Whisky and Chocolate - Breaking the Peated Perfection mould?

Something a little different this time around! An exercise in pairing whisky and food, which in all honesty is something I don't do very often - I tend to prefer one or the other! But if the situation calls for it I would typically go for cheese, charcuterie or basic savoury bite-size items over anything else. My wife enjoys (read: is obsessed with) preparing massive platters of that sort of thing on the rare occasions where we entertain at home, and they work well in that type of social setting and help to fill the gaps between drams, when the food actually tends to be 'paired' with a glass of water! The whisky does tend to be the attention-hog in these social situations, while the food takes on more of a supporting role. 

Now that's not to say that the two can't work in tandem, I just don't venture far down that road in most situations. I have attended a number of tastings where carefully-selected small dishes have worked brilliantly with the paired whisky, where the result was greater than the sum of it's parts - which is the goal behind pairing anything with anything! I do recommend trying basic pairings such as fresh oysters with peated bourbon cask Islay / Island whisky like Laphroaig 10 or Talisker 10, paté and crackers or oat cakes with Campbeltown whiskies like Springbank 10 or Glen Scotia 15, crumbly blue cheese with peated sherry cask-led whiskies like Kilchoman Sanaig or Ardbeg Uigeadail (preferably the more sherry-influenced batches), and strong cheddar cheese with peated whiskies like Caol Ila 12 or Port Charlotte 10. I also steer away from creamy soft cheeses, since anything that will coat your palate to that extent will interfere with the whisky that follows it! You'll notice that all of those pairing suggestions are savoury, which is what I would normally lean towards, with the exception of the occasional piece of supermarket dark chocolate - often with a sherry cask whisky like Glendronach 18 or Benromach 10.

But variety is the spice of life, and the opportunity recently presented itself to stir things up and take a closer look at whisky pairings with a specific type of food - gourmet artisanal chocolates! I was intrigued, since this is not something I've ever focussed on, and it made for an exciting challenge! But I must confess that it wasn't actually my idea. This little adventure was the brain-child of chocolatier and chocoholic Krsna Rajalingam, founder and owner of Basik Chocolates, a small gourmet producer based in my home-turf of Brisbane, Australia. Within a couple of minutes of first meeting Krsna, it's clear that he's absolutely obsessed with his craft. His immense passion and knowledge for all things cocoa-based is infectious, and since I'd never properly considered the science and skill that goes in to producing chocolate of this level, it was quite the eye-opener! Krsna's idea was to find whisky options for pairing with his latest chocolate tasting pack, consisting of four different bite-sized bonbons (filled round chocolates), two of each variety, which was created partly with Valentine's Day in mind. Hang on a second, did I just get Valentine's Day chocolates from a man that I met at a dimly-lit whisky bar? Hmm... Oh well, I'm OK with it! 

These are not just any chocolates, either. You obviously won't find Basik's creations on the shelves at Coles, but they're worth hunting down! Have a read of the four flavours that were in this February tasting pack - finger lime & pink peppercorns, raspberry & rosewater turkish delight, vanilla bean with mango & chilli, and cherry couverture - a finer grade of chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa butter - with coconut caramel. And rather than relying on my lame attempts at photography, have a look at their Instagram page ( @basikchocolates ) to see how beautifully these little flavour-bombs are presented! No shortcuts are taken at any step of the process - top quality ingredients, sourced locally where possible, and there's an obvious meticulous attention to detail that really separates these pieces from what you've seen before. These chocolates are purposely designed to combine different and sometimes unexpected flavours, without being unnecessarily complicated. And they made for a very interesting challenge when it came to finding and recommending whiskies to taste alongside! 

I'm going to offer three different whisky recommendations with each variety of chocolate, all followed by a brief explanation. The whiskies are mainly Scotch, since they tend to be the most widely available, and for the most part I'm trying to look at more readily-available and reasonably-priced whiskies to include a larger audience. That said, the three recommendations will be: my main personal pick, then a similar alternative that I think should work just as well, but then a 'deep cut' - a less available whisky that I think will add an extra level of complexity to the pairing, all followed by a brief explanation. These are all based on my personal opinion, based on trying the chocolate first, and then sipping the whisky separately. We all have different palates and different tastes, but with any luck you'll get a general idea of the angle that I'm approaching this adventure with, and hopefully you'll be inspired to try something different in future - which is the name of the game! Basik's February pack is already sold out, so there are no ulterior motives here, but come along for the ride, and perhaps look for some similar combinations next time you think about having some chocolate with your whisky! 

