Tag Archives: bacon

What is the Best Single Malt to Go with a Bacon Roll?

This entry was posted in Blog, Other Whisky News, Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival and tagged , , , , , on by .

Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2018 Wrap-up #2

Over a dozen festivals or more we at The Whisky Shop Dufftown, courtesy of our guests at Spirit of Speyside Whisky festival, have been trying to answer this question which is one of the greatest of all questions.  Each year we pitch 3 new contenders against the reigning champion from the previous festival to see which one wins and goes forward to the next contest.

The winner is decided upon by guests attending our bacon roll and whisky tasting who vote for their favourite in a blind tasting.  This is unsmoked bacon and no sauce.  This is science!

We have collated the votes from all of the tastings we held.  Counted them.  Checked them again.  And ensured there was no outside influence.

We can now formally announce the results:

Joint 3rd - Macallan 12 Years Old Fine Oak (1) & Glen Moray 15 Years Old (4)

Joint 1st - Benriach 10 Years Old Classic (2) & Glenrothes Vintage Reserve (3)

  • The number in brackets denotes the place of the whisky in the order of the tasting.

There was just 3 votes separating the 4 whiskies involved!  We will take that to mean we are getting better and better at choosing whiskies for the pairing.

As Glenrothes Vintage Reserve has been discontinued we are declaring the overall winner which will go forward to the next challenge to be Benriach 10 Years Old Classic.

Glenrothes Vintage Reserve and Glen Moray 15 Years Old were the joint winners from the last festival.

98 people took part this year and we thank them for their kind support.

What is the Best Single Malt to Have with a Bacon Roll?

This entry was posted in About Dufftown, Blog, Whisky Tastings and Events News and tagged , , , , on by .

This is probably one of the 2 greatest questions in life so to find out what is the best single malt to have with a bacon roll we have been asking guests to our festivals to take part in a blind tasting to vote for their favourite.  We have had our guests try over 50 different single malts over the years we have been doing this experiment.  No sauce this is pure science!

At this year's Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival there was no reigning champion from the previous festival to put in as Arran Lochranza which had won the last 3 competitions has been discontinued so we had a fresh start.  The 4 we picked were:

  • Glenturret Triple Wood
  • Glenallachie Distillery Edition
  • Glenrothes Vintage Reserve
  • Glen Moray 15 Years Old

This was a hard fought contest and we were very surprised to have a tie at the top with 2 clear winners.  All you need to know is when you next have a bacon roll then pour yourself a dram of Glen Moray 15 Years Old or Glenturret Triple Wood!

glen-moray-15-years-oldglenturret-triple-wood-edition-batch-2WSD Image Bacon 01

The experiment will continue in September.

 

The Whisky Shop Dufftown Food and Whisky Pairings

This entry was posted in Blog, Whisky Tastings and Events News and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on by .

Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2012 Blog 2

During the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival this year we ran a cafe & bar at the venue for our tastings.  Not only did this serve much needed sustenance to festival guests but also helped us continue our experiments with food and whisky pairings.  We looked at bacon rolls with 4 whiskies and Haggis with a different 4 whiskies.  Guests were treated to the way the whisky and food combinations change the flavours of both, emphasising some flavours in the food and the whisky and also creating new ones!


We were delighted by the number of people who chose to take part and the fabulously positive response to our whisky and food tastings. Some guests had not done this kind of thing before and where blown away by the whisky and food experience.

Bacon

Brave breakfast festival guests were asked to sample a bacon roll with 4 different whiskies and faced with the challenge of choosing their favourite.  The whiskies chosen by Mike Lord were all distillery bottlings: Cragganmore 12, Glen Elgin 12, Singleton of Dufftown 12 and Benromach 10.  The bacon was unsmoked and guests were asked not add sauce – this is serious stuff.  The clear winner was Cragganmore 12.  This was a treat for those that tried the tasting and a great way to start the festival day.

Bacon Roll and a Dram

Cragganmore 12 Years Old

Haggis

During the lunch time period we switched our attention to Haggis, Neeps and Tatties.  (For those of you wondering neeps are swedes and tatties are potatoes.)  The focus was on pairing the Haggis with Clynelish 14 (as suggested by the Classic Malts website), An Cnoc 12, Aberlour 16 and Benriach 10.  Whisky and Haggis is a particularly good combination with the spices in the Haggis working well with the whiskies.  Again there was a clear favourite – Aberlour 16.

Aberlour 16 Years Old

Haggis, neeps and tatties

It’s Down to You

With each whisky and food combination there was not one pairing that some people did not vote for as their favourite.  This shows again that there are no hard and fast rules with whisky and the only way to find your favourite is to try it for yourself.

Special Thanks

We would like to thank the Dufftown Lodge and their wives and friends for running the cafe and serving spectacular food during the festival.  Particular thanks go to Yvonne Smart whose help, cooking and good humour were the backbone of the cafe operation.

Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2012

The Autumn Speyside Festival

For anyone coming to the Autumn Speyside Festival and wishing to attend our events at The WSD Autumn Festival 2012 then it is more than likely than tickets for our events will only be available from our website.  There will be no change for the Spirit of Speyside Festival 2013.