Generally, I think Glenturret is a fine distillery. Not that I gobble up anything that becomes available, but the general level of quality is ‘pretty deece’. Of course, there’s quite some rather legendary stuff from the late seventies, but when I visited the distillery with JPH in 2019, we were both quite enthusiastic about what we got to try, and the whisky we bottled ourselves.
Last year, this bottling from Alistair Walker Whisky Company, from the Infrequent Flyers series came out. Although Glenturret releases peated whisky nowadays, it’s still an oddity compared to what the average Glenturret is. Add to that the Marsala cask this one matured in, and we’ve got ourselves way off the beaten path.
Image from Whiskybase
Let’s find out where that leads us!
Sniff: Lots of walnuts, with a fairly generic scent of fortified wine. Quite sweet, with some funkiness of overripe sweet citrus and mango. Rather rich, with sweet smoke behind it all. Definitely marsala.
Sip: The palate isn’t too sharp, with a rich sweetness. Marsala with lots of nuttiness, walnuts and a touch of vinegar. Pickled walnuts, hazelnuts, brazil nuts. Overripe mango, sweet orange, papaya. Some oak and quite some smokiness.
Swallow: I didn’t expect this to be possible, but it gets even richer. Somehow with notes of chocolate and brie. Nuts, oak, smoke, but far less fruity.
This is a very strange whisky indeed. In a way, there’s quite some things to like, the richness, the nuttiness, the quirkiness, the moderate level of peat. However, I don’t feel like it all goes well together.
It’s one of those whiskies that if you ‘just’ drink them when watching tv or reading a book, it’s fine. But it doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny. If you pay attention it’s just a little too weird.
When there’s a label from a respected bottler like Adelphi stating that the contents are Ben Nevis, the bottles tend to fly off the shelves. In this case that might have gone even faster since it’s a split cask, for some reason. Of course, selling bottles like this goes even faster if the whisky has a color like this one. I don’t think it’s much lighter than the coffee I’m drinking while typing this.
I checked, by the way. The other half (technically 39.7%) was labelled for Loch Fyne Whiskies in Inveraray.
Apart from checking which bottling it was and having a vague memory somewhere of this being on the young side, I didn’t check anything when tasting this. I had no idea which distillery it was initially, nor that it is only five years old. That must have been some cask…
Sniff: Rich and funky with lots of dried fruits and lots of waxed leather. Apart from dates and plums, there are also some stewed blackberries and strawberries. Quite jam like. A whiff of menthol in the background makes it not too heavy.
Sip: The palate is surprisingly smooth for the high ABV, with a whiff of chili peppers coming up after a few seconds. It doesn’t become hot at any time, though. Dried fruits, a bit of dark soil, some oak. A hint of leather and menthol.
Swallow: The finish goes a little bitter with plum stones, and a whiff of almonds. Still a rather leathery style of sherry with some red fruit behind it.
Well, this is sherried, all right. I don’t think there’s a way of determining it’s a Ben Nevis if you didn’t know it. The spirit is completely overpowered by the cask influence. Not that that is a bad thing, because in this case the result is a fun whisky that showcases what sherry maturation can do in a rather short time.
The different aspects of sherry maturation, like dried fruits, funky notes of leather and menthol make for a great experience. It doesn’t show a tremendous amount of depth and layeredness, but that’s not too surprising after just five years.
Slijterij Vonk is a bottle shop not too far from where I live, and even though I hadn’t been there for ages, I started visiting the place a little bit more in the last year or so.
It’s strange that I didn’t go there more, because in the past they had some great bottles available. A year before I started this blog there were still Rare Malts there, and very old Old Malt Cask bottlings and such. I even picked up a Karuizawa from a pretty decent vintage there, before prices sky-rocketed.
But anyway, FB, a friend, found this BenRiach there last year, and it was discounted to € 50 or so. He called since he was on his way to pick up samples at my place anyway, and I said to bring me a bottle. It’s nice to share stuff like this, both in a tasting and as samples. I kept a little bit for myself that I emptied recently.
Image from Whiskybase
Theoretically this should be a fairly generic BenRiach. Refill Hogshead isn’t anything off the beaten path, especially for BenRiach. 15 years old is nice too. Those are good things by the way. I like BenRiach when they don’t try to stand out too much. Let’s see how it holds up.
