Early October Outturn Offerings
Cask No. 5.48 $135
Stave New World
Lowland
The wood hit our noses as oak shavings, fresh-cut pine and furniture stores; then we detected eucalyptus, ginger and new leather shoes; but it was also sweet (Oreos, syrup, plum sauce on sponge) and floral. The palate’s deeper regions gave us liquorice root, black tea, cinnamon and dry oak, while its lighter face had figs, guava, raspberry jam and fruit cake. Water brought sauna wood and clove-studded ham to the nose; cough syrup, rich toffee and Chupa Chups to the palate. After 13 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this into a sherry butt for the remainder of its maturation.
Drinking tip: After dinner, with a cigar, at the snooker table.
Colour: Full, deep gold
Cask: Second-fill butt
Age: 14 years
Date distilled: October 2000
Alcohol: 59.6%
USA allocation: 114 bottles
Flavour profile: Deep, rich & dried fruits
*Amanda’s Selection*
Cask No. 37.75 $155
Heady, aromatic and tongue-tickling
Speyside, Spey
Seventeen years in a refill barrel before finishing in Sauternes gave this a delightful nose – aromatic and heady – full of floral perfumes (sweet peas, freesias) and tropical fruits (Tooty Frooties, fruit pastilles, jam donut) with some varnished wood. The palate was lip-smacking and tongue-tickling – mainly sweet and fruity (pineapple cake, brown sugar on pink grapefruit, candied lemon, pick-n-mix) but with floral notes and playful, tingling woody spices at the end. The reduced nose found pavlova and sherbet lemons – comments included ‘warm and inviting’ and ‘my kind of whisky!’ The palate was sweetly succulent, with juicy melons and ‘dessert trolleys going by’.
Drinking tip: In a Jacuzzi, dreaming of tropical beaches.
Colour: Winter sunset
Cask: Second-fill Sauternes hogshead
Age: 18 years
Date distilled: August 1997
Alcohol: 55.1%
USA allocation: 108 bottles
Flavour profile: Sweet, fruity & mellow
Cask No. 2.94 $100
A mean green genie!
Speyside, Spey
Let Aladdin transport you to a land of green pear, agave, gooseberries sprinkled with icing sugar and crystalised angelica. The magic carpet of hessian scented with lavender and orange oil. Whoosh – the taste is sharp and sweet with hot chilli, fresh ginger and caramelised oranges sprinkled with plump yellow raisins. An box of exotic wood bursting with hazelnuts opens and with water, yields peaches and cream, vanilla slice and custard creams. Our genie emerges with a bowlful of crushed meringue, strawberry and melon spritzed with orange zest. The finish is short and dry…was it all a dream?
Drinking tip: Drink quickly – it will disappear in a puff of smoke!
Colour: Polished lamp
Cask: Refill barrel
Age: 9 years
Date distilled: September 2006
Alcohol: 60.4%
USA allocation: 90 bottles
Flavour profile: Spicy & sweet
Cask No. 76.125 $270
Enticing sweetness and attractive wood
Speyside, Spey
The nose was complex, but settled and ‘comfortable with itself’ – enticing sweetness and attractive wood – toffees in an antique cabinet, syrup sponge, fudge, rice crispie cakes, sticky toffee pudding, charcoal and lino cuts. This delightful duality continued on the palate – mouth-flooding sweetness (maple pecan Danish, orange-flavoured dark chocolate) along-side perfumed wood, pepper, buttered toast and flower stems. With water, the nose suddenly discovered peach melba, custard apple and passion-fruit – all in a well-tended barn or ‘pristine stable’. The palate now gave us orange fondant, Chantilly cream and a spicy finish – cinnamon, clove, ginger and ‘spiced cake mix off a wooden spoon’.
Drinking tip: Best enjoyed in a country house or stately home, preferably while counting your money.
Colour: Gold reflected in a magpie’s eye
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 28 years
Date distilled: September 1987
Alcohol: 54.0%
USA allocation: 84 bottles
Flavour profile: Spicy & sweet
Cask No. 10.92 $100
Drifting away
Islay
Whilst beachcombing we came across tarry driftwood, plastic bags, devil’s toenails (fossilised oyster shells), kiwis (the fruit, not animals or people!) as well as a scallop shell midden. Always with us in the air was a barbeque peat smoke which we eventually found, joining the group having dinner. Apple-glazed ham, king prawn skewers with honey & garlic as well as a shellfish salad with lime dressing. With a drop of water, as the sun sunk into the sparkling sea, we all drifted away wave after wave, one starting to paint a boat sailing on the horizon whilst another wrote a poem.
Drinking tip: The title says it all
Colour: Manzanilla Sherry in the sun
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 9 years
Date distilled: December 2006
Alcohol: 61.4%
USA allocation: 120 bottles
Flavour profile: Peated
Cask No. 29.183 $145
A cold cure
Islay
Full on Islay: road tar, carbolic, Coal Tar soap segues to sheep wool (oily, lanolin, sheep dip); mentholic – embrocation, Vik Vapour Rub – clears the head! Clean and fresh as an old-fashioned starchy matron. Indeed, the taste at full strength is of starched linen, after a sweet start, then the fumes from a peat-fuelled AGA stove. Water dries the aroma somewhat, with hessian, new coal sacks; traces of steam engine and Plasticine. Now the taste is dry throughout, with a smooth and oily texture (smoked bacon fat), some white pepper in the finish and a spent coal fire in the aftertaste.
Drinking tip: Snuggled in a blanket in a chilly room
Colour: Pale gold
Cask: Refill barrel
Age: 16 years
Date distilled: July 1999
Alcohol: 57.9%
USA allocation: 60 bottles
Flavour profile: Heavily peated
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