Opening senses at Pastorale @ Reet, Belgium

One couldn't help but notice the number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Belgium. I was told that today, there is a total of 121 of these restaurants scattered over the country! Isn't that a delightful news to the foodies who are visiting Belgium or those staying here?!!

One of them remains as Luc's favourite. The Pastorale in Reet, founded by Bart de Pooter, whom is also the chef and Executive Director is a 2 Michelin Star restaurant with a humble front. If you pass by the restaurant building on the outside, it looks like a regular classic building but it has a very eye-catching gold statue of a laughing man on the right side of the entrance. As you passed by the entrance, the laughing man starts to make laughing noises and it's quite funny. 

The Pastorale gave me an artsy-fartsy feeling about this place. Upon entering the main door, there is an automatic sliding glass door that leads to the dining area. In the dining room, one is mesmerised by the unequal wooden slats that are nailed horizontally to the wall from one corner to the other. This is the creation of Arne Quinze whom started out as a Belgian graffiti artist. On the walls, one could not but notice the video installation of Arne Quinze's works which is called EYE.C.U and EYE.LIP.U running across 16 screens in the restaurant. The video features an arty extraction of eyes and lips and its movements, opening up one's senses and emotions.

The Menu. Luc is browsing through the 1-inch thick Wine List!

Pastorale succeeds in creating an interesting dining experience to its patrons. From the moment I stepped into the restaurant, I felt that there is something different about this place. I like the space created in the dining hall, the table that overlooked the finely-trimmed garden and an intriguing golden statue of a music conductor in an astronaut suit. The menu itself is a piece of art that needs a little decoding. If you ask for a wine list, be prepared to browse through for at least 20-30 minutes due to the vast selection. That is not all for Pastorale has an impressive spirits list including Gin I have never seen before and also a fine whisky list. One can even have a taste of Brora for less than 20 Euros.

With Bart de Pooter whom was so nice to come over and have a nice chat with us. This is the second time I met him and the first time was at his 2nd restaurant WY at The Mercedes House in Brussels which he had obtained a 1-Michelin Star since opening it one year ago. Well done Bart!

Amuse Bouche was a plate decorated with Scheermesje (Atlantic Jackknife/Bambo Clam) with Citroen sauce and mussels with a celery sauce. Amongst the decoration were fried whitebait and also seaweed. I love the presentation as it gives me a feeling that I'm by the sea. The pot of breadstick with sesame seeds, peas and hummus was really delicious. Even the butter, salt and pepper resembled pots in the garden. A pair of scissors is provided for us to cut the green leaves from the little pot when we savour the bread.

This restaurant serves probably the best bread I've ever eaten in a fine-dining place as the bread was made with fresh ingredients and natural yeast from the air and not the commercial yeast for bread. It is served with a special Olive Oil selected by the chef and bottled specially for the restaurant. The bread was so good that I told the staff that I would like to have it for breakfast and they were so kind to seal two breads in a bag for me before we step out of the restaurant!

These 2 dishes are still the amuse bouche. The top dish is a salad of duck confit, bulgur (a cereal food made from the groats of several different wheat species, most often from durum wheat), with a smoked mozzarella from Italy. I like the cereal textures of the dish and the mozarella binds them together. The 2nd dish is a marinated scallops served with a cream of carrots and curry decorated with pickled vegetables. The curry flavour is very subtle but it's a nice combination with the fresh scallop.

Finally after an hour and a half, we are served the first dish of the 4-course Bizz lunch (EUR60). This is a smoked pigeon, cream of celery, pickled onion and carrot with ice-cream of mustard. I must say the taste is as good as it looks. It looks like a funny combination but I love the contrasting textures the chef creates with this dish as the vegetable flakes are crispy, the ice-cream of mustard is creamy and the taste was very subtle. A good combination for the smoky pigeon cubes.

For my main, I chose a fish dish while Luc chose a pork dish. The Pike-Perch was served with a celeriac sauce, girolles mushrooms and hazelnut. The nutty flavours of this dish matches the fish really well as the fish was really fresh and the flakes of meat was juicy and sweet.

This is Luc's main which has slices of pork loins slightly smoked, speck and lard and parsnip puree. It was equally delicious. The dishes here are not only well presented on the plate for the pleasures of sight but the taste is equally satisfying. Bart focuses on seasonal ingredients and freshness which brings out the wonderful tastes of the dishes without overwhelming the main focus of the ingredient in every dish.