Sniff: A very classical nose with hints of oak and vanilla, but mostly an aroma of rich barley. Porridge, even. Some lemon in the background, with a whiff of black pepper.
Sip: I expected this to be sweeter on the palate. It’s still very barley-forward with lemon for a fresh edge. Some chili pepper for heat, and a bit of oak. Highly consistent with the nose. Oak shavings, Napoleon candy, porridge.
Swallow: The finish is a bit more woody, and far less focused on the barley. Some old apples, pears, and still some oak.
As expected, this is a very decent BenRiach. Worth the 50 bucks I paid for it, also worth the 70 it initially went for. Not an overly complicated whisky, but there’s nothing to complain about either.
The main reason for this not moving that quickly, and still being available six years after release (it’s gone now, by the way), I think is mostly that it’s almost 300 bottles for a single shop. Especially in a time when things need to stand out with a million releases happening every week, I guess this got less attention than possible. A shame for Slijterij Vonk. Good for me…
It’s been a while since I tried Imperial. Almost two years since the last review, but in the last seven years I’ve only had three. They are getting more rare with every release, since the distillery shut its doors 26 years ago.
Contrary to Port Ellen and Brora, this one won’t be restarting, since it has since been demolished, and on the same site. Destruction of the buildings happened in 2013 and since then Dalmunach Distillery has been built, opened and has even released some young whiskies of which Tom reviewed a couple.
By what I read about the distillery it is one of those blend fillers, with most of its output being used to give a bit of weight and balance to blended whiskies. It was built for its single malt, but it came on steam too late for an initial wave of popularity. When single malt whisky started becoming popular again, the distillery had already closed its doors.
In its almost 100 year life it the distillery lay silent for a lot of it, sometimes even for 30 years in a row. The distillery was built in 1897, but a downturn happened in 1899 (for the entirity of Scotland/whisky). It started production again in 1919. A few years of production followed by a 30 year long shutdown. Then it started again around 1965, to be shut down in 1985 when things went south for the entire industry once more. Reopenied in 1991, only to be finally shut down four years later, even though refurbishment was done around its final reopening.
I’ve always found Imperial a bit of a weird whisky. While a single malt it generally shows a lot of similarities in character to grain whiskies. Not as heavy as other single malts and with more sweetness too. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it does always make me a bit apprehensive when trying a new one.
Image from Whiskybase
This bottling was done at 18 years old, so quite a significant age for a whisky that is so hard to come by. Two bourbon hogsheads were used by Signatory, and with this rating at 89.20 at Whiskybase, I’m quite interested in trying it.
Sniff: An interesting combination of chalky dryness, and a wine gum like sweetness. Fruity with notes of lime, sour apples. Barley grist and a sweet oak scent.
Sip: The palate loses a bit of its sweetness, in favor of gritty dry notes. Chalk, grist, and on top of that the shitload of alcohol.
Swallow: The finish has awesome balance and complexity. Dryness with a bit of sweetness, candy, a bit of roasted marshmallow, barley too.
Not entirely surprising, it is a bit of a weird whisky. The combination of the very sweet notes of wine gum on the nose, with the bone dry chalkiness that somehow comes with it makes it interesting, but strange. It draws your attention because of it.
In that way, it fits the distillery character and in this case it’s a shame it’s gone. I wouldn’t mind trying more like this, every now and then!
That things haven’t been going to plan, hope or expectation for a while needs no explanation. The same is true for Springbank Distillery, and their planned open day. Add to that that they always select some to-be-bottled single casks for the Springbank Society, and their whole modus operandi came undone, the last two years.
They tried fixing some things with online tastings, sample packs and a massively improved webshop (but let’s be honest, anything was an improvement…).
Image from Whiskybase
Unfortunately, last year things went horribly wrong with my open day order with it being ordered, paid and then cancelled without any notification. No money was lost, but I lived with idle hope for a while, waiting until a package would turn up that never came.
Of course, the next time things were happening, Brexit was a thing and with the risk of ordering € 100 worth of whisky, and an extra fee being added on top of two thirds of that wasn’t worth taking.
A friend of mine, Erik H, going by ‘Erik Elixir’, did take that risk and won a ballot for this Springbank 28 years old. One of the high rollers of recent sample packs and something the tasters went rather mental about. Add to that that Erik is awesome enough to share samples from the already sample-sized bottle, it being 20cl, and you can bet I was thrilled to be able to try this.