Chocolate Number 1 - Raspberry & Rosewater "Turkish Delight"!

This one was quite the challenge! In the end I narrowed it down to two possibilities - unpeated ex-bourbon casks, or unpeated wine casks. The chocolate here is very rich, but the raspberry is quite strong and quite tart, so it balances out - the rosewater is subtle and is around the edges, with the crispy shell adding some crunch. 

Whisky Pairing: Gordon & MacPhail Tormore Cote Rotie (red wine finish). The Tormore is a grassy, fruity and drying whisky with subtle chocolate and berry flavours from the wine cask finish, and it adds a little spice and dryness to the rich ganache and helps balance that tart raspberry. Possibly could've gone with something that had a more overt cask influence here, like the Starward! 

Alternative: Starward Nova a.k.a Wine Cask. 

Deep Cut: Bruichladdich Single Cask Sweet French Wine (Micro Provenance #1275). Nailed this one, I have to say! It's a big (60%), rich whisky with a little punch to it, but it's also quite sweet, so it has balanced our the raspberry tartness very well, and the rich chocolate is perfect alongside that malty, rich, punchy sweet whisky. Don't worry, I'll be reviewing this whisky separately soon!

Chocolate Number 2 - Finger Lime & Pink Peppercorns!

Lime and pepper? Sounds like the perfect accompaniment to an ex-bourbon cask Islay whisky to me! The chocolate is quite rich again, but it's the finger lime that is the dominant note here - acidic, subtly sweet lime, almost cleansing, but it's like citrus caviar that bursts on the tongue and lasts quite a while. Very nice!

Whisky Pairing: Kilchoman Machir Bay. Sweet citrus, relatively soft earthy peat and subtle coastal & salty flavours - just what the doctor ordered here. The combination is quite balanced actually, with a peat smoke exhale from the Kilchoman and the chocolate and especially that finger lime kicking on for quite some time. The winning pairing so far!

Alternative: Ardbeg 10. 

Deep Cut: Ardbeg Supernova (2009). Should've called that a very deep cut! Yes, I pulled out a very big gun for this one - but the lime & pepper in the chocolate told me that I just had to do it, because alongside the massive peat in this Ardbeg is a fantastic lime & black pepper that has become something I now search for in every Ardbeg - and seldom find, especially to this degree. A Supernova of flavour!

Chocolate Number 3 - Vanilla Bean, Mango & Chilli!

Now, when it comes to combining any spirits with chilli or any spicy food, I'm generally not a fan. I think they clash, both on the nose and on the palate, and each makes the other more harsh and in some cases just unpleasant. But with only a mild, warm chilli combined with extremely high quality white chocolate, vanilla bean and rich, acidic mango - all of which are cooling - this works beautifully! 

Whisky Pairing: Bruichladdich Laddie Eight. Right on the line of the chilli boosting the alcohol a little too much, but the 'laddie is 50% ABV after all, so that's probably my fault! A slightly lower strength whisky like the Glen Scotia shouldn't have that problem, but the Laddie Eight works very nicely with the flavours regardless. That borderline-farmyard malty freshness, honey & lemon are delicious with creamy white chocolate that is not too sweet.  

Alternative: Glen Scotia 15. 

Deep Cut: Bowmore Tempest (cask strength ex-bourbon casks) Batch 6. A delicious vanilla, citrus & tropical fruit-led Bowmore. Despite the higher ABV (54.9%) it does seem to work slightly better with the chilli, which is a surprise, although the light peat could be helping with that. I really miss the Tempest series!

Chocolate Number 4 - Cherry Couverture & Coconut Caramel!

