Orkney Island Whisky Tasting at Fook Kin
On March 6th, we had an Orkney tasting at FOOK KIN 福劲! The tasting started off with the OB expressions of Highland Park 12YO (Thank you James Ting) and Scapa Skiren to understand the distillery character!
After that, we moved on to a pair of sister casks bottled under Blackadder's raw cask range. Those sister casks were both distilled from the same distillery on the same day, left maturing together side by side and bottled on the same occasion. Yet, the pair of single casks displayed slight differences. The room was split between which single cask was better! The pair of single casks were bottled at high strength, exposing participants to the raw flavour and power of this Orkney distillery! But with water, the subtle and sweeter sides start to show, unfolding into another experience altogether!
After that we moved onto an undisclosed Orkney at 15YO bottled under The Drunken Master, an Independent Bottler in Taiwan, imported by Spirits Castle, which displayed demure and beautiful notes.
Lastly, we ended the night with a 20YO Highland Park from G&M (bottled for Whisky Mercenary) which displayed a calibre of maturation that brought about additional notes leather and musk!
After everyone went through the whiskies, the food came in, with succulent pork, juicy duck and crispy sweet soy sauce squid (No North Ronaldsay sheeps were killed in the process). The savoury and full flavoured platter went well with the coastal notes and heather honey notes of the Orkney whiskies. One interesting pairing was either of the Orkney 12YO single casks with char siew, as the power of the single malt was able to match the savoury oil notes of the pork.
Stay tuned to the next tasting!