I kept the title of the post rather short, and normally add cask types. In this case adding ‘Sherry Hogshead, Sherry Butt, Bourbon Barrel and Rum Barrel’ would have made the title a tad too long, but here’s the information anyway.
When I checked the specifics of this bottle on Whiskybase I initially got thrilled that the bottle ‘only’ costs € 320 now. An awesome lot of money, but not for a 28 year old Springbank. That was, of course, before I remembered this was only a 20cl bottle. A little bit of math puts a fill size bottle of this at € 1120.
Let’s see if it’s good enough to warrant such a hefty price tag.
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: The sherry plays first violin, but is not as all-encompassing as sometimes happens with sherry’d Springbanks. Although, remembering the ‘Superman’ bottling, that’s not a bad thing either…
There’s a whiff of yeast, much like aged oloroso, but with barley. It has the coastal minerality that I often find in Springbank, with hints of basalt and a whiff of brine. It is far more gentle than I expected, with rather timid notes of baked apple, cinnamon and a whiff of dates.
With a couple of minutes the expected notes of old Springbank start showing up. Overripe fruit on a bed of straw, old barley, dunnage warehouses, earthiness too. Even a whiff of coconut in the background.
Sip: The palate is very gentle too, with just a little bit of a dry oak note that brings some bite. Not even bite, more of a tingle. Quite a lot of oak, with baked apple and cinnamon. Very consistent with the nose. After about a minute there’s a slight hint of black pepper, on top of wet soil, with clay and basalt. Some mushrooms and hessian, old barley.
Swallow: The finish only adds to the complexity. The basalt note of the nose is more pronounced, with sweeter yellow fruit and even a hint of banana on top of the baked apple. Straw, wet soil, hessian, the works.
I fully understand why people are so thrilled with this. What I don’t understand is why anyone is selling this stuff. Of course, there’s money to be made, but you don’t get to try whisky of this calibre that often. It is of another level. It’s not ‘Superman’ good, but it still is very, very good.
It’s really interesting to find such a blend of casks, although that’s not too uncommon for Springbank’s more aged expressions. In this case the combination of sherry and bourbon casks keep both types in check, and build on each other’s strengths. I’m not entirely sure the rum barrel adds that much to the mix, but I’m thrilled that it hasn’t added too much sweetness.
It’s been ages since I last tried a Compass Box whisky. Or at least, since I last reviewed one. There was the Transistor, which I did with Punk IPA next to it in February, but before that it was 2018. I’m not entirely sure what happened, but I see them pop up far less regularly in the marketing I receive.
And yes, that’s a fancy description of ‘newsletters, Facebook and Instagram’. But anyway, several years ago I bought and bottle-shared most of the releases. ‘3 year old deluxe’ and ‘This is not a luxury whisky’ come to mind, and were all thoroughly loved.
But now, or at least, a while ago, I decided I wanted to try this one. I read some positive feedback on it and it was discounted at Slijterij Vonk, near where I live. Also, I had a tasting coming up that needed a line-up. It all seemed to add up.
The whisky itself then! While I cannot say with any certainty that there is no Clynelish in the mix, since a bit is obfuscated by their own ‘Highland Malt Blend’, it did surprise me that it wasn’t a more significant part of the blend. To me, Compass Box and using Clynelish in their blends is, or used to be, the same thing.
What is is made up of is in the image to the left. With SWA ruling they cannot disclose the ages of the whiskies used, without anyone asking, but the internet has already taken care of that, of course.
The Mortlach is 18 years old. 14.6% Is 14 years old Deanston, while 2.5% is 17 years old, making up the 17.1%. Then there is 11 year old Glen Elgin (13.1%), 20 year old Glen Elgin (5%), 15 years old Laphroaig and the Highland Malt Blends sits at 11 years old.
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: Quite woody on the nose, with lots of oak shavings and a bit of a fresh barley dryness. Some pencil shavings, and beeswax behind the initial oak. Apple skins, a bit of vanilla custard and some honey sweetness.
Sip: The palate is less dry than the nose suggested, but still dry. There’s quite some black pepper, oak- and pencil shavings. It’s very consistent with the nose. There are apple peels, including their waxiness, fresh barley, a hint of custard. The honey sweetness is a little bit more pronounced, and comes with a bit of a honey-like texture too.
