WHAT A NIGHT!

Last December we ran Dream Drams – a tasting designed to introduce people to whisky that they’d be unlikely to get hold of such as sold-out first releases, old and rare or exclusive, expensive and limited editions that end up being hoarded by collectors.

Everyone loved it – we presented 7 whiskies with a combined retail cost of 3 times the ticket revenue and it was our quickest ever sellout.

However, as we reached the end of our 3rd year, we wanted to do more for charity and after raising £550 during our Scotch Whisky Auction tasting for their nominated charity, we challenged ourselves to do more and decided this year to use DREAM DRAMS II to raise money for York-based St Leonard’s Hospice who provide care and support for terminally ill people, and people with life-limiting illnesses.

Thanks to the generosity of Caskshare, Woodrow’s of Edinburgh, Cooper King, The Whisky Exchange, Thompson Bros at Dornoch Distillery, The Whisky Lounge, The Spirit of Yorkshire and The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, plus the UNBELIEVABLE generosity of all attendees, we managed to raise OVER £2000 for this worthy cause, through ticket sales, auctioning the remaining spirit and some fun but at times confusing in-tasting side quests.

Scroll down to find out which was dram of the night and more about each of the 8 DREAM DRAMS we poured.

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Reigning champion Caskshare – their 21yr Port Charlotte was Dram of the Night in Dream Drams I, kicked us off with the first whisky of the night – a 33yr old Auchentoshan.

This 1990 ex-bourbon cask with triple-distilled spirit offered a smooth, accomplished fruity beginning and feedback was this was the best Auchentoshan attendees had ever tried.

This was also about the time we started the (at-times) confusing side-quest to raise money during the event by offering giveaway sample bottles to the highest donators in a series of rounds alongside the tasting.

Some early bidders made anonymous donations, making the process harder and as more drams were consumed, naming silliness started with “Not Jasper”, “Not Jim” and “Santa Claus” making an arrival.

Our HUGE THANKS to Caskshare for the donated bottle and also providing their popular ‘Best of 2024’ 5 dram tasting pack as a raffle prize for our JustGiving page.

Since the tasting, Caskshare have won ‘Independent Bottler of the Year’ at the World Whiskies Award and we shall definitely be checking back to see what releases they have planned for 2025!

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The 2nd whisky in Dream Drams II was from Woodrow’s of Edinburgh, an indie putting out some fantastic drams right now.

We were intrigued to see what they had on the ‘old and rare’ shelf and whilst the offer of a 45yr old Cuban Rum was very tempting, a 33yr old Strathmill seemed much better suited.

Matured in a sherry hogshead before being re-racked into a refill hogshead, then bottled in May 2024 at 49.7% in a 157 bottle run, this definitely aligned with the tasting notes:

“There’s a velvety texture with tobacco, citrus zest, sultanas and nutmeg on the palate. The finish reveals bitter orange peel, figs and red berry notes.”

Single malt Scotch whisky from the Strathmill distillery is decidedly rare – there has only been one official bottling, discounting the two casks released in 1992 to celebrate the distillery’s centenary, and only a small number of independent releases, with most going into blends, notably J&B.

We’ve been so impressed with the drams coming from this cask trader turned bottler and this one certainly hit the mark of a Dream Dram.

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Cooper King continued their theme of being the “one that got away” – in Dream Dreams I we had their sold-out first release – with this also-sold-out whisky from their Cask Series – a collection of unique expressions, each celebrating the marriage of our distinctive spirit with specially selected, individual casks.

Like our first and second whiskies, this had fruit notes, but with a ‘rum soaked raisin and soft spice’ taste, this had attendees accelerating fast into Christmas with a long and warming finish.

Some asked whether the tasting nibbles were designed to prime – the Marks & Spencer Stollen bites went particularly well as a pairing – since there was convincing and room-wide interest in this whisky which earned it our (Dream) Dram of the Night and a bidding war for the remaining spirit.

With the all-star line-up we presented, getting 40% of the total votes is some achievement and a testament that you don’t have to go far from York (about 10 miles) to get fantastic whisky made by passionate people with great ideas.

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With dram two (Straithmill) also being from the town of Keith, it was great to try the winner of the ‘naming rights’ battle. Courtesy of Billy Abbott who plucked this from “the secret stash”, this bourbon hogshead was bottled by Signatory to celebrate the founders of The Whisky Exchange being in the drinks business for 50 years – they opened an off-license in Hanwell in West London in 1972.

This was one of the final whiskies chosen by Sukhinder Singh before left TWE, moving on to run Elixir Distillers, owners of Tormore in Speyside and builders of Portintruan on Islay, so it definitely fitted in with our tasting concept.

A really interesting fondant and tingling fruit sensation that had us reminiscing about Refreshers and pink shrimps.

In an average tasting, four drams in would normally signal only two drams left, but this was Dream Drams and so we thanked Billy and entered the 2nd half….

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One of the first releases of Dornoch Distillery created by brothers Phil and Simon Thompson. Not content with establishing one of the world’s leading whisky bars in Dornoch, they upped their ambitions and started making their own whisky and gin on-site at Dornoch Castle Hotel, forming Dornoch’s first whisky distillery.

