The Fifty Best Scotch Tasting featuring Nestor Miranda Cigars

Event Flyer 

Hello folks, we are coming to you from the Fifty Best Scotch tasting event which also featured two cigars from famed cigar maker Nestor Miranda.  The two cigars featured were the Special Selection and the newly released Murcielago cigars.  (Review of these to follow in a separate post).  The event was held at Barclay Rex Cigars, 75 Broad Street NYC from 7pm - 9pm on Thursday December 3rd, 2009.  On hand were Vincent Nastri, owner of Barclay Rex, Joe Guzman, Director of Marketing Barclay Rex, Patrick Grant, blogger and technical consultant to Joe Guzman, Mike from The Fifty Best and a representative from Scott's Selection.  Vincent and Mike were the co-hosts of this wonderful event.

Joe Guzman and Vincent Nastri

Mike from The Fifty Best and his wife

Representative from Scott's Selection

Author Patrick Grant

The event featured tastings of some great Single Malts and one Blended Scotch (comprised of two Single Malts blended).  There were nine Single Malts, from all regions (Highlands (Speyside), Lowlands and Islay) and the sole Blended Scotch was from the Speyside region.

Cover of Scott's Selection brochure

Box from King's Crest 25yr Blended Scotch

The tasting began promptly at 7pm and we were tasting all the Scotches in order of proof, from the ones that were at 86.4 proof up to ones that were 110 proof or higher.  Scott's Selection provided the scotches for this event and the ones we tasted are known, in the industry, as Natural Cask Strength.  This provides the taster with Single Malts that are bottled with the greatest of care to ensure the malts are kept as close as possible to the natural state in the cask.  Every barrel of Scott's Selection is bottled at cask strength, undiluted by water.  The bottles are also non-chillfiltered, that is the scotches are not chilled during the filtering process prior to bottling.  Chill filtering is a process where the whisky is separated from the fats and oils rendering a clearer Scotch.

The Scotches that we tasted were the following:

Auchentoshan 1983 Lowland 104.8 proof
Bunnahabhain 1988 Islay 107.6 proof
Caol Ila 1984 Islay 109.4 proof
Glenlivet 1977 Highlands (Speyside) 106.2 proof
Glen Elgin 1980 Highlands (Speyside) 88.2 proof
Glen Rothes 1980 Highlands (Speyside) 111.6 proof
Highland Park 1986 Highlands (Orkney Island) 108.2 proof (This was the most northern Scotch present in the tasting)
Longmorn-Glenlivet 1971 Highlands (Speyside) 107 proof
Macallan 1989 Highlands (Speyside) 105.4 proof
Kings Crest blended Scotch whisky aged 25 years Highlands (Speyside)

We were instructed to taste the Scotches first as poured from each bottle to get the initial flavor profile.  Then the representative then added a few drops of water, which was to open up the flavor profile. We  tasted the Scotches with the water added which opened up the flavor profile. The only Scotch, the King's Crest, did not need the water as it was a blended scotch.

Bands from the Nestor Miranda Cigars

The two cigars featured were two from the line of Nestor Miranda.  The first one was the Special Selection and the newly released Murcielago.  Both of these cigars are a short robusto measuring 4" x 40 ring gauge. (Review of these cigars to follow).  Each attendee was given one of each to enjoy along with the fine spread of delicious Italian cold cuts, prosciutto, capicola ham,  mini mozzarella cheese balls,mortadella, black italian olives and great slices of semolina bread.

Once all attendees had completed the Scotch tasting they were then able to go back and get an additional tasting of the Scotchrs that they found to their liking.  A good time was had by this reviewer and all the attendees.

No events are scheduled at Barclay Rex for the immediate future but, as always, this reviewer will keep you up to date when events are schedule.  The reviewer will be attending the last, for 2009, monthly meeting of the NY Pipe Club and at this event we will be enjoying pipe tobacco blends that are produced by Dunhill of London and also some blends from Dunhill of London that are no longer produced.  This event will be held at Florio's Italian Restaurant located at 75 Grand Street NYC on Tuesday December 8th, 2009.

That is it, I could go on forever, from The Fifty Best event.  Anyone wishing to see additional picture can, as always, click on the following link FiftyBest to see what you missed.