If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might have noticed that virtually all of Michiel Wigman’s whiskies have been reviewed here. I bet I missed some, and I do know I have some other spirits of his left to review, but the whiskies in their various guises have seen the light of day here.

Generally, I like his personal style and preferences. Therefore even though some whiskies have been Caol Ila matured in sweet wine casks, or port matured Glentauchers, I still quite like them. This one though…

It was part of the Blind Tasting Competition and I hadn’t had it before. Let’s just dive in.

Sniff:
Shoe polish and forced oak, a very young dram. Hot engine parts, scorched plywood. Lots of glue and nail polish remover. A pastry sweetness in the background.

Sip:
Again, very young with a lot of sharp oak notes. Shoe polish, copper and hot engines. Freshly sawn plywood, including the sawdust and glue. The dryness, with heat and a whiff of bitterness are a little bit pithy.

Swallow:
The finish is slightly more sweet, but still very clunky and young. Very unrefined. Copper, metal.

Let’s disclaim that there’s always the off-chance that a sample got screwed up between being bottled and being tasting. I strongly doubt that, but it is not impossible. If something like that happened here, it would explain a lot.

But, most likely, this is just a whisky that is absolutely not for me. It tasted sharp and hot, and far younger than it’s actual ten years. In my mind this was definitely a very young (read 3 or 4 years old) whisky with far too much oak influence without actually maturing.

So, in short, I didn’t like it at all. There are some notes that are interesting, don’t get me wrong, but all of them combined together made up for a weird mix of scents and flavors that I couldn’t really handle.

78/100

This bottle is still available via Best of Wines for € 115. For full disclosure: Everybody else seems to like a whole lot better than I do!