End of An Islay Era

Hello everyone

Well, Thursday 29th May was indeed the end of an era for me. I‘ve done my Feis Ile whisky dinner at the Port Charlotte Hotel on Islay for 20 years and decided last year that this year, the 20th, would be the last – and it was. Hence my calling it The Last Supper. I‘ve been saying next year will be the last for two or three years now and this was definitely it. Mixed emotions. Sad, yes, but also relief that I wouldn‘t have the agonising over flavour pairings and concern till the evening was over in case a match didn‘t work out as intended. That I won‘t miss but will miss the hotel team and the clients, some of whom attended several times over the years and were there again last night. It‘s always been a lovely event.

It‘s one of those things where gut feel on whiskies to match the food goes a very long way and leads to the right decision but there are times where I need to try and recreate my own approximation of what the chef is proposing in a certain dish, just to check flavour pairings with more than one whisky. The chef‘s cuisine is always going to be more subtle and sophisticated than mine but it invariably works out right. Sometimes more than one whisky would match a dish but decisions on one per dish have to be made. I‘ve taken care to ensure that I know every tiny ingredient, including seasonings, herbs and spices, that go into a dish so there are no surprises that might lead to a wrong choice of whisky that then spoils enjoyment of both that and the food.

The menu is shown below. The food at The Port Charlotte for this dinner has always been brilliant but on Thursday night, the chef, Ajish, ably assisted by Laura, surpassed even that and I thank them for making this last one so special. Same for co-owner, Isabelle Allison, Lorna the manager and the rest of the restaurant team as well as those on Reception for all their fine organisation, support and co-operation. They were on top form again on Thursday night too.

So how did the choices go and what were this year‘s highlights?

Well, first of all, I tried to fit in all the distilleries that were on Islay when we first started this dinner in 2003 – myself and my late friend and business partner, Helen Arthur who took the speaking lead for a few early years. The timing discrepancy is due to two gap years due to Covid and one year where the hotel had to cancel unexpectedly. So that made 8 distilleries from which I would use one to match a specific course. Kilchoman wasn‘t around then but they are celebrating 20 years of operation this year and have contributed to the dinner for some years so I wanted to find room for them too. It was a 9 dram night!

Last autumn I tasted the Kilchoman 100% Islay 14th Edition and did mention in this column then that I‘d be considering it for this year‘s dinner if there was a menu match for it. It‘s a lovely dram. Once I knew what the canapes were, I decided it would be the event opener, particularly with two of them – the venison teriyaki and the chicken liver pate with prune and date chutney. In the past I have also used Caol Ila here and in various other places on menu so asked the hotel if they would mind using two whiskies for the canapes, if it wouldn‘t cause too much disruption. The flavour and maturation profile of this year‘s special Caol Ila Feis Ile bottling (8 years old), which I couldn‘t taste before getting to Islay, sounded like an excellent match for the canapes here too. It uses Colombian oak finishing for the whisky which, as I found out once I‘d collected it from the distillery, is a bit sweeter than you usually expect and has less of the overt coal tar soap and medicine notes normally found there. It went every bit as well as I expected with the smoked salmon roulade and vegetable terrine canapes. All the canapes looked and tasted lovely and actually both whiskies matched them all. A good start.

I‘ve noted here before that the coconut note in Laphroaig Quarter Cask can complement coconut in a dish and this was no exception this time. The sauce with the scallops was divine and that plus the scallops‘ own flavour brought out the touch of salinity in the whisky. The lime and mint were also finely tuned and the whole went together beautifully. QC remains one of my favourites of the standard Laphroaig range. So far, so good. We then moved on to the parma ham-wrapped pork with Bunnahabhain 12 Year Old. I‘d initially wondered about the cask strength version with this but noticed there were no stocks left. However, given the need for water in all whiskies to release the aromas and flavours, I knew the standard 12 would be good. Indeed, it was excellent and a superb foil for the apple and celeriac puree as well as the salt in the ham and pork. A delicious dish. Two early highlights for all of us.

Next up was Bowmore 12 Year Old with the fish course which is usually a reliable match. I attempted the dish at home alongside the whisky but my version of the squash puree with a number of other ingredients and lemon cream was more robust and less subtle than chef’s version. Other Islay and Jura whiskies I tried at home with this dish certainly didn‘t work. The Bowmore was fine, as I knew it would be; it‘s a very good whisky and the risotto rice cake (very novel) took to the flavour well but I felt on the night this might have been even better with something else, perhaps a Bruichladdich. I did try the little bit of Bunna that I still had and that seemed to work well. It‘s not that The Bowmore didn‘t work; it did but another expression may have been better though not anything too sherry-rich. I think I was the only person with doubts, though as the customers all enjoyed it.

