I went to the Whisky Live tasting event in Hobart and kept a video diary, recording one entry per hour, trying to keep it together while drinking quantities of single malt.
My thanks to Simon and Dave who came with me and held the camera. It's Simon you can see dancing behind me around the halfway mark.
It was a fantastic night, where around 20 whisky companies sent their most knowledgeable bartenders to educate us about their products.
We didn't try everything, but we made a damn good attempt!
Before I share my opinions, you should know that I'm a bit of a light-weight when it comes to whisky - I prefer smooth whisky with a lighter flavour. So take it with a grain of salt. (And a suck of lemon,if you like.)
Also, my memories are perhaps a tiny bit hazy. So I'm only mentioning the ones that stand out clearly in my mind.
Dry Fly Triticale: this isn't made with your usual malted barley, but rather a hybrid of wheat and rye more often found in bread and pasta. It offers a brighter flavour and goes down very easily.
Dry Fly Cask Strength: I'll admit I was a little worried about this - it's made of wheat and is extra strong at 60% alcohol, so it had all sorts of ways to go wrong. But it turned out to be a highlight of the night, incredibly smooth and delicious.
Box The Messenger: the most palatable of the three Scandinavian brews I tried. They all had something slightly odd about them. This one wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly good either.
Glendalough Double Barrel Irish: supposedly one of the best Irish whiskies in the world. It was pretty nice, but I don't know if it was all that.
The King's Ginger: a ginger based liqueur. Quite sweet, especially after tasting smokey single malts. Surprisingly smooth for something with such a strong tang of ginger. I really liked it.
Lark Distillery Classic Cask: has a delicious fruity tang. A very classy drop from Tasmania's first modern distillery.
Overeem Port Cask: Deeply coloured and deeply flavoured too. Perhaps a little intense for my tastes, but there's no denying the quality.
Paul John Classic: smooth and full flavoured. It's from Goa in India, but don't hold that against it - they've been making whisky for 200 years there. Terrific value, you get excellent whisky for the price.
Paul John Peated: fantastic. They import the peat from Scotland and use it to smoke their own local barley. Smokey and sweet and drinkable.
Redlands Distillery New Malt: you can't really call this a whisky. It's basically the distilled spirit which will eventually become a whisky if you leave it in a barrel for a few years. I think they really jumped the gun in releasing this, as it's horrible.
The Singleton of Dufftown Spey Cascade: very pleasant, especially when paired with (believe it or not) a wedge of chocolate coated turkish delight. We drank it and all approved, then found it was probably the least expensive thing on the menu. Punches far above its weight.
Starward Single Malt: pleasantly smooth but perhaps a little bland, possibly because I'd started on the smokey ones by the time I got to this.
Sullivans Cove American Oak Single Malt: pure class. Golden in the bottle and on the tongue. Your head swims with the complex flavours for a full minute after each sip.
Talisker Storm: a powerful smokey potion. Demands a pepper steak to go with it.
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