The Fiction Factory

Whisky Revisited

In Part 154 of this blog series, I wrote about my first visit to 28 Queen Street, a four-storey Georgian building, home of the Edinburgh branch of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. I was fortunate to be invited back for another networking dinner, consisting of a five-course taster menu accompanied by five whiskies, specially selected for each dish.

I didn’t note the food on offer the last time, so today, for the record, we have some of the best Scotland has to offer. The food was simply excellent.

Home-made bread with salted butter.

Whisky cured salmon carpaccio with fennel and rose salad with crispy walnut bread.

Pumpkin, wild mushroom and chestnut raviolo with salsa verde and feta cheese.

Roast venison loin with blue cheese gratin, parsnips crisps, grilled broccoli and venison jus.

Inverloch goat’s cheese with chutney, oatcakes and grapes.

Spiced dark chocolate mousse with buckwheat sable and Katy Rodgers natural yoghurt.

Each course was paired with a whisky, which complimented the food and for the sake of completeness, the details are below. Note these are single cask. Typically, this means there are fewer than 300 bottles produced of each one and once it sells out, there are no more. These are rare whiskies, and it was a real treat to take part in this tasting.

Flower Displays (Highland)

On the side of Equilibrium (Speyside)

Smell for Leather (Speyside)

Heather Ember (Highland)

All-Round Sweet and Sensual (Highland)

There was no list provided, so taking photographs of the bottles as they came round (along with taking snaps of the food) was necessary. Reviewing whisky is not my thing, so I’m not going to attempt to describe the various notes I experienced during the tasting, There are webpages written by experts on this, so if interested to read more, I can recommend searching the titles above. My favourite was ‘On the side of Equilibrium,’ a twelve-year-old which spent seven years in an ex-bourbon cask, before transferred to a Shiraz cask. It’s abv is 58.6% and like all these whiskies, they are stronger than what you may expect.

As a postscript I stayed over in Edinburgh, a short train journey from the centre of town as I was booked in to give a lecture on cyber security at eight am the next morning. This helped to cut down my commute to the University. The Estates workers come off shift around this time and it’s the best slot to catch them for their security training. There is an expression we use in Scotland for heavy rain; it’s bucketing. I got soaked from the station to my office and then soaked again from my office to the venue. I was dripping, absolutely soaking. My access card doesn’t work for the building housing the lecture theatre, but fortunately I did manage to gain access. Giving an in-person talk is a buzz and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, despite my jeans weighing at least double their weight due to the rainfall. Of course, the rain hadn’t eased when I left at nine am, so again, I got another soaking on the way to buy breakfast. I decided to treat myself to a bacon roll, which is a very occasional treat for me as I have cut out such foods. A couple a year is my limit, and I have to say it tasted really good. Along with a latte, I headed into Old College and sat on one of the benches beside the law department, which are set back in an alcove, providing ideal shelter from the elements. This provides an excellent view of the quad and I often sit here at lunchtimes when in town. The college was constructed on the site of an old graveyard, a fact that had escaped those working on the new landscaping that was carried out a few years back. We have an expression in Scotland, to describe someone who has been in a place for a long time; he knows where the bodies are buried. In this case, it turned out to be true.

One of my earliest memories – I really can’t recall how old I was other than very young – was passing by the entrance to Old College and seeing students filing in and out. They were oddly dressed, their hair was different, especially the men. They appeared a group apart from everyone else in the street. I didn’t articulate that internally in those terms as I was too young. It was simply an impression I had that these folk were different, exciting and I just knew that I wanted to be part of that group.

Perhaps this is ironic, I don’t know, but I applied to study at the University of Edinburgh around a decade later and was rejected due to not making the required grades. I went on to study at the University of Stirling. Five years after graduating I returned to the University of Stirling to sit a Masters and ended up working there for a couple of years. I then applied for a job at the University of Edinburgh and turned them down halfway through the interview. I decided it wasn’t for me.

After a couple of weeks I received a phone call from a member of the interview panel. They pointed out a different job advertisement and wondered if I had seen it as they felt I would be an ideal candidate. I hadn’t spotted it and thanked them for bringing this to my attention. Although I hadn’t applied – they still had my details from the previous application – I said I would be delighted to come in for interview. I got the job and have been there ever since. This thought came to me, while sitting with my coffee and bacon roll, watching the rain, having given what is likely the last of my in-person lectures here. It’s funny how things work out.