Nick, on ice: Whisky. So much Whisky.

Saturday evening saw the much anticipated inaugural Great Whisky Taste-Off 2014. Unbeknownst to us when we chose the date, Saturday was also World Whisky Day.

James and I had been discussing this night for weeks (he takes his whisky very seriously these days) – rather sadly, I think we were both more excited about it than we are when we go climbing.

James provided 9 of the 12 whiskies we tried (thanks!), I cooked my now-famous ribs and Holly took on cocktail duties. We started on grain whisky, then went to Japan and on to the US for bourbon, then back to the home of it all for Speyside cask-strengthers and finished by burning the place down with a peatfest round. And honestly, I think we all liked them all (James doesn’t buy shit). We declared one of the few I provided as the overall winner – Aberlour A’bunadh (certainly for £ per dram), closely followed by Lagavulin and James’ special Laphroiag. I think we may have converted James to cocktails with Manhattans, Whisky Sours and Mint Juleps. I must admit, I got much more out of the tasting than I expected – we discussed each at length and even made notes.

We were still trying various permutations of the cocktails when it began to get light outside and so we eventually got to bed just after 4am. It has been a long while since I have done that. Willow was a delight and slept through, fed at 7am (I am told, I was unconscious) and then slept again until 10am – which was a right result, I was in no fit state to tend to a baby.