March Madness 2021

 It's time for my 2021 Whisky Tournament!  Last year Cragganmore Distiller's Edition beat out Breckenridge Port Cask Finish to win my personal tournament and Islay beat out Kentucky in my Twitter-poll driven Whisky Region tournament.  But the real madness started in April where I continued tasting and bracketing to determine 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on until I had all whiskies ranked 1-16.

My collection at the beginning of the tournament

So, what to do this year? 

I'm going big.

Real big.

Well beyond the relative sanity of last year’s April Madness.  

My whisky collection has grown quite a bit over the past year.  At the end of the year I had 50 different whiskies on my shelf:  Most good, some amazing, and a few duds; some litres, some 750's, some 700's, and a slew of samples.  It is still modest by most whisky collection standards but it is large enough to paralyze me with choice.  I've found myself spending too much time trying to choose which dram versus just picking one and enjoying it.  If you've read this far, I'm guessing you can relate.

So I'm going big and am going to do (almost) all of my whisky in a tournament.  45 whiskies in total.  And I'm going to do it blind.  And I'm going to do it three at a time instead of two at a time to save a little time.  Without further ado, here's my bracket, scroll past it for my short commentary!  

First, yes,  I realize I spelled "Ruban" incorrectly.  But in my defense I was a couple drams in when creating the graphic for the bracket.... and then I deleted the base file.  

Second, yes, I did give Whistlepig Boss Hog Samurai Scientist some special treatment.  I only have a small sample (even smaller now) and I knew I would run out before it was eliminated.  But it really is an amazing whisky.  Bold, fruity, sweet and a little goes a long way.  If I was rich, I'd pay the 600 for it.  The runner up in the final is the 41 year old Carsebridge.  It tastes like a putting a juicy peach pit in your mouth - sweet and with a little earthy bitterness.  There's a note of mint too.

The Real Madness

That brings me to the true madness.  Which whisky took 3rd place in this tournament?  The conventional answer is Glenfarclas 105 because it was third in the final three.  But would the Linkwood 11 (Cadenhead's bottling) or the Glenmorangie Qunita Ruban have beat the 105?  In this format we don't know.   

What isn't shown is that I also preferred the standard Glenmorangie 10 over the Tale of Cake due to a sour note in the Tale of Cake that turned me off.  Neither is the fact that I also preferred the Heaven Hill KSB over Four Roses Yellow or how close the 3 year Stonewood came to pulling off an upset over Glenfarclas 105 in the first round.  It begs the question, would the Stonewood beat the Lagavulin 8 and Wee Beastie as well?

Soooo.... we need another bracket!  Remove the Whistlepig and Carsebridge 41 because they were 1st and 2nd in the tournament.  Also not shown above is the losers bracket where only the loser advanced.  The Buchanan's Deluxe lost the tournament and is crowned the worst of the 45.  Runner-up loser is the Millstone PX bottle that I had to clean with butter because the original was so bad.  We pull those out as well and do it all again.  To make it a little more practical I will use results from the previous tournament where I can.

And... Elijah Craig 12 year old Barrel Proof wins! Stonewood 3 Dra took last this time followed up by Kavalan Concertmaster Portwood finish.

I kept going, removing the winners and losers each time.  It took five rounds but I finally ended up with a clear sequential chain from the winner to the loser.  

The original plan was to list all whiskies from 1 - 45 but because there were so many inconsistencies from round to round, and I killed so many samples and bottles throughout the tourney, and added a few more in, I can't create a single list of 1 - 45.  Dang.  But I did collect a significant amount of data for my rankings that I updated after each round based on the results.  (Smiling nerd emoji.)  

Thus endeth my 2021 Whisky Tournament.  I'm glad that's over.

The Real Winners

Whistlepig Boss Hog Samurai Scientist, Carsebridge 41 year old, Elijah Craig 12 year old BP  They took an unambiguous 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the tournament.                                                                                                                   

Blind Tasting  

Blind tasting is the real winner of the blind tasting.  What is shown in the bracket above is a win by Johnnie Walker Red over Chivas Extra, a win by the Dalwhinnie House Stark over Glenmorangie A Tale of Cake, and Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban beating the Nectar d'Or.  If you had asked I would have said I don't like Johnnie Walker Red and the House Stark is ok...  

Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban and Buffalo Trace

... and I would have said Quinta Ruban was my least favorite Glenmorange.  But blind tasting doesn't lie and the QR came in tied for fourth with Glenfarclas 25.  Unfortunately I ran out of QR and couldn't compare the two side-by-side.  

I picked up a sample of Buffalo Trace well into the tourney and threw it into the mix.  It ended up being the hands down winner of the round... such a nice bourbon!  Light sweetness and a good burst of cinnamon but without significant heat.  I understand the hype and should pick up another bottle!

My whisky collection  

My collection after the tournament.

I really like whisky, but I'm not a collector and as I noted at the beginning of this long post my liquor cabinet was getting a bit overwhelming.  During this tourney I finished 32 bottles of whisky (mostly samples) and my cabinet was down to a "paltry" 19 different whiskies.  My shelf looks so much cleaner now and I still have plenty to choose from!