Hidden Lake Scotch & Whiskey Club

This group hosts an annual event that has been growing to crazier levels.  Fantastically crazy.  This years event featured a fully catered meal, a live band, and a guest speaker, Ricky Crawford from Glenlivet.  Wow.

Let's start with the food selections:
-Prosciutto & Melon
-Tuna
-Filet of Beef with Brioche and Horseradish
-Oyster Sliders
-Chicken and Lettuce Wraps
-Beef Tips and Crostini
-Chocolate truffles

Each 'station' was paired with a selection of whiskies.  If I were smarter, I would have cataloged them all.  As it is, I recall some of what I sampled, so a brief rundown of where I went on each table, respectively:
-Glenmorangie Nector d'Or -Port finished.  Very sweet and smooth, there were five up here, but I didn't come back to it.
-Aberlour 12, a NAS Aberlour limited release, and the Auchentoshan Triple Wood.
-Glenfiddich 19 -Very nice, good spice and a nice sharp kick.
-I avoided the oyster, but did sample the Tallisker Storm.  Nice salt and brine with these selections, which also included Lagavulin 16.
-Forget which brand, but a nice Suntory 10/12 year here.  Three Japanese whiskies available at this station.
-American Whisky table (mostly), Woodford, Elijah 12, Famous Grouse, Johnny Walker Black, and a Four Roses Single Barrel.  I went with the Four Roses and never looked back.
-A Speyside Table, I went with a Tomatin and a really nice Glenfarclas 12.  Probably my favorite of the table selections of the evening.

Glenlivet presentation:
-Nadurra. Nice spicy cask strength whisky.  Were it not for the next one, this would have been my favorite on the night.
-Aberlour Abundah. Great cask strength beauty here, only this time as a full Sherry Bomb.  Needs a good dolop of water, but so nice even at full strength.
-Glenlivet 18.  Stands as an excellent brand, Ricky gave a great speech for why this is his favorite, and I could support that as a daily drinker for the rest of time for anybody.

But wait, there's more....  Everybody brings a bottle.  Picture below is of the bar when they were beginning to be rounded up at the end of the night.  There was a great selection here, and surprisingly little overlap.  The exception to that being there were 3 or 4 bottles of Balvenie 12 Double Wood.  Which, I'm ok with that, it is a pretty great whisky, particularly for me as more of an American Whisky fan.  Some selections that I noticed:
-Whistlepig 10
-Balvenie 14 Caribbean Cask
-Balvenie 15 Single Cask
-Basel Hayden's
-Macallan 12
-Glenmorangie Astar
-Glenmorangie Taghta
-Several Dahlwhinnies
-Nikka 17 (My contribution)

All told, there were in the neighborhood of 50 whiskies here.  I may have sampled 15.  Gotta be careful at these tastings.  Really easy to go overboard.  Takes restraint to take small glasses and to sip or not finish some.  I didn't find anything that I didn't like this time, which is surprising, as I do dislike certain flavor profiles in Scotch, but I must have chosen well.

All in all, an excellent evening hosted by an excellent group of guys.  If you meet them, you are sure to have a great time.

Cheers,
Andy