Game on with SMWS and the Glorious 12

let’s begin

I was recently invited to a media night to launch The Glorious 12: Rare Whisky & Game Tapas pairing.

In their words:

Flavour hunters are invited to a taste of our Members’ Rooms with this feast of rare single cask Society whiskies, expertly matched to Scottish game tapas. Enjoy a journey of four flavoursome pairings along with a Society tour guide.

As you all probably gathered, I’m a big fan of The Scotch Malt Whisky. It was a chat with their brand ambassador John McCheyne many years ago who opened my mind to what they do and started me on journey of the senses.

So to get this invite was not only great but I knew The Glorious 12 was going to test all the senses.

As it happened I managed to turn up first so was able to take lots of photos (below) and catch up with Helen and the team who were all giddy with excitement over how everything had come together.

I must say I think they did a great job; the space, I assume is normally a storage facility, had been transformed into a popup kitchen, popup bar, shooting gallery, long table dining hall and even had antlers as coat hooks. Simply brilliant.

As is the way with these things I bumped into and caught up with a few fellow whisky bloggers and friends including Ben, Kirsty, Alwynne and met Graeme from one of my favourite whisky blogs, The Edinburgh Whisky Blog.

We started the night with a 25 year old Cooley, SMWS Bottle 117.3 Hubba-bubba, mango and Monstera, which, retailing at over £330, set the tone for the quality and brilliance of the evening to come.

After many introductions and stimulating conversations we took our seats at a table of our choice and surveyed the menu in front of us.

The premise was that there were three menus;

Toe in the water
A walk on the wild side
Brace yourself

Each being designed to have different whisky and game pairings from The Wild Game Co.

Most people chose Brace yourself as it clearly had the more powerful whiskies but, being a guy who normally drinks the peaked powerful stuff I decided to choose by food and see how the sweeter, fruitier single cask single malts fared.

I’m so glad I did.

Graeme had massive food envy all night, we tried each other’s whiskies so we could ensure we knew all there was on offer and essentially got taken on a roller coaster of exotic flavours and ideas.

For me, as great as the food and of course the whisky was, the highlight had to be that all the food was served in clay pigeons. How cool.

On my menu was:
Roe deer striploin, frites and bearnaise
Grouse, brioche & fig
Smoked rabbit
Honey roasted woodcock and samphire

I was shocked at how much the game affected the whisky experience, we had been encouraged at the beginning to sip the whiskies before having any of the food so we could compare how flavour profiles expanded and altered once food was added and I can only say that was sage advice.

The best pairing on my menu was by far the roe deer and SMWS bottle 35.120, it just worked brilliantly, a couple were hit or miss but as all Great Drammers know, these things are incredibly subjective so if ever creating any of these pairings I would suggest getting involved and seeing what happens and not being afraid to mix and match for the best match.

Tags: GameGlorious 12SMWSWhisky pairings

Greg

My name is Greg, and I’m a brand strategy consultant, writer, speaker, host and judge specialising in premium spirits. My mission is to experience, share and inspire with everything great about whisky, whiskey, gin, beer and fine dining through my writing, my brand building and my whisky tastings.