The Wedding Whisky Bar

So, you got the bar.. but what do you want to stock in there?
Of course that depends on you and your party. If you are having a Whisky tasting I don’t recommend Glen Scanlan and basic Four Roses, even if you have decors naming them. We did have also Famous Grouse, but it was used for Scottish (Irish) coffee only so it does not really count.
 
Of course we had Ardbeg there. The TEN and Uigeadail are essential.



And Bruichladdich was also a must have for us. Since we  didn’t want to get people drunk we mostly avoided cask strength drams on purpose. Bruichladdich had a nice set
- the Organic Scottish Barley for those who like it light but tasty
- Port Charlotte Peat Project
- and Port Charlotte Scottish Barley with some heavy peat






Then we had a selection of Laphroaigs: QA cask and Select for the easier part, Quarter Cask for those who knew what they like and PX Cask that really hit the spot – people liked that one a lot!

The basic Highland Park 12YO was also a well placed dram. Balanced with sherry maturation, it was a sweet yet tasty dram to go during later hours as well.


Of course there cannot be a tasting/bar without Kilchoman. The Machir Bay was good, but the Loch Gorm didn’t have a drop in it after the party. It was not a full bottle in the start either, but it was a very well liked with whisky newcomers and also with more experienced connoisseurs. Jura Prophecy also found it’s seat, but despite the bottle and style it didn’t get much attention.

Bunnahabhain was representing their corner of the Islay with a sole bottle of Darach Ur. Not the most typical Bunna, but it did create some diversity into the offering. 

Bowmore made apparance with 12YO and 100 degrees proof, which actually was found really tasty. Yet again whisky, that gets better once it gets more air!


What’s left? The Finnish ones of course: Kyrö Juuri and Verso and Teerenpeli with Kaski.

And we had the toasted rye, that Kyrö uses to create their Rye distills! If you get a chance to taste it.. try it! It is excellent and smoky.

Also we had Big Peat, Wemyss Peat Chimney and Monkey Shoulder in there.



We also created a guide to people, so they could look into it and selected the whisky what would work the best for them.

The set was ready to receive guests! At this point I was in a lots of hurry, so I didn’t even got a better photo! I guess I had something else in mind.

The Rustic’n’Rough Whisky Bar

What it takes to build a rough style Whisky Bar onto your home? Some worn out wood, old door, couple of old pallets and some solid old looking planks for the desk. The result is that kind of a bar, that takes some effort if you want to move it onto another place – or you actually don’t do it. Just build it where you want it to stay. It is worth it. Here are a few photos of it’s construction and the end result.

Here it begins. The pallets, the door and front supports are in their place.

Just make sure the door is there the right side up, and attach it. The rear supports are also in it’s place.

Note the board in the front of the door (dark board, you can easily miss that), which serves as the rear wall to door desk (the bartender’s desk). Also the boards (high and low) on the business end are necessary to attach facade boards into their place. 

..and it starts to get into the shape! We had some real rough boards to use for this bar’s facade.

Add the higher frame (to hold the plaque) for a better look.

Also it is good to add side shelves. I found it good that there was a another board on the side, to lessen the risk to fall a bottle.

We also added some other decors to the bar. We did not have Four Roses in our wedding menu though. Oh, and the background was empty when the actually party started.

Since we managed also to get a few empty Highland Park sets (Thor, Freya, Loki) they had a place in our bar. Perhaps it was good, that they were empty before the party.

We also had bar mats: Bowmore and Laphroaig. They really boosted the desk for a more Islay experience.

 

 

Of course we had to have some Bowmore, Laphroaig and Highland Park available at the bar – especially with these decors.

The actual wedding day was a “bit” in rush and hectic, so I didn’t have time to take photos of the bar’s bartender view. The door desk is large enough to hold a lots of glasses (especially Bowmore whisky glasses, since they don’t fall as easily as Glencairn glasses), extra whisky bottles and of course water bottles.

I am very pleased with the whisky bar. It is big, rough and our style. It will stay in our lobby for now and we can have whisky tastings and another parties (much smaller ones, I presume) later. 

Marriage! (aka Whisky Wedding )

Often it is the marriage of wood and whisky, but this time it involved people who enjoy each other, the life and smoky but delightful drams. And of course the wedding would not appear in this blog, if it did not include those elements of Islay. Our cask lid with names and date came directly from the Bruichladdich where it had been a actual whisky cask lid. We also managed to gather up various whisky themed props and decors to spice up the summer celebration. With a lots of effort and help from friends and family we built this fabulous day directly into our home. And since we live on the countryside, what would a wedding be if it did not last for two days..

Of course I have to add one more photo of my beautiful and smart wife, before getting into more details of whiskies and drinks. I of course had a lots of pressure to get my own wedding photos good enough, since usually I spend my time behind the camera – instead of utilizing quantum mechanics to be in two places at the same time.

Our the most magnificent decoration was to construct the rustic Whisky Bar into our home, and to keep it secret as long as possible. Our guests enjoyed the selection of 22 (mostly smoky) drams we had made available for them. Of course they did love those drams. I’ll post more details about bar later, but I can say there were many distilleries and styles represented – including three Finnish whiskies/distills.

I must say, it was nice to see new people taste and like some whiskies. Some of them were really surprised to actually experience whisky pleasantly. The old Quarter Cask was just a great dram to many guests.