To help celebrate the 4th July, a well-known date in America – so I’ve been told, the good eggs at Maverick Drinks and The Whisky Wire sent me a curated selection pack of their best American whiskies for a bunch of us drunkards selection of bloggers to all taste at the same time on that-there-Twitter.
So without further ado, here’s my thoughts on the aforementioned 5 drams…
The Singleton of Dufftown Malt Master’s Selection – 40% abvInfo: The Singleton of Dufftown Malt Master’s Selection is matured in a combination of refill, Sherry and Bourbon casks, with a greater proportion of refill to allow ‘the sweet yet refined distillery character to shine through’. This has no age statement and is chillfiltered.
Colour: Yellow golden sun, hints of rust.
Nose: Malty and sweet. There’s handfuls of malt intertwined with some caramel, a little toffee, and the peel of red apples. In the background there’s spring meadow grassiness.
Continue reading
Speyburn 15 Year Old – 46% ABVInfo: Matured in a combination of American and Spanish oak casks for 15 years. New at the end of 2017.
Colour: Light summer gold.
Nose: Quite sprightly and full bodied. Lashings of buttery malt with a great back note of mushed up autumn berry fruits, vanilla custard and maybe even a dollop of cream.
Palate: A nice strong oily introduction to your tongue, slightly peppery, with plenty of sweetness from the cream and the crushed berries. Just enough age to mark it as nicely middle aged with a hint of smoke from cask char.
Finish: The sweetness quickly heads towards slight peppery tannin on the finish which is quite long from the cask char hints.
Continue reading
Big Peat 25 year old Gold Edition – 52.1% ABVInfo: It’s nearly time for Feis Ile 2018, so what better way to enjoy it than to have a dram of Big Peat’s Gold Edition, a 25yo vatted Islay malt. No chill filtration and no colour.
Colour: Ripe golden barley
Nose: Delicate and slightly floral, a heathery Islay moorland summer day. Beautifully restrained coal and sea breeze peat notes underline what is obviously a well aged gentle dram, and maybe hides the higher ABV? A hint of old oak and wax polish.
Palate: Slightly peppery at first followed quickly be waves of sweet peat laden oils. Exciting to hold on your tongue for ages investigating the silky oils and sweet peat notes.
Continue reading
Rock Oyster 18 Years OldInfo: Made exclusively with 18yo whiskies distilled on Arran, Jura, Islay and Orkney.
Colour: Light golden straw.
Nose: Sweet floral ozone notes which soon deepen into something older. There’s well aged malty tones, gentle caramel toffee notes and hints of gentle heathery smoke puffs.
Palate: It’s oily and gently spiced on your tongue, which starts to give way to heathery floral peat notes with oaky hints which remind you of dark dunnage warehouses. There’s some slight buttery toffeeiness which helps the dram become very easy going and relaxed.
Continue reading
Highland Park – Magnus – 40%Info: Only available in North America. Matured in Sherry seasoned American oak casks. No colouring.
Colour: Clear straw.
Nose: Fairly young and sweet malt with a good vanilla hit and great wafts of highland heathland peat, slightly floral.
Palate: Very easy to the palate, you can hold it on your tongue for ages enjoying the gentle spices, malt and peat, which all play together nicely with a slight earthy note. The youngish malt is there, and it’s enjoyable, it really helps show off the distillery character. Continue reading
Dewar’s 25 Year Old – 40% abvInfo: Dewar’s 25 Year Old is a blend of malt and grain whiskies that are 25yo or older that have then been married and then further aged in freshly emptied Royal Brackla casks. Available in Global Travel Retail (i.e airport duty-free) before eventually being available everywhere.
Colour: Golden and bright. Hints of rust.
Nose: Straight away there’s older oak cask notes that happily fill your nose. However you quickly find there’s lovely fresh tones there, light summery fruits, slightly pulped down into a sweet compote of flavour.
Palate: Surprisingly oily considering the 40% abv. It’s sweet, tasty and really easy-going on your tongue. Bags of flavour backed up by well-integrated old oak notes that aren’t dominated by tannin.
Finish: The finish is slow, long and gentle; it’s nicely warming on your chest, with sweet barley oils sticking around for ages. Yum.
Continue reading
Glen Grant 18yo Rare Edition – 43% abvInfo: Glen Grant Aged 18 Years Rare Edition was newly released in 2016 and was named Jim Murray’s Second Finest Whisky in the World, as well as his Scotch Whisky of the Year, in his Whisky Bible 2017.
Colour: Lightly golden, ripe straw.
Nose: Fairly complex nose, there’s sweet / candy notes, but they’re not too sweet, tempered by older oak tones. Slight coal hints, probably the cask char coming forward.
Palate: It’s fairly gentle and easy to hold on your tongue to enjoy the flavours that wash forward. There’s sweetness, but that’s balanced with a sourness from oak. The cask char hints from the nose carry on to the palate.
Continue reading
BenRiach Peated Cask Strength Batch 1Info: Made with whiskies drawn from Oloroso Sherry casks and bourbon barrels. 56% abv.
Colour: Light straw gold.
Nose: Darker and more pungent than expected, yum. Sweet autumnal fruit notes, gentle light peat smoke.
Palate: Thick, oily, creamy, sweet and tasty, awesome.
Finish: Fairly gentle, quite sweet, nice and warming. After a few mouthfuls spices build a fair bit.
Thoughts: I’m a really big fan of this, it beats some Feis Ile releases from Islay I’ve had recently for sure.
Available: Master of Malt – £58.84
Thanks to BenRiach for the sample.
GlenDronach Cask Strength (Batch 6), 56.1% abvInfo: Matured in a combination of Spanish Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso Sherry casks. Bottled at cask strength, 56.1%, non chill filtered and at natural colour.
Colour: Slightly rusty rich gold.
Nose: Fairly rich nose, lots of malt and lots of sweet sherry notes. Reasonably sour sherry, slightly damp and mossy. With some air there’s plenty of cream, and some milk chocolates notes, and a hint of younger more virgin oak wood cask type smells. The sherry then turns sweeter with some honeyed qualities.
Palate: A nice fairly nutty and reasonably beefy malt greets you, with gentle but well pronounced sherry notes coming out quickly. It’s a little hot because of the high strength, nothing some water wouldn’t sort out no doubt. The strength helps it feel really oily on your palate, with a reasonable pinch of spices, and a good amount of sweetness. Plenty of green and red apples, mushed down with some vanilla custard.
Continue reading