Quite a tale behind this one – we picked up this show bottle at the London Whisky Show 2023, after a “pass the test” chat had us secure a special token to allow us to buy from this limited run.

An intensely characterful whisky made with 100% floor malted Plumage Archer – a heritage barley variety developed at the dawn of the 20th century – fermented for nine days using spent brewer’s yeast. It was aged in a 100 litre American oak cask from Koval distillery in Chicago, which had also previously been home to a sherried malt from Benrinnes.

Cask #124 has been our nemesis though – when it went into club stocks, we thought we had bought their 5yr old blend (Sutherland), not this single malt, and so a week before our blends tasting, it returned to the cupboard. Then checking a few weeks before the tasting, we twigged it was 50cl – not enough for the full tasting.

We got in touch with Dornoch Distillery and being THE AMAZING whisky folk they are, they bottled 20cl from their ONE remaining bottle in their bar, and we are very glad that they did – the original tasting notes give you an idea of how interesting this dram is:

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Nose: Quite funky and rum-like at first with some overripe apples and pineapples and good cider vinegar – followed by agave syrup, aloe, toasted malt and proving dough.

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Palate: Big and oily, showing notes of grass, linseed oil, spruce and sage. There’s also a mineral side that brings chalk, plaster of Paris, putty, boot polish and a little hint of industrial smokiness. Salt and vinegar crisps and vanilla ice cream. Water brings out more fruit, watermelon rind and papaya. Totally atypical with loads of personality.

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Finish: Complex and palate coating with fresh malt, grist and cultured cream.

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We like this ‘old-style, fermentation-forward’ whisky and we wish we had another.

They are building a 2nd distillery ‘Dornoch South’ so definitely someone to watch in 2025!

PS. There is more to the origin tale involving a metal horse sculpture in London, but what is told at Dream Drams, stays at Dream Drams …

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This Bruichladdich release, distilled on February 27, 2008, is part of the Islay House Feis Ile 2018 series. This particular bottling underwent a unique maturation process, transitioning between various casks witha multi-step maturation journey that included Bourbon, Oloroso, Pedro Ximenez,and back to Bourbon casks.

There was a lot going on here as summarised:

“A harmonious blend of walnut shells, leather, vanilla,herbs, and floral hints wrapped in a comforting nougat finish.”

Attendees loved the multiple influences and dram complexity, leading to debates about the number of influences and whether it should be less or more.

Getting people engaged with (and talking about) great whisky is a sentiment at the heart of The Whisky Lounge who kindly donated this from the personal collection of founders Amanda and Eddie.

It’s their 20th anniversary year in 2025 and we’re excited to be a part of what they’ve got planned in the build-up to their 2025 York Whisky Festival.

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In last year’s Dream Drams we poured some rare and sold out drams that attendees would not necessarily be able to get hold of either through scarcity or pricing.

However, it was still theoretically possible that people could find/buy those drams.

For Dream Drams II, we were keen to pour a whisky that no-one would be able to obtain – something truly unique.

So, we got in touch with The Spirit of Yorkshire – a longstanding supporter of our club – to see if they could deliver ‘special’ – and they did!

Whisky Director Joe drew this 5yr old first fill bourbon with a peated finish especially for our tasting.

Not for sale, tasted only once before, by him.

Whilst we have several Spirit of Yorkshire cask owners in the club, there was one particular SuperFan in attendance who was visibly nervous when we auctioned the remainder at the end of the tasting.

They managed to secure it, and so we definitely made their dream (dram) come true.

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Our final dram was kindly donated by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a bottling for the Highland Whisky Festival 2024 – “Take me to the chippy” with notes of “chippy chips, salt and balsamic, crispy seaweed, chips and mussels, and a squeeze of lemon juice.”

Suggesting that the access SMWS tasters have to excessive amounts of high ABV spirits may be distorting their reality, the taste description describes a chip shop visit that apparently represents this Highland Park release.

“Secretly what we all yearn for as we dine black tie, the Panel were handed a burgeoning bag of chippy chips with salt and a dash of balsamic, topped with crispy seaweed and chilli jam. It’ll be all right on the night, after all. The palate of this paper-wrapped meal was full of seaweed, sunflower oil and salt-encrusted potato chips, with a side of mussels poached in 80 shilling ale and clementine juice. Water served to add a squeeze of lemon, buttered corn bread and a bowl of crab and wakame salad, leading the Panel to extol its taffy-like texture and full body.”

We got into some of the umami/salt notes but then found out that we had an SMWS panel member in the room and digressed into a discussion of the SMWS tasting/write-up process.

In our last tasting (Campbeltown), the SMWS ‘Baldrick’s Cosmic Tardis’ (Glen Scotia) proved to be the most intriguing dram we’ve ever had and we continue to applaud the SMWS for putting out whisky that delights, confuses, amazes and intrigues, often at the same time.

It was a fine final Dream Dram and our last before the bottle auction began and we closed in on raising £2,000 for the charity during our social drams.

As before, WHAT A NIGHT!

Photos from St Leonard’s Hospice Instagram