Whiskey of the World Class at Caputo's

Tony Caputo's always holds super fun yet educational classes.  Recently we went to their Whiskey of the World class.  We thought this would be fun for Som and Daniel who both have been really into Japanese whiskey and Steven who just enjoys whiskey.  Nang prefers cognac and Sothea likes wines but both tagged along anyways.  

The class was taught by Matt Pfohl and Sean Neves.  Both were extremely knowledgeable about whiskeys, the processes and much more.  FYI, they will be opening a bar called Water Witch in the area of 153 West 900 South. 

Image from bulliet.com

We started off with a whiskey that was a last minute addition.  It was the Bulliet Rye Whiskey.  This whiskey is one that we keep at our house. Som loves using it for cocktails.  Price wise, it's a midrange whiskey.  

Image from ransomspirits.com

The first one on the list was a Ransom Henry Duyore Rye.  It was paired with cheese and chocolate.  This one was Sothea and Nang's favorite one of the night.  Out of all of them, it was the easiest to drink.

The Bulliet and the Ransom were the two American whiskeys that we tried.

Image from singlepotstill.com

The next one we tried was the Redbreast Irish Whiskey.  It is the same distillery as Jameson and honestly a few of us thought it tasted very similar to Jameson.

It was paired with Lardo Iberico which was absolutely wonderful.  It is from the backfat of pigs from Spain.  The pigs are allowed to roam in oak groves and mainly diet on acorns. It was so delicious that we forgot about the whiskey for a moment!

Image from
anchordistilling.com

Next was a whiskey from Taiwan called the Kavalan.  This whiskey was very interesting.  It is matured in American oak casks and then finished in port wine casks.  It was thick and a little syrupy.  It drank like a port wine, surprise surprise, and finished like a whiskey.

Because of Utah law's, this one is a special order item.  Classes like these are great because sometimes you get to try thing, you otherwise couldn't.  Sometimes it's not great because if you really like something, you have to special order at least a case!

Image from the whiskeyshop.com

The next one was the Oban Distiller's Edition which is arguably the best whiskey in the world. It had a slight oiliness which none of us had ever experienced in a whiskey before but despite that it was easy to drink and had a long spicy finish. This was Som and Daniel's favorite of the night.

It was paired with a really stinky cheese called Caputo's Cave Aged Double Skull Taleggi. The men did not find this cheese to be very pleasant. Sothea however found it delicious and stole everyone's pieces.  If you can steal something people are willing to give!

Image from
whisky.suntory.com

Last but not least is the Suntory Hakushu.   As stated earlier, both Som and Daniel are really into Japanese Whisky right now and part of the reason for taking this class was to explore whiskeys from other parts of the world.  This one, we all have had.  In fact, we have a bottle of it at our house.

Overall, the class was very educational and fun.  We can't wait to attend more classes at Caputo's.

Nang, Som, Sothea, Steven, and Daniel