From there we moved on to the meat. It was beef fillet again this year and I‘ve used Ardbeg (including Uigeadail) to good effect with beef, lamb and venison before. It just depends how the meat is cooked and what its accompaniments are. The Uigeadail was a fitting and a tasty match with the beef, sauce, earthy creamed mushroom and gratin potatoes. The asparagus was a little raw salad of asparagus shavings with a pink peppercorn dressing. As usual the meat course was rather substantial. Like last year, some of us were ready to explode before dessert and cheese but we soldiered on. Just as well I haven‘t yet started the summer weight loss programme.

Jura Perspective 01 was my first thought for the dessert but I got an offer for another, special whisky which might match it well. I‘ll explain more in a minute but I couldn‘t taste that till on Islay the morning of the dinner. I then had to make a swift decision as to which to use where so the hotel could get the menus printed. Both were good with tablet as well. I decided to keep the Jura where I‘d originally thought, having tried other whiskies at home with the flavours in the dish. The dessert was quite light and delicately presented and not large after the main course, much to the relief of all. The rum in the creamy ice cream had quite a light touch. The Jura with the food felt quite refreshing. I have to say the special whisky I was offered would have been really good here too. For those not familiar with this Jura expression, it‘s the 16 Year Old with a bit of tweaking – same age and cask maturation recipe but there‘s less sherry cask in this bottling so the bourbon wood and the resulting vanilla and usual bourbon maturation notes are dialled up a little with hints of peach and aromatic spice too. I‘m still not entirely clear why there was a need as the original 16 YO was always one of my own favourites but I applaud their seeking to improve. I was told they wanted this one to be an all-rounder but not bland and it definitely isn‘t bland. Perspective 02 is expected, next year, I believe.

Then we went back to smoke with the Lagavulin Distiller‘s Edition 2022 for Lagavulin‘s affinity with blue cheese. This expression with plenty of raisin sweetness against the salt of the cheese, the spice with the pear and the smokiness and earthy notes with the sauce and pine nuts made a fine combination. The Belgian gentleman sitting beside me hadn‘t tried pear and blue cheese before and thoroughly enjoyed it as a combination with the whisky. Not much more I can say about this one other than the Lagavulin rose to the task splendidly as I expected. Such a flavoursome and quite versatile whisky.

So now we come to the final flourish, the Bruichladdich Special Bottling. No pic of this as it’s a one-off so here’s the distillery. This was an idea from Head Distiller, Adam Hannett – something he‘s been experimenting with that he thought might match the dessert flavours. „I‘m no expert but…“ he said, modestly. This was after I mentioned a couple of my menu options for Bruichladdich and one expression I was interested in for elsewhere in the menu. How could I possibly refuse this offer? But, I needed to taste it first to see where it might fit and that couldn‘t be done till the day of the dinner. I took along some of the tablet I‘d tried at home with the Jura but couldn‘t take any of that evening‘s pudding. I tried it with Adam and one of his colleagues. It is an absolutely cracking whisky and it wasn‘t ever going to be drunk anywhere else or at any other time than at that dinner. How fabulous! I think it would have matched the dessert very well too. It was good with the tablet even though the one I took over had a slightly different flavour strength from that at the dinner. Some had only a little with the tablet and finished it on its own. It was a delight to use such a special bottling as a wonderful end to my final Feis Ile dinner and I‘m very grateful for the consideration shown. I won‘t say much about it other than it was made using all Islay barley and all matured in first-fill bourbon wood. The youngest whisky was from 2015 and the others went back quite a number of years more. The feedback in the room on the night was massively positive. Maybe with such a positive response we can encourage Adam and colleagues to make some more…

My thanks for all these years have to go to Isabelle and Grahame, the Port Charlotte Hotel‘s owners, their chefs and front of house team. Also thanks for the wonderful generosity of Islay‘s distilleries and acquisition assistance from their head offices and the occasional PR agency. Last but definitely not least, I must thank all the clients who attended and came to listen, enjoy and share their own views. It‘s been a blast with clients from many countries from the UK to USA, Russia and Japan and points in between and there were old friends to meet and new friends to make again this last time.

One other end of an era is that the excellent Jackie Thomson is leaving Ardbeg this weekend after Ardbeg‘s Feis day, today, 31st May. She‘s been lured away by another enterprise on Islay. I‘m not saying where – that‘s up to her to reveal to people though some are already aware. Ardbeg will miss massively her energy, creativity, knowledge and people skills but someone else will surely make great use of them.

I may not be doing any more Feis dinners but do intend to keep up the writing and occasional other whisky work. I‘ll be back in June with more. Till then, happy dramming.

Slainte,

Caroline