ADVENTURES IN TASTE by Richard Whittington For more than a year I have been exploring the malt whisky dinner, an occasion where malt whiskies are drunk throughout a five course meal. This is far from the dauntingly alcoholic experience it sounds, since only five small measures are served and these, after the first sip, are usually slightly diluted with water. When dinner is over, an unlimited amount of rare cask strength whiskies are available, but that’s entirely up to the individual. You build the hangover of your choice or leave virtuous. The choice is yours. Each malt is served in a different kind of wine glass, a way of emphasising the individuality of each malt while the glasses give a better opportunity to savour their aroma. Every dinner is different—different cultural or national themes and different emphases—but all share the same process of taste discovery. Each brings its own revelations and each reinforces the pleasure of eating and drinking. These are not only dinners of discovery but also hedonistic tastings in which the whisky draws attention to aspects of the food and vice versa. The sponsor of this year of eating and drinking is United Distillers & Vintners, the dinners being particularly linked to the company’s Classic Malts, a selection of whiskies that are representative of styles related to topography and geography. Thus Lowland, Highland and Island whiskies are presented with dishes that balance their unique characteristics. The dinners have been approached purely on the basis of taste. Although there is no rule book that governs the drinking of spirits, serving them with food allows us to break free from the constraints imposed by received wisdom, the historic hows and whys of spirit consumption. I believe the next decade will see malt whisky dinners taken seriously, for they let people explore their sense of taste in a unique way. They also have a perfectly decent historic imperative. The widespread consumption of wine with lunch and dinner outside wine-producing countries is a comparatively recent phenomenon and, until recently, a habit indulged only within a small and privileged social group. One of the most important things the project has thrown up has been the identification of “killer combinations”—that is partnerships of food and drink that work so well and appeal so universally to everybody’s tastes that they act almost as revelations to the palate. Examples of this are The Loch Fyne blend with hot-smoked salmon or smoked cods’ roe with a warm potato salad accompanied by Talisker, which is also the perfect accompaniment for a jugged kipper. Black Pudding is delicious between sips of Oban while Lagavulin, one of the smokiest and most powerful of the island malts, is superb with salty Roquefort or Lanark blue. Some killer combinations are surprising: Glenkinchie with Japanese-style raw fish is sensational, while Cardhu is the perfect partner for any pudding containing vanilla. Sausages in all their many forms are particularly good with a wide range of malt whiskies and given that a haggis is really nothing more than an over-sized sausage, this is not really surprising. Texture is very important. Pieces of simply treated meat cry out for a glass of wine and as a general rule, wine-based sauces should be avoided. Dinners are only one way of exploring malt whiskies with food. There is also the fast growing enjoyment of what the Spanish call tapas and most of the Mediterranean countries call meze—delicious small dishes designed to heighten the enjoyment of the drink taken with them, foods which are eats-with-drinks. Tapas bars specialize in one or two dishes, leading to constant movement of people eating chicken livers in one and tripe in another, both incidentally happy partners for malt whisky. We tend to think of tapas as being automatically accompanied by sherry and wine, yet whisky is an increasingly likely alternative. In this context it is interesting to note that Spain’s malt whisky preference is for Cardhu, a honeyed whisky with identifiable vanilla back-notes, while J & B Rare is the country’s number one blended Scotch. Tapas served selectively with malts that partner their unique flavours is an intriguing spin on the larger and more formal whisky dinners. They are really only canapés by another name. Try serving délices au Roquefort —a thick, set cheese béchamel coated in egg and fine crumbs and deep-fried— parmesan shortbread, haggis tarts, spicy sausages and scotched quails eggs with a range of different malts to explore the dining experience in microcosm. There are no absolutes in all of this and there is no shame in the odd failure for this is something you can only prove by doing it. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And of course, in what you drink with it.