Serge's World

Everyone knows that the best whisky comes from Scotland, Ireland and the USA, but there are other places that produce some excellent stuff.

Surprisingly, Japan is home to whisky that is very reminiscent of Scotland, and just as good! The Japanese whisky industry was inspired by Scotland, and the results are almost indistinguishable

I received a bottle of Suntory Royal Blend form a friend who had visited Japan, and it is one of the superior blends which I have tried. It is amazingly smooth with subtle flavours. It is very easy drinking.

It is a good whisky from the most unlikely of places.

With my brother’s visit, he brought along a box of Whisky tasters from the Kilbeggan distillery. Each of these whiskies had a very distinctive taste.

Kilbeggan Blend

The first whisky we tried of this batch was the Kilbeggan blend of malt and grain whiskies. The flavour was light and sweet, and being rather mild, it tasted pretty generic to me. It had not much complexity and would probably be suited for mixing. There was nothing bad in the flavour, and was quite drinkable, but there wasn’t much to it.

Tyrconnell Single Malt

Next on the list was the Tyrconnell Single Malt. This whisky was quite a bit stronger in flavour and had a distinctive fruity taste. It was one of the drier whiskies we had. Overall it was an enjoyable drink.

Kilbeggan 8 Year Old Single Grain

The Kilbeggan 8 Year Old was, by far, the best Irish whisky we had tasted on my brother’s visit. Being a single grain, the flavour profile was very different to most whiskies, and had a very sweet, smooth and accessible feel to it. It drank very well.

Connamara Single Malt

The last Irish whisky on our menu was the Connamara. The flavour of this whisky was like none other I had tasted. It was peaty but with a completely different flavour profile to the peaty Scotch whisky that I love so much. The taste was more reminiscent of a sooty chimney than a pleasant smokey hit. This is not a whisky I would try again soon.

My brother came over for a visit and brought along a few tasters of Irish Whisky. Normally, we enjoy Scotch together, but with him having moved to Ireland recently, we thought we would try a few Irish samples. The first distillery on our list was the Tullamore Dew.

Tullamore Dew Blend

The Tullamore Dew Blend was the first bottle we tried. It is a very smooth whisky and good for enjoying socially.

Tullamore Dew Special Reserve 12 Year Old

Next we tried the Special Reserve 12 Year Old. It is a blend of pot still, malt and grain whiskies, and has a rich bold caramelly palette, with some woody notes from the casks. Overall it was a relatively enjoyable bottle.

Tullamore Dew 12 Year Old Single Malt Limited Edition

I had noticed a general trend of the Irish whiskies to have a softer note to them than their Scotch counterparts in general, but the Tullamore Dew 12 Year Old Single Malt reminded me much more of Scotch whisky than the Irish we had been sampling.

Matured in Oloroso Sherry casks, this whisky packs more of a punch. It hits you hard but follows by a lingering smoothness. It is a fairly sweet fruity whisky, with the sherry flavouring coming through well.

Previously I have spoken about the results of a DNA test I had done earlier this year, however, my oldest known maternal ancestor has been Johanna Jacoba Reid (nee Bender) (1864-1935) for quite a long time now, and I made very little progress. This all changed this week when I got hold of several documents shedding more light.

The first document was the death notice for Johanna Jacoba Reid (nee Bender), which lists her date of death as 28 October 1935. This adds new information on Johanna, but is not the biggest discovery of the week. That honour goes instead to the probate record of one Sarah Elizabeth Reid (nee Bender) who died in Kimberley on the 6th of July 1919.

So, how can someone else’s record help so much? I had had no previous relationship to her in my tree, but genealogical hints sometimes come in surprising places.

Sara Elizabeth Reid, born Bender is listed as the daughter of Frederick Bender and Annie Bender, born Truter, and was the widow of James Reid. She appears to have died childless, and so the probate record lists her siblings as follows: John D. Bender, Abraham Bender, Maria F Jackson born Bender, Charlotte Maria Herbert born Bender, Letty Steele born Bender, Annie Reid born Bender and Fredericka Gietzman born Bender.

There are many clues here indicating that she was the sister of Johanna Jacoba Bender.
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Genealogy has a rather interesting problem. Due to the fact that every person has 2 parents, each generation you go back in time, the number of individuals at that generation increases by a factor of 2 each time. Even at 10 generations back you have 1024 individuals. This poses a bit of a problem when trying to view the data. Most genealogical software only shows you several generations in one view, which, is all that can fit on a screen, which leads to only being able to see small parts of your family tree at a time.

This is where AncestryWeb3D comes in. I chose to write this application in Unity 3D for two reasons. Firstly, I hadwanted to learn how to program with Unity, and secondly, it would give a great way to visually draw the tree.

In the tree, individuals are represented by spheres - red for female and blue for male ancestors. Ancestors with no known parents have a green semi-transparent shell to indicate dead-ends. The individuals are connected by lines of descent.

The application loads a standard GEDCOM file making it useful to visualise any tree.
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Aged in oak casks for 12 years, the Glenfiddich 12 Year Old is one of those classic whiskies.

It has an emininently smooth profile, with spicy and floral notes.

While this is a good whisky - and I do enjoy drinking it - for me, this whisky seems a little generic. I miss some of the complexity that I have grown used to in some of the other whiskies in my collection.

The Dalwhinnie 15 Year Old is one of those very drinkable whiskies. Ut uas the sweet flavours reminiscent of toffee, custard and honey, with a bit of smokiness adding some depth.

With some of the malty flavours, it makes me think a little about the Belgian ales, which I also love.

Altogether, this is an outstanding whisky, and would not complain it ended up in my Christmas stocking.

The 1835 Bourbon was the first whisky my brother and I tried when he came to visit this last week. It is the only American Bourbon I have in my collection, given to me by an ex of a friend of my wife and I. Normally I don’t drink much Bourbon, usually preferring Scottish single malts, but this bottle is delicious.

The 1835 has a rather sweet smooth flavour, and it drank well. The sweetness was not too strong, compared to other Bourbons I have had in the past.

I would not have picked this bottle as my first choice, but having tried it, it has a deserved place in my collection.

The Glendronach 18 year old Allardice Highland single malt. matured in Oloroso sherry casks, is a smooth and complex whisky, and I rank as my favourite bottle in my collection.

The Glendronach has a sweet and smooth palate, bursting with sherry and fruity flavours, and a hint of smokiness, with a long satisfying finish.

With an alcohol content of 46%, you have a good strong whisky but does not feel overpowering.

When this bottle is finished, it is certainly one whisky I will have to restock up on.

The same night my brother and I tried the Macallan 12 year old, we also had some Springbank 16 Year Old.

My bottle of Springbank is bottled as part of the Adelphi Collection, and with alchohol content of 53.9%, is the strongest whisky in my collection.

The Springbank is a Campbeltown single malt Scoth whisky aged in sherry casks, and it packs a huge punch. It has a very smoky palate with a rough powerful peaty flavour. It started out tasting more nutty, but quickly hits you with the smokiness. The flavour is complex, and I enjoyed it, but it was not my brother’s cup of tea. He compared it to drinking kerosene.

Overall, it is a very good complex whisky but is not for the faint-hearted.