Swallow: The finish is again very consistent. Honey sweetness, with a bit of an apple like waxiness. It goes very much towards apple crumble. There’s a bit less oak, less barley and less pepper, although none of them are completely gone.
Strangely, it is so lightly peated that I did not pick up on the whiff of smoke. With Laphroaig normally being peated to about 50ppm, and there being 5.4% of it here, that boils down to 2.7ppm and I believe I once read that a human nose picks up on things over 3 ppm. I guess that’s no exact science but it does make me feel like less of an idiot.
Anyway, this is a very nice dram. It has a nice complexity and because of the limited amount of different elements it does have quite some different flavors without it becomes a complete jumble of whiffs, touches and notes.
All in all it’s quite a nice dram, and it’s not exorbitantly priced. Not a bad buy, if I say so.
Imagine a bunch of sweaty, middle-aged men sitting in a sauna with a dram. I am not one for saunas, but I can imagine the banter happening, and the idea of making ones own whisky isn’t too far fetched.
To actually go through with that is an entirely different thing. However, the guys behind Kyrö actually did just that. There’s a lot more background story on their website, but the short of it is that they started distilling in 2014.
It’s interesting to see that there are more distilleries outside the USA and Canada popping up to make rye whisky. Apart from the rather well known (here, at least) Millstone rye whiskies, there now is a Finnish one, and a few years ago even Amrut released an expensive, but splendid rye whisky.
With The Nectar celebrating their 15th anniversary this year, they got their hands on a cask of Kyrö rye whisky, and bottled it for themselves. Of course, with only the Nordic Cask one to compare it to, I had to get my hands on a few more. A sample came from MvZ, but next to the The Nectar one sat another one in the shop, and I picked that one up too.
So, comparing three Kyrö whiskies, and trying to compare them mentally to the Nordic Cask one. Here it goes!
Kyrö Malt, bottled in 2020, 47.2%
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: The rye is very intense with lots of spicy notes. Black pepper, roasted rye and ginger. A bit of orange and the oreo style of cocoa. Very iron rich. Quite some fresh oak too.
Sip: More syrupy on the palate than I expected, and it takes a few seconds before the spices kick in. It’s dry, with lots of toast, burnt cocoa, ginger, some bay leaf, even. Roasted pumpkin seeds.
Swallow: Very gentle, with a high consistency. Lots of spices, dark toasted bread (both dark bread and darkly toasted). Not overly long.
A very decent standard bottling, but if this is the benchmark, we’re in for some fun! With this bottle setting you back between € 40 and € 60, depending on where you find it, it’s a bit on the expensive side, but that’s not too surprising with it being a recent start-up and a small distillery. A good start!
82/100
Kyrö Wood Smoke, bottled in 2021, 47.2%
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: There is a LOT of wood on the nose. Very typical for young rye. I don’t expect this to be more than five years old. Wood driven spices, with rye spices on top. Menthol, a bit of wood smoke indeed, but mostly moist wood shavings. Fresh ginger, some orchard fruits after a while.
Sip: The palate is rather gentle. Surprisingly, based on how intense the flavors are. Dry, roasted grains, ginger, orange pith, menthol. Lots of oak, and a whiff of smoke. That smokiness brings more wood flavors forward, than actual smoke.
Swallow: The finish is slightly sweeter, but also gives a hot sensation down my throat. Syrupy, with a bit of pine and resin. Rather long.
It lacks a bit of complexity, but still is a high quality spirit. I expected the wood smoke to more prevalent, with it being stated so boldly on the label. And, with this being on the shelf next to the regular Rye Malt, I think the difference should be a little more pronounced.
Still, it has a bit more complexity than the initial one, and since it’s the same price, I’d go for this one.
85/100
Kyrö’s Choice, bottled in 2021, 47.2% – OB for The Nectar
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: Much like the wood smoke, but with a slight hint of matches. I like that, by the way, if kept in check. A little bit more smoky, with even a hint of red fruits. Therefore, not just that massive note of oak, although that’s still there.
Sip: Slightly sweet with symple syrup, resin, oak and strawberry coulis. Lots of wood notes with cinnamon, ginger, oak.
Swallow: The palate brings surprising hints of buttered, and slightly burnt toast. Rye spiciness, some black pepper and strawberries.
It’s a bit inconsistent with flavors going off in various directions. However, it is more ‘wild’ than unhinged. I like that there are more fruits than in the other two. The Belgians have picked a good cask!
