The weekend of 16th September was the annual gathering of the Friends of the Classic Malts, this year the event took place at Oban Distillery.

150 friends (chosen by ballot) are welcomed on each of the two days for a relaxed malt-in (sorry).

LFW joined them for the afternoon to see what went on at these covert get-togethers.

After a sumptuous buffet lunch it was into a tasting session. There were about four small groups participating at any one time and we joined the one led by Jim Beveridge who is responsible for United Distillers & Vintner's substantial research facilities.

In a fascinating departure from traditional nosing and tasting sessions Jim demonstrated the often surprising combinations of malt whisky and food.
His lovely assistant was Duncan Tait, Operations Manager at Glenkinchie (what used to be called the 'brewer').

We were given little sachets with eleven foods including parmesan cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, crystallised kumquats, ginger, pistachios, dried apricots & olives.
Everyone was fascinated with the results, some appreciating one combination, others not at all.
Personally, the mix of Talisker and dark chocolate was great and Lagavulin with biltong unbelievable! It seemed to reveal pure peaty malted barley!

Next, everyone joined a Q&A session with an "illustrious panel". They were; Steve Blake, Manager of Oban Distillery, Dr Nicholas Morgan, Marketing Director for the Classic Malts, Jon Allen the Chairman (stacking and putting away mostly), Murdo MacDonald who is archivist for Argyll and Bute Council and Charlie MacLean, Oditor-at-large for Whishy Magazine, and a whisky-writer too.
They spent a very amusing hour answering questions on malts and the local whisky history.

During the day there were other ongoing amusements including cask building, copper-smithing, boat trips around the bay (unusually for Oban, it was raining and LFW declined the boat-trip).
Pictured is the 'Test your nose' session where 12 numbered samples of new make spirit were presented and you had to match the characters with identified samples of Cragganmore (meaty), Oban (floral) and Talisker (peaty) - for the twelve samples there was only these three possible answers. Your correspondent scored an acceptable nine but many scored ten and a few twelve.

It was explained how EVERY batch distilled goes to the QC lab in Elgin where a panel of seven people ensure that each of the 26 distilleries in the Company is producing the desired product, a fascinating devotion to quality.
LFW's espionage services are now available...

After tea there was speeches of thanks, prize giving and a final head-to-head between the two best in the cask building competition (less than two minutes).

Charlie MacLean won the presentation-tube fighting comp.

Many people wondered if that was a sporran or a hole in his kilt.... Actually it was Glenturret's Distillery rat, called 'Browser' funnily enough.

There are 80,000 friends of the Classic Malts around the world and a small number are lucky enough to enjoy a filled day of fascinating whisky experiences and some generous hospitality.