cast which by
the warehouse has come from so what does it matter
yeah I can I can create a ten-year-old that tastes like a six year old or a six
year old that tastes like a ten year old it just depends on you on 70 factors so
keeping it a little bit longer a bit wider a little bit longer now this is a
brand which is which is actually fascinating because this is a peated
whisky okay so if you know is it you'll notice straight away this is a heavier
type of whisky and look at the color it's strike absolutely straw kind of
natural nothing added yeah and if you knows it
just knows it so the peat no you're kind of going too much in the middle okay use
each nostril and
and if you do this you're picking up or you should just pick up so that that
little passing wafting smoke that's just a hint but not yeah yeah it's like a
whisper yeah and that's because they mature it
in X Ilyich asked whiskey so instead of using peat in the actual process they
put the whiskey into so this is only peated because it's been a nappy did
carry so subtle but because the whiskey so delicate yes it's slightly amplified
okay you've got my interest yeah I know it is it's very very good so it's got
its got earthiness it's got white but it's not over the top it's gonna kick me
in the head it's not or anywhere else
okay so right we so now wash him out there
again because you get rid of the taste of the prison okay
I'm sorry if that doesn't look great on camera but that's what you have to do
means you can drive home yes right and also it means that you are sober enough
to actually realize whether it's a good whisky or not yeah if if the alcohol
convinces you that it's a good whisky because you start losing the ability to
make it it's a waste to make it to make a sound judgment yeah so here you make a
sound judgment so now I'll do it again nose no it's a little bit drier than the
other one isn't it there's a slight chalky mark on it that wasn't on the on
the previous one I did feel in my mouth that at Paul of alok yeah and they taste
and spit okay I have to admit celebrated youself I am Julie is my wife Julie
right she is the person in the family that loves peated whisky right I will
give it a pass every time but that one I really like right because it's not force
the lung is delicate uh-huh and it's one of the reasons why you know this is to
roost uncover it's the reason I'm here because I don't like people just to
think oh I've got us I've got a drink scotch oh I've got a drink bourbon oh
I've got a drink Canadian usually when I when I do a tasting I like to include a
upend area because I do my tastings blind no one knows what the hell they're
tasting they try I get them to try and work it out very rarely the people work
out it's a Walsh whisky hi sir it's an eye
on the table your space or whatever but they don't say oh you know it's a seven
year old Welsh or whatever it happens to be and then you tell them they're
shocked and it opens people's minds up to the possibility that there's other
whiskies out there too what they normally taste and that's the whole
point of a whiskey bible the whiskey vibe I took a lot of criticism criticism
when it first came out in 2003 because I included in the same book tasting notes
on every whisky on the planet they say well you can't do that because people
you know I said it's not about these big guys it's all about everything if you
treat them as equals and if you treat the whisky as equal that's why I do wine
tastings because people have to judge on the quality of the whisky not on because
of what someone's told them at some whiskey show or because of what they've
read on advert because what it says on the label they have no idea that your
defenses matter or the price it's the like we're not a liquid in the pot is
too liquid in the glass yeah they have in front of them they make their own
mind up I've enjoyed both of these I've really
enjoyed what I've learned from the tasting I'm gonna enjoy thumbing through
the whiskey Bible that good or no you're absolutely welcome absolutely welcome so
give it a try and Darrin go inside the box and I'm not
selling it for now you know I mean I'm not this salesman totally independent
but I've got I've got I've got to admit if you ever see a bottle of there's one
called puttin Tiffany after a tenner or it's anyways a famous opera singer okay
and if you can find that get it I mean it again that's because it's won awards
in the Bible and it's totally different to use again then using a hundred cent
expert bourbon cars and it's it just melts on the palate you just spellbound
while you know well this one this dance goes on so oh yeah just do it thank you
very much you're welcome takes just happened by okay