Yesterday I cycled to an Adelphi tasting in Driehuis, hosted by Richard Blesgraaf of liquor shop Zeewijck, Marcel Bol of WIN and Alex Bruce of Adelphi themselves. I was a bit late since for some reason I am highly unable to find my way on a bicycle.
There were a couple of new releases to be tasted, as well as a few not-single-casks that I had tried previously. I didn’t change my opinion on them so I will just link to those whiskies.
Macallan1993, 17yo, 53.7%
Full sweetness on the nose with tropical fruit and fruit syrup. I also sniffed out some parsley, but that might be me. Later some custard and a bit of wood. The taste has some pepper and is quite thick and mouth coating. A long finish with quite a beefy flavour to it.
Highland Park 1995, 15yo, 55.4%
Light smoke, straw, farm yard. A little sweet and some fresh apple and pear. Later I smelled lemon curd. The taste was full with quite some smoke, hessian bags (we found out yesterday what that is…), wood salty wood, maritime. It got a lot fuller when you added a bit of water. The finish was smoky as well, with the fruit completely gone but more of those farm yard or stable flavours.
Caol Ila 2001, 9yo, 60.7%
The nose was very volatile, oily and clean. Milky, some dairy smells. Salty but becomes more sweet after a minute. Caramel and dry grass. The taste was rather sweet but the 60% alcohol is felt very well and it was hard to get through it. A light taste with some pepper, smoke and a little bit of fruit. The finish is again very alcoholic with no new flavour additions.
Breath of Islay, 1999, 11yo, 55.7%
This Lagavulin was not a typical one with sweet peat and smoke on the nose with some caramelised bacon as well. Then some apple pie. Later it gets a bit of a factory smoke. The mouth gave more toffee and salt. Quite smooth actually, apart from the slight alcohol burn on your tongue. The finish is long and sweet with grilled paprika and bacon again.
Quite a nice tasting with a lot of familiar faces. Too bad none of the whiskies really ticked all my boxes.
Malt Fascination 