Another bottle that came to an end over the last couple of weeks, that was bought during Covid for a tasting. This new distillery, of which Tom wrote a more extensive piece, has been around for a couple of years now. According to Whiskybase there are some 68 whiskies out already, which I think is quite a lot in five years.

Of course, you have to make a mark when you’re a new kid on the increasingly crowded block. But releasing some 14 bottlings per year seems excessive. Then again, who am I to have an opinion on that!

The whisky then. It’s a young dram, obviously. Since it was bottled in 2020 it can’t be more than five years old, but I think we’re closer to the truth if we’re going with 3 years of maturation. It matured in a virgin oak cask, after being distilled three times.

Generally, this worries me a little bit. Because triple distillation does remove more of the components that give a whisky a profile, and virgin oak is known for imparting lots of wood driven flavors in a relatively short amount of time. Let’s find out where this one ends up!

Sniff:
A veritable mountain of malt to start the nose with. Not a lot of oak, which isn’t too surprising for a three-ish year old whisky, but is for a virgin oak cask. Some bread and baked apples, and a bit of scotch tablet.

Sip:
The palate shows the youth of the whisky a little bit more than the nose did. There’s fresh spirit, and its alcohol sweetness. On top of that the virgin oak shows itself, as well as hints of straw, vanilla and apple. A bit of custard too, and white pepper.

Swallow:
The finish is largely similar to the palate. There’s heaps of vanilla and straw, showcasing the virgin oak and barley spirit, but not much else.

Maybe a bit too generic to be overly interesting by the time it is 10 years old? I hope they have some refill casks lying around as well!

Based on this dram I can’ say I have expectations to the distillery profile. The whisky is a bit too young for that, and too wood driven. I am curious to see where this goes, though!

80/100