86/100
I like the simple fact that there is a decent base expression for this distillery, and they fan out from there. The different versions, including the single cask by Berry Brothers, from their Nordic Casks, all add something to the standard version.
It’s good to have another interesting distillery getting a bit more exposure, and I especially like that they do something different than most new non-Scottish, European distilleries. Kudos!
If you like heavily sherry’d whiskies and are willing to shell out at least a little bit, you probably are familiar with Kavalan. A Taiwanese distillery whose whiskies have won every award there is to win, unless it’s region specific or about 15 years or older drams.
Image from WhiskyCast
The distillery uses all kinds of casks, and for every type there are some really high scoring examples. However, apart from the supposedly insanely good Fino casks, they sherry casks are what they are most known for.
If you look back at the Malt Maniacs Awards, although discontinued still one of the only awards that matters at least a bit, they’ve managed to end up high on the score board since 2013, with ending up Supreme Champion in 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and category winner in 2013. There was no competition in 2019, and they scored gold in 2020.
I got my grubby hands on a bottle here and there, and saved up these two reviews to be combined and see what’s what.
Sniff: Very big and juicy sherry. It starts of very fruity with plums and peaches. It becomes a bit more rich after a while with a hint of sulfur. Hints of matches and vegetables, with spices and fruit still. Not much room for the spirit, I think.
Sip: The palate is very dry and very similar to old fashioned sherried Speysiders. Dry and fruity, with background hints of spices, oak. The sherry tastes like it had some age to it, instead of just being boozy fruit juice. Combined with the high ABV and warm climate maturation it makes for a solid dram.
Swallow: The finish continues down the same road, and makes me think of old Glen Grant again. Very solid at imitating old style Speyside whiskies. A long and balanced sherry finish, with wood, fruity and spicy.
90/100
Kavalan Solist, 2008-2019, Oloroso Sherry Cask S081217040A, 58.6% – OB for La Maison du Whisky & The Nectar
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: Massively sherry’d too, with not too much obvious fruit. Aged balsamic vinegar and a lot of nuttiness. Bitter notes with date stones, almonds, plums and oak.
Sip: The palate is dry on the arrival, not overly sweet and very intense. The bitter notes have increased compared to the nose, with almonds and fruit stones. Cherry, date, balsamic vinegar and rancio. A touch of red pepper too.
Swallow: The finish is quite gentle compared to the palate, with more of the same notes. There’s a little bit of charcoal in there, that wasn’t there before.
90/100
I figured to give my opinion in one go for both of them. Both are excellent whiskies, but you have to keep in mind that you’re not going to be dissecting the spirit and the distillation process when you analyze this. These drams are mostly about the cask and fast aging in a hot climate.
Generally that puts me off a little bit, but in this case it is just too well done to not like it, or even take it down some notches. Gorgeous stuff, this.
Last week there was an unexpected delivery of some Cognacs. A personalized letter came with it, but no sender was stated. I had to do a tiny bit of digging in my ‘network’ to find out it came from Kirsch Import. Of course, that was on the labels of the samples, but I didn’t know that one of the Wu Dram Clan (Sebastian Jaeger, to be precise) members works there, so I had to tie some things together.
Anyway, Kirsch Import, to me mostly known for whisky, some private bottlings and such, will release some new Cognacs.
The Cognacs that I received are from very different vintages: 2006 and a mix of 1941 and 1943. Let’s try them, starting with the younger one!
This Cognac comes from the Pasquet family’s own vineyards, from hand-picked grapes, and distilled by themselves. In Cognac it is not rare to have a blend of grapes from different vineyards, distilled by a shared distillery. That’s not so in this case, this is as ‘single’ as it gets.
Sniff: The first thing that happens when pouring this, is the sensation of there being a lot of very ripe fruit in the room. When actually assessing the aromas there’s a bit of fresh wood, molten butter and a fruity scent. I normally find the fruit in younger brandies quite harsh, but in this case it’s very gentle. The oak brings some vanilla, and a bit of sweetness. It’s quite dessert-like.
Sip: The palate does bring that 50% ABV with it. There’s quite a peppery bite, without being harsh. The oak, its vanilla and that buttery note I got before are here too, and more noticeable than the fruit. There is fruit of course, warm mango, papaya, baked grapes.
