Another day, another dram. This one sat darkly in its bottle, so I went in with a slight prejudice towards its flavors and cask type. It didn’t really cost me in the end, since I’m spreading my guesses without actually going for a specific whisky, most of the time.

Sniff:
An enormous focus on European oak from the start. Thick and fruity with figs and dates. I think I’m getting some tea leaves, as well as golden syrup. It’s very, very dirty in its style later on. In a way of bog water, meets liquified fruit cake, meets tar.

Sip:
The palate is sharp and dry with lots of, what I thought was, dry sherry. Spices, golden syrup and caramel. It’s rich with old fruit and dried fruit. Figs and dates again with a slight bitterness.

Swallow:
It mellows quickly with more fruit flavors.

Right. What the hell did I drink yesterday evening? This is not a good whisky, let’s get that out of the way. I figured it was a sherry cask instead of a bordeaux cask, because it’s not a typical wine cask fruitiness I think. Also, the dried fruits and spices are something I generally associate with a sherry cask.

Apart from that, it’s just gross. Like the cask was rotten with all kinds of mold inside. From fellow club members I heard references to bogwater, corpses and muddy ditches. I can see where they’re coming from.

Luckily I guessed 9 years old, 50% (way to low) and Glencadam (they have those off the beaten path casks at young ages). Luckily that’s a Highland distillery too. Although I limited my search to that region, since I figured it to be a Highlander. A bad one.

Go figure that one guy in the club rated this at 93. And he’s not someone to be overly generous with his points. How polarizing a dram can be…

60/100

Deanston 8, 23/09/2017, Handfilled at the Distillery, Red wine cask, 57.8%