The previous WhiskyNerds bottling was a cracking Caol Ila with a significant price tag. While the whisky was awesome, people had trouble shelling out like that, and I’ve seen the bottles discounted over the last year.

The strange thing of a € 500 bottle of booze is that it skews your perspective. When this one came out, ‘only’ costing € 300, my first thought was ‘that is pretty reasonable’. Without having tried the whisky…

So, I tried it last week to see where we stand on that ‘reasonable’ bit.

Also, Bram (one of the WhiskyNerds) told me they too don’t have a clue which distillery this comes from. While that might be the case, he might also say that to prevent me from asking over and over again.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Lots of complexity to be disassembled, and quite a lot of sherry from the get-go. Chocolate and instant coffee. Some stone fruit, with grilled peach, unsweetened apricot jam (so, stewed apricots…). A hint of menthol too.

Sip:
The palate is a bit sharper than I expected, but that’s welcome to combat the sweetness a little bit. Behind the syrupy fruitiness there’s oak and barley and a lot of dryness. Some chili heat, some dates, some raisins.

Swallow:
The finish loses a bit of the dryness that I liked so much on the palate. A bit more milk chocolate-y than before, and a bit sweeter. Compared to the ‘actual’ dried fruits on the palate, the finish goes more towards the red fruit wine-gums.

I find this to be a bit of a troublesome whisky to rate. I recognize the quality of the whisky, and the age and proper maturation, but it isn’t exactly my style of sherry cask. I find it a bit on the sweet side. There is some dryness, but I’m missing the spices to give it a little bit more depth.

Still, all nagging aside, this still is a cracker of a whisky and I think most people like this better than I do. And I still rate it quite highly.

89/100

Secret Highland 1987-2019, 31 years old, Hogshead 27, 49.6%. Bottled by WhiskyNerds and available at most of the usual suspects in The Netherlands.