The dessert gives me a feeling of autumn which the brown-coloured ingredients and crispy crepes of muscat resembles the falling leaves from the branches. Served with an ice-cream muscat, caramel, walnuts and white chocolate. Lovely sweetness balanced out with the nutty flavours.

We were served with a surprise dessert. As I was lamenting how unfortunate that I had to miss Luc's My Tribute Glenfarclas 1968 dinner here at Pastorale last year and how much I heard about the Glenfarclas 1968 ice-cream but never tried it, the dessert chef made the exact one they had last year for us at lunch! It was really sweet of them and I finally had a chance to try one of the most expensive ice-cream made with the precious Glenfarclas 1968. It was really good, creamy and had a slight taste of whisky with sweet and bitter notes which paired very well with the dark chocolate. Well done!!!

The sommelier, Jon Stalmans is a very friendly guy with a passion for wines and whisky. During the whole time, he chatted with us and at the same time introducing some nice whisky from his selection since he knew Luc was into whisky. We had a dram of the Bowmore 1968 Tasttoe of which there is only 24 bottles out there at EUR36/dram. Damn.. it is a great whisky and a good finish. Ouch... the pocket hurts...

If you think that's the end of the meal, they came with a white-matted-porcelain box with a few pieces of chocolates on it. Those chocolates were really delicious. Just as when I opened my big mouth and asked "Is that all?", lo and behold, the staff opened the top layer of the box and it revealed more chocolates! Some of the chocolates are made with Pierre Marcolini chocolate and they really taste so good!!

We love the place so much that we went there for lunch twice in a week! After the Lindores Whiskyfest 2013, we brought our guests from Singapore and Malaysia (Emmanuel, Arun, Ben, Michael and Li Ling) there for lunch and again the staff surprised us all with an ice-cream made with the Glenfarclas 1968. After a 4-hour lunch, we all went home stuffed and lazy.

Pastorale indeed supersedes my expectations. The service was good, the staff were friendly and the ambiance is really nice too. Most importantly, I knew what I was tasting.

Pastorale Restaurant

Laarstraat 22, 2840 Reet

tel: +32 03 844 65 26

info@pastorale.be

www.depastorale.be

The Tomintoul 1968 (Thosop) is MORE than just Whisky

It all starts with an appreciation for whisky that turned into a love story.

Sometime last year, I met Luc for the very first time in Singapore at The Auld Alliance (to be exact) for a whisky tasting on Thosop Handwritten Labels and I fell in love with the man his bottlings. When I reflect on this, I find it funny that how come we have never met even when we have been friends on FB due to a passion for whisky more than a year ago prior to the tasting in Singapore. And in Jan, we met again in London and that's where cupid planted a love arrow in both of our drams.

Emmanuel from Auld Alliance, Me and Luc Timmermans

I remembered the first few whisky that I tasted in Auld Alliance with Luc were these bottles...

Tomintoul 1967 43yo 49.3% Bourbon Cask #5426 Thosop
Port Ellen 1982 - bottled 2010 56% Thosop
Glenfarclas 1968 bottled 2011 cask #697 47.5%
Glenfarclas 1968 bottled 2010 cask #702 & #5240 49.7%

And therefore, it is no surprise that this Tomintoul 1968 is the choice of Luc Timmermans for his new and upcoming Thosop Handwritten Label. Everyone in the industry knows his affinity towards good quality whisky and the year 1968. It was his birth year and also the vintage of six Glenfarclas casks that he has bought and bottled. 

An introduction of Luc himself is a little extraordinary. He is not from a whisky-making family nor is he an owner of any distillery but he carved his name in the whisky world through humble beginnings and great passion for the "water of life". 

Luc's Thosop bottling carry an iconic handwritten label which notes his experience with each of the whisky. Sadly, the Tomintoul 1968 handwritten label is the oldest cask he has ever bottled and it is also his last cask. And for he has also fell in love with Malaysia and its diversity, my very home country, we decided to dedicate this bottling exclusively for the Malaysian whisky lovers. Together, we had chosen this Tomintoul 1968 which yielded only 198 bottles to be the final bottle to complete the range of 18 handwritten labels.

The Tomintoul distillery is located in Ballinloch in the Speyside region of Scotland. Founded in 1964, the distillery is located in an astoundingly picturesque Glenlivet estate surrounded by a diversity of flora and fauna. The distillery also stresses that they uses pure spring water drawn from The Ballantruan Spring. It is said that the clean air at an altitude of 345m where the distillery is located, and also the purity of the water contributes to the smoothness and easy drinking of the single malt whisky. In 1974, the first official bottling for Tomintoul was launched with a 12 year-old vintage and today, we are so lucky to have found this gem which was distilled in 1968 and only bottled 45 years later.

