Smoked salmon and Deanston Virgin Oak single malt whisky

There were a number of great matches with Deanston’s Virgin Oak whisky up in Scotland last week but unusually I’m going for the most conventional - a starter of (very good) smoked salmon with gravadlax and a tomato and cucumber dressing at Gleneagles hotel - on the grounds that it’s the most useful.

I don’t pair malt whisky frequently enough with smoked salmon and it really is delicious.

The whisky is a bit unusual though. It’s a 46.3% blend of younger whiskies aged, like bourbon, in new American oak casks which give it a rather delicious note of light soft brown sugar and vanilla fudge and it’s master distiller Brendan McCarron’s favourite whisky of the range

It was also used in the very delicious ice-cream that went with the final course of the dinner - a rich Valrhona chocolate dessert with banana toffee, clootie dumpling croutons (yes, really!) although that dish was paired with the more complex Deanston 18 year old which could handle the richness of the chocolate.

The wild card in terms of pairing was the macaroni cheese and chips I ordered in the distillery café at lunchtime. I asked if I could try the Virgin Oak with it and it turned out to be a cracking match. If that’s a step too far for you I reckon it would also go very well with cheddar cheese.

What foods pair best with whisky?

You can buy the Virgin Oak single malt from The Whisky Exchange for £35.25 and the 18 year old, which was voted The Whisky Exchange’s Whisky of the Year), for £63.95 currently.

I visited the distillery as a guest of Deanston and The Whisky Exchange

Single malt whisky and salted caramel fudge

One of the interesting trends I’ve noticed is the number of English whiskies that are now coming on stream including the Masthouse single malt from the Copper Rivet Distillery in Chatham, Kent I was sent the other day. (In fact there are, amazingly, more distilleries in England than Scotland now!)

Masthouse is what they call a ‘farm to glass’ whisky made with a Kentish malted barley called Belgravia, from the nearby Isle of Sheppey. It’s pot-distilled and matured in ex-bourbon and virgin American white oak barrels which gives the young spirit an appealing touch of almost heathery sweetness

That could well be why it went so well with the rather indulgent white chocolate and salted caramel fudge they sent as a snack to nibble with it which was apparently made by the head chef at their distillery restaurant The Pumproom. I certainly think fudge and whisky bears more exploration.

You can buy the Masthouse single malt which is bottled at 45% for £45 for 50cl from the distillery.

Picture of fudge by Sebastiana Raw at shutterstock.com - not specifically of the fudge mentioned in the post!

I was sent the whisky as a press sample.

Roquefort and Lagavulin

Having been on Islay for the jazz festival all weekend I've been thinking about nothing but whisky and jazz but there is as good a combination : Islay whisky and strong blue cheese

I actually had to wait until I came home though to try the classic pairing of Lagavulin and Roquefort as there are no cheesemongers or even cheesemakers on the island.

Those of you who are familiar with the Lagavulin 16 y.o won't need telling it's an extraordinary combination of sweet and smokey - a huge-flavoured, yet subtle whisky that needs a equally characterful partner to set it off. You might think that a pungent salty Roquefort would be too extreme but there's a wonderful alchemy between the two - as there is in all the best food and drink pairings, the Lagavulin adding a subtle smokey overlay to the cheese, the cheese making the whisky even more intense and mysterious. For me it's better than Roquefort and Sauternes.

You could I'm sure pull the same trick with other peaty Islay whiskies such as Ardbeg or Laphroaig and with alternative sheeps' blues like Lanark Blue or Beenleigh Blue but it is one of the all-time greats of food and drink pairing.

I attended the Islay Jazz Festival as a guest of Lagavulin.