Ollie Alcorn is our head distiller here at the Lough Gill Distillery. In this blogpost Ollie explains what happens during one of Athrú’s virtual tastings.

The pandemic has bought challenges and opportunities to people all across the globe and here at Lough Gill Distillery we're doing our best to help out in any way we can. The distillery is currently closed to the public in an effort to keep our staff safe, however, we still want to share what we're doing and like many people, Zoom is the answer to this.

Sampling

We have recently hosted a number of really successful zoom tours of the distillery interspersed by tasting and discussing our three whiskies currently available: Annacoona, Knocknarea and Keshcorran.

I begin the tour by sampling the first of the whiskey trilogy as this is a good way of breaking the ice after introducing myself. I will walk them through my own routine for sampling the whiskey which involves observing the colour first, best done against a white surface or natural light. The colour gives me an indication of age and perhaps the kind of cask it's been in i.e. bourbon, oloroso, red wine etc.

Next, I'll ask the participants to smell or nose the whiskey. Unlike wine, whiskey does not necessarily need to be swirled (although I won't stop you!) because the alcohol content is much higher than wine and the spirit is evaporating as soon as it's poured.

My preference is to use a distiller nosing glass for tasting as the tapered upper part of the glass greatly enhances the vapours into your nose. I'll ask participants "what does it's aroma remind you of?" Is it spice, fruit, wood or cereal for example? Keeping in mind it may not be just one. From this we can now delve a little deeper.

If it's fruit you are getting, is it dried fruit, orchard fruit, citrus or tropical fruit? And then of these sub-categories can you specify which fruit it may be? For example, I may smell dried raisin and prune, but I'll leave it open for others to share what they're getting. It's amazing what people can smell!\

Distillery Process and Second Tasting

As participants continue sampling their first whiskey, I lead them through the distillery process beginning with malt handling, then mashing and fermentation. It takes me a few moments to walk from the brewhouse to the stillhouse so during this time I can explain some of the future plans for the distillery and hopefully get a bit of banter going as well. Now I'm up on the still gantry everyone begins marvelling at the three beautiful sculptures which serve as our pot stills. I now have a chance to explain in detail what's happening inside these vessels and how that makes our spirit special.

While at this location I can also ask participants to taste their second whiskey and this time I focus more on the taste or palate. I suggest taking a very small sip to begin with, like you're sipping a very hot coffee. What does the whiskey feel like inside your mouth as you move it around and squash it? Is it oily, hot, sweet, savoury or bitter for example? Can you now taste the raisin or pepper or liquorice? I like to add a little drop of water to our whiskies as the alcohol content is quite high and the small bit of water can unlock other flavours. I'm now on my way to the final destination, the maturation warehouse for the third tasting.

Maturation Warehouse and Third Tasting

Once inside the warehouse I can talk to the participants about what casks we fill, where we source them and of course how many are in the warehouse. There's always a question or two about the building itself as it's remarkable in size and the potential is massive not only to the company but to the local area as an attraction. Before ending the call, we all taste Keshcorran, the final whiskey and my personal favourite. The flavours in this whiskey are orchard fruits like green apples and pears but you can also get pineapple and lemon sherbet. I ask everyone to focus on the finish of the whiskey this time. What flavours linger? How long can you still taste them in your mouth after taking a sip? What was everyone's favourite? By this point everyone is a little tipsy and we can all relax and chat.

Our next virtual tour and tasting is on 13 May; you can book tickets below. We would love to see you there.