Luc has also personally written his tasting notes on this whisky and this is what he thinks about this Tomintoul 1968.

Tomintoul 1968/2013 (45 years old)

47.9%, Thosop Handwritten Label for Malaysia, 198 Bottles Only

Nose: Very smooth and fruity.  At first I get some melon, banana, and tangerine with a fine touch of pear. After this you get some green tea notes, grass and wet hay with a touch of leather.  All are perfectly integrated.

Palate: First mouth attack is nicely sour and a bit oaky but the fruitiness comes thru showing banana and oranges mixed with some liquorice and green tea.

Finish: Juicy, long and a bit dry with hints of green tea.

A fine 45 year old Tomintoul expression that makes you want to take a sip after sip.

We hope that many single malt whisky lovers will love this bottle. It's our everyday dram because it's so easy drinking and it reminds us of how whisky brought us together even though we are from different parts of the world! There's more to this bottle than just a single malt whisky. While this may be the last cask of Thosop Handwritten Label but it's the beginning of a love journey. 

Slainte mhath, Luc and Eiling.

*Please write to eilingblog@gmail.com if you are interested in getting a bottle.


Related Posts:
A Night with Luc Timmermans
The "My Tribute" Glenfarclas 1968 by Luc Timmermans

The "My Tribute" Glenfarclas 1968 by Luc Timmermans @ Auld Alliance, Singapore

It was Luc's 40th birthday which he received a big surprise gift from George Grant of Glenfarclas. When he opened the box, to his delight it held 40 casks samples of the Glenfarclas 1968 from 40 different casks! George even promised him that as long as he still has the casks, the bottles are refillable for life. Now that's what I called a birthday gift!

In that pile of samples, Luc discovered cask #699 which he bought the cask and bottled it for the Lindores Whisky Society in 2009. That was not his first cask of 1968 because his first bottling of this vintage was a cask of #688 in 2004 which was called “Glenfarclas for Friends edition No 1”. He continues to bottle some of the very best 1968 casks from Glenfarclas for the past few years and sadly, this "My Tribute" Glenfarclas 1968 from cask #5241 is his very last and it yielded 175 bottles only.

The year 1968 has a special place in Luc's heart, not because it's his year of birth but also in that particular year, Glenfarclas began to market its own single malt and built stocks for the future instead of selling its whisky for blending. Luc's passion for the whisky can be seen and tasted from all the casks he has bought and bottled. From his first cask of Glenfarclas 1968 to his last cask, he spent a total of 8 years nosing, tasting and comparing all the casks samples of the mythical 1968 vintage. Luc Timmermans is considered the most devoted collector of historical and vintage bottles of Glenfarclas which led to his title as Mr. Glenfarclas.  And in 2005 he was also nominated Honorary Member of the Grand Order of Glenfarclas.

 

Such dedication to a passion called whisky led him to Singapore recently on August 7th to host a "My Tribute" evening at Auld Alliance where he presented and conducted a whisky tasting together with Ian McWilliam for the guests whom have purchased his "My Tribute" Glenfarclas 1968 package.

The package includes a handmade wooden presentation box with two crystal Glencairns, a bung, a ‘My Tribute’ book and a copy of the Glenfarclas history written by Ian Buxton. All these for a whopping price of SGD$3500 and there are already 24 sets sold in Singapore. 

 I'm so happy that I could join my partner at his second "My Tribute" dinner in Singapore as the 1st one was already held in Belgium last year. It was a very joyful moment to see the guests approving and appreciating the whisky that was specially chosen by Luc for his last bottling of Glenfarclas 1968.

On that night, we had a tasting of 4 different bottlings of Glenfarclas including the "My Tribute" bottle of course. First we started with some canapes before having our first dram of Glenfarclas 175 which is a limited edition bottle to commemorate 175th anniversary of the distillery in 2011. This is a very special and yet complicated bottle because it contains casks from six different decades, with the oldest cask being from 1952. The one we had was from the first batch and the second batch has also been released.

It was very nice of Ian to bring along a surprise bottle for us to sample. It was a Glenfarclas 25yo Quarter Casks which is a special bottling taken from ten of the last remaining quarter casks at Glenfarclas. The youngest of these whisky is 25 years old, with the entire maturation having taken place in the smaller sized casksand it gives greater wood contact and thus even more complexity and richness than the core 25 year old bottling. After that we continued with a 40yo Glenfarclas before moving to the highlight of the night.

