Cutty Sark Twitter Tasting: A 33 Year Old, 3 Cocktails & 1 Fridge!

The Line Up!

Cutty Sark have teamed up with White Lyan for the latest inspired & educational Tweet Tasting event, which was once again ably hosted by Steve from The Whisky Wire.

We were given a chance to get our taste buds on and around their 33 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky, a rare dram indeed as only 3456 bottles have been produced globally.

Leading the sampling was Cutty Sark’s whisky blender @Kirsteen Campbell.

White Lyan, which was named ‘Best New International Cocktail Bar 2014’, were tasked with producing some cocktails for this tasting event and they did not disappoint. Their innovative style and perfectionism nailed it on the night.

The cocktails sampled were:-

Cutty Sark Artists Special

Cutty Sark Seelbach

Cutty Sark Old Fashioned

Tasting Notes – Cutty Sark 33 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky ( 41.75% )

Cutty Sark 33 Year Old

Focusing on the exciting Art Deco period of the 1920s and early 1930s this limited edition bottling has been released by Cutty Sark to celebrate a time when Cutty Sark blended Scotch whisky found its way into America.

Once there, it flourished within the emerging cocktail culture and changed the face of Scotch whisky forever.

The distinctive bottle, designed especially for this new expression, is beautifully decorated with sunburst and geometric designs in the style symbolic of this significant era.

Presented in a piano black wooden box inlaid with mother of pearl, it also contains two decorated glasses and a stunning 32-page book which provides a brief insight into the iconic Art Deco period.

As to the specific content of this 33 Year Old? It’s a blend of whiskies from 22 casks over 9 different distilleries …. and the rest is top secret!

Cutty Sark 33 Year Old is available from their online shop.

Nose: Toffee, fudge & vanilla straight off! Closely followed by sweet red apples, herbs. Very mellow.

Palate: Rich, fruity cake mix. Smooth honey, fudge and spices with little hints of grapefruit. There’s a little wood in there as well.

Finish: Wonderfully long, sweet finish with a gentle spiciness thrown in!

Overall: Excellent dram and amazing packaging – what is there not to like? Well not much – the £650 price tag may reign you in a bit though!

Tasting Notes – Cutty Sark Artists Special

Cutty Sark Artists Special

Cutty Sark, Oloroso sherry, Redcurrant & Lemon
(circa. 1927)
– Poured from the fridge into a frozen cocktail glass

What first hits me is the sweet and fruitness with, strangely, a hint of ginger – yum!

There’s a heavy taste and texture of Oloroso sherry and I love the way the whisky cuts thru the sherry sweetness to add some OOMPH!

All in all, it’s a well balanced feast of, tangy lemon, sweet sherry and warming whisky!

Tasting Notes – Cutty Sark Seelbach

Cutty Sark Seelbach

Cutty Sark, Triple Sec & Bitters
(circa 1917)
– Poured from fridge into a chilled champagne flute & topped up with 75ml. fresh soda water

Intensely fruity and sweet, strong and bitter – all at once – Nice!

Orange n’ lemon with a lovely bitterness that compliments each other perfectly

Fizzy, sharp, gorgeous!

These cocktails are SO morish! 🙂 #watchout

Tasting Notes – Cutty Sark Old Fashioned

Cutty Sark Old Fashioned

Cutty Sark, Beeswax, Bitters & Gold Flakes
(circa 1800 to 1880)
– Poured from fridge into a frozen whisky glass

Everyone was captivated by the gold flakes dancing about in this cocktail; re-assurance was sought that they were okay to consume.

But all was well – edible gold it was!

As expected from the beeswax, there was rich honey with a floral and creamy sweetness.

Ths was topped off with a spicy warmth.

My Favourite Cocktail On The Night

Difficult one this. Morish they all are, tasty they all are but I’m going for the Seelbach – long, fizzy, sharp, fruity, gorgeous!

If you want to catch up on what all the tasters had to say you can view the tweets by searching for the hash tag #CuttySark33 on Twitter.

Many thanks to Steve at The Whisky Wire (@TheWhiskyWire) for a great dram evening.

Also, many thanks to the team at White Lyan (@WhiteLyan) for preparing & sending such amazing samples!

Visit them in London to taste their inspired creations – Open 7 days from 5pm. Reservations available via their website – takeaway cocktails are also available!

And of course, Cutty Sark Whisky (@cuttysarkblend), without whom! (They also have an excellent online shop!)