Robbie Burns celebrated in style amongst the Islands!
Our recent gathering to celebrate the Great Baird Robbie Burns' life saw us return to our 'roots' at Ian & Anne Laurie's abode - the venue where the WACWAC had it's very first gathering...
John Izard and Om Tambolkar as our WACWAC virgins and they very quickly got up to speed... especially Om who seemed to get up to speed very quickly, before slowing down almost as quickly! :)
We toasted the haggis in traditional style - with Anne reciting 'Ode to a Haggis' in the best Scottish accent she could muster - and Om reciting the English version of each verse.. at least I think it was the English version, as Om struggled with the words somewhat! Anne & Ian served up some excellent neeps and tatties to accopmany the haggis... and damn delicious it was too!
Amongst the Baird's poems and excellent fayre, we time we tasted three excellent offerings from the Islands - one of which only just failed to knock 'Yellow Spot' off its top-rated perch..
The three whiskies were Tobermoray 10 yo from the Isle of Mull with with notes of gingerbread, honey, aniseed and rich fruit. The second was The Arran Amarone Cask Finish from the Isle of Arran which had a beautiful pink hue from the Amarone red wine casks. Finally we tasted a truly exquisite Talisker 2003 Distillers Edition from the Isle of Skye - a mouth-watering gem that had been double matured in ex-Bourbon and then ex-Oloroso casks over 11 years. The Talisker almost took over as our top-rated whisky but not quite..
Late in the evening, we thought someone was knocking at the front door... only to discover Om trying to estracate himself out of the downstairs toilet!
The evening ended with taxi cabs, ubers and family members collecting the intrepid WACWACers... a great night was had by all!
And even Om got home safely :)