Tones, textures, and an evening with a 12 YO

Words, aromas, and flavours have the power to evoke a sense of oneness if they are the right ones coming together. Almost like the time I sat with my wife on the terrace and poured from a bottle of Black Dog 18 YO.

‘Deep, golden, glossy, and mahogany,’ I said softly.

My wife looked on dreamily at me and then, as if riding on my whispered words, she glanced at this liquid sunlight sloshing gently in the glass. She said, ‘Wait for a moment. I’ll be back.’ She was back, of course… but with our portable digital player and switched it on and I could discern the tones that only Kenny G is capable of giving us.

The musical notes floated around gently mixing and merging with the mood of the evening slowly turning it into a truly noble bouquet of luscious malty tones and rich velvety textures… and then my wife added, ‘I just love the hint of oloroso sherry in the background as these aromas quiver through my nostrils into my very being!’

She then took her first sips, rolled the scotch around in her mouth and noted that what the experts say is indeed correct. We had read earlier that BD 18 YO is a convergence of ‘round and mellow complex quixotic flavours with an impeccable balance of individual malt and grain whiskies and silky soft tones that dance on the tongue.’ I remember how I had smiled and repeated the ‘silky soft tones that dance on the tongue’ part and thought it would be quite improbable unless one allows the scotch to roll around in the mouth. Well, my wife did just that and agreed that the description was quite accurate! She, however, added her own observation to this description and said, ‘This one tastes like a happily married man!’

On hearing her rapturous tone, I said, ‘You know Mencken once talked about the happiness of married men and added that no married man is genuinely happy if he has to drink worse whisky than he used to drink when he was single.’ I knew I wasn’t really adding value to what she had said, but was happy to find her indulgently smiling at my remark.

Meanwhile Kenny G was adding a lot of out-of-this-world charm to the evening by his round and mellow musical flavours… and we noticed that most of his numbers tended to end with a luxuriously smooth and long bit, almost like a testament to the malt & grain whiskies which have spent years in oak casks & vats! Now this was really turning out to be a great evening and we loved our meaningful conversation with BD 18 YO that evening with Kenny G playing the role of a master entertainer!

My wife suddenly turned to me and said, ‘You know what… Kenny G with this scotch is just so heavenly! It gives such a youthful blend to the evening.’

I nodded in agreement.

Late that evening we discovered that what we had for the next evening was Black Dog TGR or Triple Gold Reserve… and I smiled and thought, ‘Let’s see what a triple maturation does to the flavour, taste, and aroma of single malts that have been matured in American Bourbon casks.’ I was sure the experience would be as heavenly as the one we had dived into that evening. That would be all about the tones, textures, and an evening with a 12 YO!

Black Dog Easy Evenings | Black Dog Scotch | Ginger Claps

Disclaimer: The content of this post is meant only for people above the age of 25.

Arvind Passey
17 May 2014