Apparently, an Inchgower was bottled for Whisky Import Nederland last year. I might have seen it back then, but I don’t think I really picked up on it. I know for sure I didn’t pick up a bottle for sharing, because I think I would have remembered.
Anyway, it was the second sample in the Blind Tasting Competition, and one for which I didn’t score any points because I forgot to fill in my guess. I was only reminded about it the next day by my friend JPH, with whom I’m trying to taste the samples.
Sniff:
Upon nosing this one, I immediately think of port or another heavy red wine. There’s an amazing amount of cask influence, which kind of obscures the distillery character. Hard as I try, I only get cask, and have no idea where to place this.
Sip:
A very gentle palate, and even though it’s not a dry whisky, it is a more dry than I expected. Still, it’s mostly amped up port, instead of whisky. Thick and syrupy, a bit of black pepper and wood.
Swallow:
The finish just does the same trick all over again. It’s quite a bit hotter than I expected, and has a bit of dryness again. But other than that, it’s port, maybe some stewed cherries.
So, I was wrong about a lot of things, mostly the cask that was used. Strangely, it’s a sherry cask which I really didn’t think was the case. I never even considered it. Since I thought it was a full on port cask, I went for Glenallachie as my guess for the day, since they tend to bottle things like this quite often.
The whisky then. I don’t really enjoy it. Even though, based on the description, I would not have minded to get myself a bottle. Inchgower, at a decent age, from a good bottler and an interesting cask. It all sounds right, but while this is no bad whisky by a long shot, it is also very far from what I enjoy most.
82/100
Malt Fascination 