I love the Glenfarclas 1968 "My Tribute" very much but a little less than my love for my partner (ahem... ahem...). Luc, if you're reading this, you have to give me a kiss! Back to the whisky, it was a rather complex whisky with layers of notes. On the nose, it was elegant with hints of fruits, oak spices and sherry. The first sip was truly exceptional although with a high alcohol content of 54.4%. I tasted ripe apricots, raisins and figs, it was also interwoven with a soft smoke, nutmeg and spices. It's a very fine sherried whisky indeed. With a drop of water, the whisky opens up and it makes it so much easier to drink because I was overwhelmed with the high alcohol content. A true craftsmanship of fine whisky from Glenfarclas.

Wayne, Ian McWilliam, Luc Timmermans & Emmanuel Dron. 

That's a nice kilt!!!

Even when there are guests whom are late, Luc still did an explanation about the whisky in detail with a personal touch. He loves sharing his knowledge and passion for whisky which he has influenced many people in his life to start appreciating fine whisky. To this date, he holds a whisky collection of over 4000 bottles and I am very privileged to have access to that cellar. After dinner in the evenings, I would go to the cellar and come up with two drams in my hands. I handed him the glasses and then I made him guess the whisky I poured. It was really fun to share the same passion with someone you love so much.

Together, we travel and share the good drams with whisky enthusiasts from all over the world. The next "My Tribute" will be held in Taipei on 22nd October and another dinner in Paris in December. If you're interested to attend any of these dinners, feel free to get more info at this website.

Hotel Bero & Lindores Whisky Lounge @ Oostende, Belgium

One of the weekends, we drove 120km to the west which lies the city of Oostende on the Belgian coast. This is a very popular and famous destination for tourists and especially locals during summer. It took us about 1 hour and 20 minutes to arrive at the beautiful city of Oostende which overlooks the coastline and a beautiful Railway station that greeted us along the journey to Hotel Bero. It was a nice drive as the weather was cool and chilly (despite being in summer). Belgian weather is really unpredictable and crazy at times.

Rock Strangers by Arne Quinze

Probably the most hilarious thing I found out about this "port city" is the sight of a series of monumental metal sculptures that were scattered across the seafront looked more like some leftovers of architectural materials than art. Well, to many these electric orange structures are visually stimulating but to me, they are quite an eyesore. I think it could have been more tasteful if it's done in stainless steel instead of orange but that's my opinion and I'm no connoisseur in art appreciation.

We walked on the walkway by the beach on the Friday we arrived but the wind was too chilly and it was cold. It was really impossible to walk too near the beach and what more a swim in the chilly waters?!! I just couldn't imagine the weather could be this cold in summer!

We put up a stay at Hotel Bero for 2 nights. This is a hotel with a great location as it is just 2 minutes walk to the beach and it's near to the shops and restaurants. They have just renovated the hotel and it has been the top 3 hotel in Oostende on TripAdvisor for quite sometime.

There are 55 rooms in this 4 star hotel and we were checked into the 5th floor (the highest floor) which is the executive suite. The room is big and spacious, clean and the amenities provided includes iron, tea & coffee, bathrobes, mini fridge (but no minibar), shampoo and shower gel. The toilet is also spacious and equipped with a rain shower and towels. The room we had comes with a nice terrace that has an almost 180 degrees view of the surrounding but sadly only a part of the beach. Some of the rooms are also designed to be disabled friendly. But of course the best thing is that free wifi is available in the entire hotel.

The view from the terrace in our room.

The cafeteria here only serves breakfast. The breakfast here is great and great I mean by my standards for European hotels. You cannot expect a hotel here would serve a breakfast with 4-5 different nationality cuisine spread unlike the hotels back home but here they have a good selection of cold ham and salami, cheeses, cereals, a variety of bread, bacon and eggs. They have a few types of juices and a few varieties of coffee, which to me is already a very good breakfast. Of course I always miss a good breakfast in a nice hotel back home because I want to eat fried noodles and then a nice bowl of warm porridge!

For more info of the hotel, you can check out their website here. The rooms starts from EUR130++ and  it comes with breakfast. The facilities here include swimming pool, sauna, steam bath, a fitness centre and a children playroom.