In my mind this one was screaming out for a sherry cask or wine cask whisky, but with the added curveball of the coconut. Sweet and light to start with, then the cherry builds as does the coconut - almost reminiscent of coconut ice (fudge), or even a white christmas slice (white chocolate with coconut & fruit), but with far, far better quality chocolate.

Whisky Pairing: Benromach 10. Savoury / earthy, malty and lightly peaty, which I thought would work nicely in this pairing, and it does, but it seems to cancel out the sweetness in the chocolate as well. I love Benromach 10 on it's own, and it goes well with plain dark chocolate, but a sweeter sherry cask whisky would probably work a little better with this chocolate, or perhaps just an unpeated one. 

Alternative: Glendronach 18. 

Deep Cut: Ardbeg Blaaack Committee Release. OK, this is an excellent pairing! Much higher peat level and stronger ABV than the Benromach of course, but it's the sweet wine cask finish in the Blaaack that sticks out and makes this the winner - sweet cherry & blackberry, with creamy vanilla before the peat comes through. Peat on the exhale again, but with coconut & cherry chocolate still on the palate. Delicious!

And the winner is... Yes, Kilchoman Machir Bay with the Finger Lime & Pink Peppercorns bonbon! There was more citrus in the chocolate than I expected, but it does work - lime juice caviar & rich chocolate with a sweet, gently peaty & coastal Kilchoman. That combination is a winner! I suppose the lesson here is, don't look past peat when it comes to food pairings, whether sweet or savoury. Is there anything peat can't do???

I hope you enjoyed that little voyage folks - it's a bit of a departure from the norm, but if you didn't, don't worry the regular whisky reviews will be back next week - my waistline can't support many more of these sessions! Thanks very much to Krsna for getting in touch with this little challenge, and also for giving me chocolates for Valentine's Day! I highly recommend checking out Basik Chocolate's very high quality creations in future - they're not easily forgotten, and they work brilliantly with our beloved whisky!

Cheers!

Ledaig 12yo Cask Strength (Signatory Vintage) Whisky Review!

A big, dirty, unapologetic whisky from a single refill sherry butt, made by one of the kings of big, dirty, unapologetic whisky!

Ledaig is the peated whisky produced by Tobermory Distillery on the Isle of Mull, off Scotland's west coast. While the standard range of the 10-year old and 18-year old Ledaigs are very enjoyable whiskies - and the 10-year old in particular offers excellent value for money - this whisky really comes into it's own when bottled at cask strength, and even more so when it's spent some time in sherry casks. Tobermory does offer a decent range of higher strength bottlings, often finished or matured in unusual cask types, but they're very hard to find in Australia. More like impossible, actually. So where do we turn for our Ledaig fixes? Straight to the independent bottlers, of course! Bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail, North Star, Cadenhead's and many other smaller companies release quite a lot of Ledaig, and along with Caol Ila it would have to be one of the more numerous independently bottled peated whiskies. The unusual thing there is that while Caol Ila is a large workhorse of a distillery, owned by Diageo and mostly producing spirit that is destined for blended whiskies, Tobermory is a small distillery - capable of less than a quarter of Caol Ila's annual production capacity - owned by a smaller corporation (Distell) that isn't quite as prevalent in blended whiskies. Adding to that is the fact that Tobermory produces two different spirits (and also a gin, but we'll ignore that); an unpeated spirit labelled under the distillery name, and peated spirit labelled as Ledaig, so there can't be a huge amount of their peated spirit leaving their four pot stills every year. 

Ledaig, meaning "safe haven" in Gaelic, was actually the distillery's original name, and is also the name given to the town of Tobermory's harbour where the distillery is located. Like their Distell stablemates Deanston and Bunnahabhain they've stepped up their game over the last decade or so, with the move to a minimum bottling strength of 46.3% ABV, and never chill filtering or artificially colouring their single malts for a more natural presentation. They're also releasing a multitude of exotic cask finishings from the likes of wine casks, less common varieties of sherry casks, and a number of distillery exclusives and even hand-filled cask strength bottlings. I was lucky enough to pick up two brilliant examples from Tobermory during my visit back in 2018, which were a 10-year old Bordeaux wine cask Tobermory and a 14-year old Oloroso cask Ledaig - both were exceptional, and I wish I'd bought multiples! Unfortunately most of Tobermory's production is matured on the Scottish mainland, since the original warehouses were sold off and converted into apartments during the distillery's tumultuous past - more than half of it's 200+ year history has been spent with the doors closed. There are still some casks maturing on-site in a small 'warehouse', most of which are understandably reserved for older, more limited releases and the distillery exclusive bottlings since cask space is at such a premium. It must be said though that their other bottlings don't seem to suffer too drastically from this geographical relocation, possibly since the spirit itself is so powerful - some might even call it pungent - to begin with. 

