That’s a mouth full, as was the whisky. I’m sorry for not posting anything for a couple of days. I have been away for the weekend and I thought I had tasted ahead, but missed the deadline. I also counted wrong and missed one dram, and then the deadline for a random guess.

This all means, of course, that I have two days in which I scored zero points, contrary to anyone else and I am now 43rd on the ranking. This kind of sucks, but apparently I have no clue what I’m doing when I am tasting anyway, so it barely matters. I just hope I can correct a bit of the score the coming couple of days since I would rather end in the top half of the competition.

Deanston Distillery Only, Lepanto Brandy finish. Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
By the colour and the scent of the whisky I assumed it was a sherry cask. It had nutty ‘sherry’ on the nose, but way too much of it. Soft oak with sweet spices. Cloves mostly, which overpower the distillery character quite a bit. Some figs too, with alcohol that doesn’t evaporate, and raisins.

Sip:
Pretty sharp with lots of sherry again, and some alcohol. There’s a lot of chili pepper in here, with a lot of oak too. Apart from that alcohol bite, the flavours are rather gentle.

Swallow:
I finally get some whisky but in a very generic way. Figs and plums from the sherry overpower. Cloves and a slightly bitter oakiness too.

I guessed it was a GlenDronach or so, since some of their casks are rather unbalanced towards sherry, and with all this going on I just went with that. Result: At least I scored some points for being in the correct region!

20 points only, so the catching-up has not really begun. Better than nothing though!

Fun thing, Lepanto Brandy is made in the area of Jerez, so I’m not too far off with my sherry ramblings!

Deanston Distillery Only, 20yo, 1992-2012, Lepanto Brandy Cask finish, 57.4%. 11 Years in a Bourbon cask, then 9 years in Lepanto Brandy. Available in Belgium for about € 165.