One of the biggest attraction of Hotel Bero would of course be the bar. This is the home of the Lindores Whisky Vault and their "On The Rock's Bar" which serves a decent list of Single Malt Whiskies and also a good selection of cask strength whiskies from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) which is quite a famous Whisky Club and independent bottler.

The whisky bar of Hotel Bero was also awarded the Best Whisky Bar 2013 by the Belgian Whisky Awards and I can see why. The whiskies they have here is amazing. I would say that I have not tasted even 10% of what they have here!! Most of the bottles here are so foreign-looking for me. You'll be ogling at the cabinets of whiskies and also empty bottles like me if you are a whisky enthusiast. I felt like a little girl in a Candy store. I'm sure you know how that feels.

The lounge is cosy and warm, just in the right mood for a dram. It feels like drinking at home but of course my home doesn't have such a collection of whisky! And if you are ever drunk here, the room is just upstairs. How convenient!

Of course being here with the Lindores Whisky Society president has its perks. I get to drink from the vault and some of the bottles here are legendary. One of the bottles belonging to my partner is a bottle of Glenfarclas 40yo which they are only 590 bottles out there and it was housed in a very special case. Luc says to me that I can drink it if only I could open the case (many have failed) and of course after a few tries and some intelligence, I managed to figure out how to open it. And I deserved a big dram!!!

One of the unforgettable bottles was this Rosebank 34 years old. Not only the distillery has been closed and a Rosebank bottle is a sought after whisky today but this bottle here is a prewar bottle. This is something I never thought I would have a chance to try. What a privilege!

I wished I could stomach more drams but after a few, I decided to call it a night and head upstairs for a good sleep.

The Lindores Whisky Society (LWS) is a renowned club for their passion about single malt whisky and every year, there will be a Whiskyfest that is held at Hotel Bero by the members of the LWS to expose and educate the whisky enthusiasts about whisky. This is where they showcase a number of bottles, mostly private bottlings that we have not seen before and for a price per dram, the visitor can taste from this bottles. This year, the Whiskyfest 2013 will be held in this hotel from 23rd to 24th of November. And I'll be there!!! More info here.

Hotel Bero

Hofstraat 1A, Ostend 8400, Belgium

Website

Moon Bar @ Bukit Damansara

1st stop of the day was to visit my friend at his office to have a dram. And then we decided to check out the bar at Hits & Mrs at Lorong Kurau where I have been there months ago (here) but the bar located upstairs wasn't opened yet at that time. I really like the dated interior and the comfy rattan chairs. We had a bottle of Hendricks Gin (RM340) and they do have a good selection of Nikka whisky here.

After that, we procced to Bukit Damansara to have some recommended Hokkien Mee at Moon Bar. Apparently, my friends told me that they serve one of the best Hokkien Mee in town. A bar serving good Hokkien Mee? That I have to check out!

The deco is really simple with dining tables and two bar counters, one on each side of the shop. The 2-shop lot Bar is located right beside La Suisse and upstairs is the popular Escobar cigar lounge.

Sri Lankan Spicy Mutton Varuval (RM18)

This is one of the best dishes of the night. The mutton is spicy and tender which is served on lightly toasted bread. The spiciness is slightly above moderate levels.

Pork Meatballs (RM17)

The pork meat balls are also recommended. It's slightly spicy and made of minced pork which has a texture like meatballs. Goes well with chilli sauce and also on its own.

Bacon Wrapped Roast Pork Belly (RM23)
 I was really looking forward to the bacon wrapped Roast Pork Belly but it didn't turn out so well. I felt that the roast pork belly was too chunky which makes it a little difficult to eat and there is just an overwhelming of pork with the bacon and pork belly together.

Black Pepper Lamb Parcels (RM17)
 This is not fried wantons. Inside these crispy wanton skin are lamb cutlets that goes well with the minty sauce. Recommended.

Hokkien Mee (RM18)

And the highlight of the dinner that everyone was waiting for is the wok-fried Hokkien Mee. We had ours with extra fried pork lard which costs an additional of RM4 per plate. The Hokkien Mee is indeed delicious with enough flavour and "wok-hei" coupled with tender pork slices and right moisture to the noodles. One of the really good ones I've tried at a restaurant/bar.

Glenkinchie Distillers Edition (from duty free) distilled in 1996 and bottled 2011 and double-matured in Amontillado cask wood. It's a floral whisky with a sweet but dry notes.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

They also mentioned that we should try their dessert. However we find the cake too dry and it's not to my liking. Maybe it's been kept in the fridge for a long time which dries the cake out.

