Last night Myself and good friend Craig, a fellow blogger ( craigleewatson.wordpress.com )  had the privilege of joining in with Douglas Laing and a live tasting on Facebook involving The Epicurean and a couple of cocktails. The Epicurean is a release from Douglas Laing to showcase 2 of the best Lowland distilleries Scotland has to offer..

The Blended malt comes across as a typical lowland whisky offering soft floral notes and fresh fruits, the nose gives you subtle grassy notes, fresh citrus peels, freshly peeled apples and soft poached pear.. Gentle vanilla and honey notes offer a little sweetness but it’s all about the soft, subtle nature of the lowlands that make this a great malt.. On the palate those subtle notes just carry on delighting the senses, soft fruits and delicate sweet notes tease as you take your sips..

A  perfect summer dram.. As we sipped this gentle dram we made up out first cocktail of the night in the form of ” The Horses Neck” made up with Angostura bitters ( 2 drops Craig not the 6-7 we had ) a loopy lemon peel or in our case a curly wurly lemon peel, mix these with 1 large pour of the Epicurean whisky and 3 parts quality ginger ale.. This was actually quite refreshing although our measures may not have been totally correct.. I can see this fitting right into an afternoon barbecue ! The ginger really seemed to match well with the whisky.. Second cocktail was ” The Appleyard ” which is made up with 1 part Epicurean whisky and 3 parts quality cloudy apple juice.. Again our measure might have been a little out.  This cocktail was very good, an extremely refreshing drink and one that could very easily be dangerous on a hot summer day, A perfect picnic drink !  We tried this with the very nice ginger biscuits provided and boy did they go well together..  A very enjoyable evening in the company of Craig and Douglas Laing and of course the perfect party guest .. The Epicurean!!

My full tasting notes for The Epicurean can be found here..

https://ocdwhisky.wordpress.com/2016/04/22/the-epicurean/ …

My thanks go out to Douglas Laing and the Remarkable Malts team for the invite and opportunity to take part in this very enjoyable evening..