This particular Ledaig is a 12-year old single cask bottling from Signatory Vintage, so it will most likely have been matured at Edradour Distillery north of Edinburgh. It has been fully matured in a single refill Oloroso sherry butt (500-litre cask) and was bottled at a cask strength of 59.8%. It's still readily available in Australia and has been for some time now, selling for around $250 AUD, which although verging on the high-side is not unreasonable for a cask strength single cask. Signatory have an excellent track record with sherry cask Ledaigs, based on a run of excellent 10-11 year old first-fill sherry casks that were released a few years ago. This bottling is a refill cask though, so there's going to be less sherry influence and more spirit / distillery character showing through - don't take that to mean that it won't be as flavoursome as those first-fill casks though; Ledaig is not a shy spirit, and it's almost never short on character! In fact with the right spirit and the right distillery refill casks often work better than equivalent first-fill casks would, since they allow more of the distillery character to show through and aren't as assertive. There are plenty of examples (usually single casks from various independent bottlers) where a first-fill sherry cask will overwhelm the spirit completely, even when filled with heavily peated spirit and bottled at a relatively young age, which will result in a generic 'sherry bomb' that has lost most of it's character. And that's always a sad thing to see / smell / taste. But it's safe to say that will not going to be the case here!

Signatory Vintage Ledaig 12-year old, refill sherry cask, 59.8%. Mull, Scotland.

Single cask #700555, refill Oloroso sherry butt. Distilled 6/2007, bottled 2/2020. 604 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Pale amber. 

Nose: Lovely dirty Ledaig. Lanolin balm (sheep's wool oil), muddy farmyards, machine oil and fried greasy bacon. Sweet dried berries and stewed stone fruit, but served in chilli oil rather than juice or syrup! Muddy, dank peat with a little spirit-y alcohol nip - but Ledaig isn't known for it's gentleness! 

Texture: Medium weight. Very oily, and not as dirty or funky as the nose suggested. A little heat, but it works. 

Taste: Sweet stone fruit - peach and nectarine, and still in chilli oil, with some black pepper thrown in. Ashy hot smoke, more lanolin balm / oil, and a touch of that fried greasy bacon. Yes there's a little heat, but it's not enough to be distracting. 

Finish: Long length. Spiced sweet caramel (spiced with cloves), chilli oil and ashy hot smoke again. Muddy, dank peat, and a little spicy & nutty oak in the background. A touch of dark chocolate and some old rubber, and muddy peat 'til the end.  

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: A great Ledaig that shows more of the distillery character and spirit character than the first-fill cask maturations / finishes tend to. And there's plenty of sweetness, farmyard-y funk and dank-ness on show - like Port Charlotte's northern cousin, who's had a more modest upbringing! This Signatory bottling has been well-chosen to show the typical Ledaig style, but in a more balanced fashion that it often is - balanced between spirit & cask, that is. Particularly compared to some of the official bottlings that have had more complicated cask regimens thrust upon them - although that often works to great effect as well, Ledaig is quite versatile! If you're a fan of this dirty-yet-sweet, rough-around-the-edges style of whisky, this single cask will be right up your alley. Plenty of punch and plenty of character, and the bottle has sweetened, relaxed and opened-up nicely with a decent amount of breathing time. 

Well done to The Whisky Company for getting their hands on a good amount of this cask. It's easier to get a hold of than the cask strength official bottlings are (in Australia), and it's always hard to go past the Signatory Cask Strength 'decanter style' bottles - although pretty as they are, they're painful to pour from!

Cheers!