This place is worth checking out for their local food offerings as they also serve Bak Kut Teh here and you can enjoy a drink while indulging in these delicious local food. On Fridays, they have a Jazz night here too!

The Moon Bar 

2 Jalan Medan Setia 2 

Bukit Damansara 

50490 Kuala Lumpur 

Tel: +603-2385-5288

Operating Hours: 

Mon-Fri: 5:00 pm – 1:00 am 

Sat: 5:00 pm – 2:00 am 

Sun: 5:00 pm – 1:00 am 

Email themoonbar.bistro@gmail.com

18yo SMW Horizontal Tasting

I'm not speaking in abbreviations but the title simply means that we had a line up of 18-year-old Single Malt Whisky tasting at a friend's house. One fine day we were just talking about whisky (actually we talk about whisky all the time even in our whatsapp chatroom) and we decided to do a Horizontal 18 yo SMW.

The rule of entry is simple : a cover charge of 1 bottle of 18-year-old SMW. We had this at Lance's place and it was so kind of him to prepare dinner.

 Pre-dinner Drink - Glenfiddich 125th Anniversary

I saw this in the duty free but never actually bought it. However, I was fortunate enough that I get to taste this yesterday night. I must say that I have always been very skeptical when it comes to whisky without age expressions because I felt that sometimes these commercial bottlings from distilleries are for marketing purposes and it's for those who worships labels rather than what is in the whisky.

Bottled at 43% abv, this is for those who prefers a lick of smoke because it has a very distinctive smokey taste on the palate and then followed by initial hints medicinal notes. It still has some of its Speyside character such as the toffee and dried fig notes coupled with a fresh acidity and a spicy finish. Would I buy this bottle? Nope. I rather buy the Glenfiddich 19yo Age of Discovery release.

 

 Watercress cream soup, Grain Fed Angus steak cooked with Glenfiddich 125th Anniversary and Macallan 15yo Fine Oak and a plate of garlic potato wedges and a big bowl of salad!

Lance is really a pro when it comes to grilling and the steaks are so awesome... beats some of the restaurants in town anytime. It's juicy and is done medium which is so good on its own or even with a salsa sauce that compliments the steaks very well too. In my opinion, the Macallan 15yo fine oak is good for cooking because it's a disappointing bottle. I might get some stares with this comment I guess but that's just my opinion. Their sherry oak bottlings are so much better.

 

 

 The 18yo SMW line up for the night.

Glenlivet 18yo, Glenfiddich 18yo, Laphroaig 18yo, Tomatin 18yo, Macallan 18yo and a Hakushu 18yo.

I've actually tasted all the above except two - Laphroaig 18 brought by Gareth and a Tomatin 18 which I recently bought from the duty free shop in Langkawi. Although I'm not a big fan of Laphroaig, I do drink the Laphroaig Quarter Cask once in a while and it was really an opportunity to give the 18yo a go. I'm quite impressed with the palate as the peat did not overwhelm the other notes of sweetness, seaweed and vanilla. It's very well-balanced and has a smooth and velvety texture. I like it!

The Tomatin (pronounced as To-ma-ten) is quite an interesting whisky. It's the least well-known northen highland single malt whisky compared to the others because it was mainly produced for blends such as the Antiquary and The Talisman. Did you also know that when the Tomatin Distillery Company went into liquidation in 1985, and then one year later two Japanese companies (Takara Shunzo Co. and Okara & Co. came to the rescue and bought the distillery and thus became the first Japanese to own a Scotch whisky distillery.

Surprisingly, I managed to find 1 of the last 3 bottles of Tomatin 18yo in Langkawi and I have to buy it for this tasting. It's indeed one of the most interesting whisky of the night not only because it's something new to our palate but it also has a character that differs from the other commercial labels. This bottle is initially filled in American oak casks and then in Olorosso Sherry butts prior to bottling. This is a very elegant whisky with consistency and well-behaved without giving you a jolt in the palate. It has sherry and toffee, honeyed notes and a very interesting marine finish with hints of cocoa. I only pay about RM300 for this bottle which is quite a reasonable price.

 A photobomb. Whisky that we drank that night.
That's not a Fanta 18yo btw...

What was supposed to be a 18yo tasting ended up a an additional few other bottles such as the Glenfiddich 30yo which the host was so kind to offer and I could see his reluctant expression on his face when he took out the bottle... hahaha.... and a surprising Strathisla 12yo that was so easy drinking!

Next up... a cask strength SMW tasting to be arranged.