By Tom van Engelen

When it comes to tasting new make spirit, malt distillate straight from the still and no contact with wood, I always think of Teun van Wel. This relaxed whisky enthusiast, known for organizing Maltstock every year, used to collect a plethora of new make spirits from every distillery that was willing to give him a sample. Because Teun is all about sharing, I tasted quite a few of them, with mixed results. Nonetheless, every now and then it is good to remind ourselves how whisky starts out.

A few years ago I tasted Ardnamurchan spirit and was blown away, so promising. And in January of this year I had the orgasmic experience of tasting Springbank spirit flowing straight from the still into my glass. Life is good. Of course, this highlight on Sjoerd’s blog can’t be overlooked either, the tasting of some spirits from Loch Ewe and Kilchoman.

The Borders is a new distillery located in Hawick, opened in March 2018. Go check their website. Seems like a beautiful operation, in an historic building. Let’s taste the product.

The Borders, New Make, 63.5% abv

Smell:
Classic new make, all on light orange fruit, mostly tangerine. Wet barley, obviously, almost generic, no smoke at all. With a good dash of water it becomes more milky and, strangely enough, there is a hint of barf. That keeps lingering, until white grapes emerge.

Sip:
Quite a fizzy mouthfeel, but the alcohol cloaks any taste. With water it reveals very dry bready notes. It’s not bad, it just proves why we need whisky to mellow in a cask for at least 3 years and a day.

Swallow:
Hot but not unbearable. A nice and sweet exit all on tropical fruits. With water these fruits (sadly) disappear. A soft shadow of sweetness remains.

Score: 60ish points.

It’s nonsense actually to score this spirit because it remains to be seen how maturation will influence the end product. I do get the impression this could well be a rather chameleon-like spirit, adapting to the cask instead of the other way around. Very much an easygoing lowlander, true to its location.

About Tom van Engelen

I’m a writer in a variety of fields and have a soft spot for whisky, mainly malt, mainly from Scotland. In other times I enjoyed a stint as editor-in-chief of one of the first whisky magazines in the world. When not sipping a good glass I like to write some more, read, watch 007 movies or listen Bowie music. I’m married to Dasha, I have a sweet daughter and I live somewhere between the big rivers in the middle of The Netherlands.