Swallow: The finish continues down the same line as the palate, but does add that slightly sharper note of fruit that I normally get. A bit of copper, fresh grapes, a very light acidity.
This is described as a wild Cognac, and I think I agree with that. It’s very unlike what I know about Cognac and I love it. It offers a new perspective on something familiar, without being unfaithful to the category. The range of flavors is amazing.
88/100
Vallein Tercinier, Small Batch 1941/1943-2021, 48.2% – KIRSCH
So, this is a very special one. Of course, there’s the ‘sort of’ vintage. A distillated from the midst of the Second World War, distilled in very difficult times, and kept in French oak barrels until 2006. Since then it was blended and put in glass Dame Jeannes until recently when it was bottled for Kirsch.
Apart from that, it also is the first Vallein Tercinier release completely from their own stock. In Cognac it is common practice to blend from different houses, but this one is completely from the Bon Bois vineyards of Vallein Tercinier themselves.
Sniff: This is different. There are more minerals than there were on the earlier two, but there’s a definit note of iron, and therefore (in my mind) apples. Lots of oak, and lots of grapes. Fruit alcohol too. Strangely the wood isn’t overpowering, but it does smell like you’re at a sawmill.
Sip: The palate is very gentle, but also very dry. Lots of oak shavings, lots of pepper, almond flour. A grape-seed bitterness as well as white grapes themselves. Even though there’s a note of white grapes, there’s also a note of very oaked red wine, with that rich and dry fruitiness that goes with it.
Swallow: The finish suddenly has lots of red fruits with blackberries, raspberries and grapes. Lots of oak and a bit of a petrol flavor too. The finish is very long, and the combination of the oak and fruit lingers awesomely, and (I know, weird) that note of petrol really adds some complexity.
Damn… This is something else. The notes are all over the place, but it makes for insane complexity, and not for inconsistency. The unexpected notes, first of iron, almond flour, and later of unexpected red fruits and petrol make for a sublime drinking experience.
The entire fact that it is from war era France only adds to being blown away by this one. Such a family treasure to be shared with a German importer is not a common thing.
92/100
Both of these awesome Cognacs are going to be available at KIRSCH from tomorrow!
Thanks for sending samples! I guess I’m going to be more ‘into’ Cognac from now on…
Of course, ‘exclusive’ can be taken with quite a load of salt.
Back in early 2020 when Corona first became a thing in the west, I started hosting tasting for friends through all kinds of online channels. The ‘Stay The Fuck Home’ tastings, they were dubbed.
Of course, to host tastings I needed whisky, and some weird synapse fired. I decided I not only needed whisky, I needed new whisky. For some reason my mind figured that the bottles I have at home would in no way suffice to host a whisky tasting, so I bought some things.
One of them was this Old Pulteney, another was a 15 year old Balblair, there were others too. That Balblair is already gone for a while, and this one now is empty too. It took a bit longer because I kind of lost track of the bottle. As it turned out, I poured the remainder in a sample bottle and binned the clunky original one.
I bought these two bottlings since the North Eastern Highlands are a region that I generally don’t pay enough attention to. There aren’t too many distilleries and what is there generally gets marginalized by my Clynelish-fandom. This, while I generally like Old Pulteney and Balblair, to name just two.
Image from Whiskybase
Of course, apart from Teaninich, Dalmore and Glenmorangie there’s not too much going on in the area. There’s Glen Ord and Wolfburn of course but, you know, meh.
This one also looked quite appealing since it was cheap. I didn’t expect too much of it, but you need a gentle dram to start a tasting with, or so I figured.
Sniff: There’s lots of vanilla with a hint of marram grass on the nose. Some butterscotch and toffee too, with the expected notes of oak and barley. A fruity edge with pear and pineapple.
Sip: The palate is just as fruity as the nose is, pear, pineapple and crisp apples. Some toffe and a hint of oak, straw and a bit of coastal salinity. Marram grass too.
Swallow: The finish is more of the same. Not too long, and a bit less fruity than the palate. It does become a bit more generic.
If memory serves, this whisky is very similar to the regular 12 year old Old Pulteney. A slightly coastal, and rather fruity whisky. That’s all good, and especially at less than € 50 for a liter this is actually quite a steal. Of course, it won’t blow your socks off in any way, but it still is a rather tasty dram. It’s just nothing special.
Malt Fascination 