Shiver me timbers!

Cask No. 4.151                     

Highlands, Orkney

The nose was just fabulous – orange, pomegranate, dried fruits, crystallised ginger, Madeira wine, crème brûlée, black tea, honey, treacle toffee, balsamic – endless suggestions. On the palate, exotic fruits (kumquat, star-fruit) cavorted behind a curtain of honey and perfumed smoke; we also found red wine reduction and roast pork residue – ‘shiver me timbers!’ someone exclaimed. The reduced nose was burnt sticks dipped in honey, with medicinal elements and Old Holborn rolled in liquorice papers. Liquorice allsorts, roasted chestnuts and toasted marshmallows gave us wonderful closure on the rich and dreamy reduced palate. The distillery is on the ‘high land’ aboveKirkwall.

Drinking tip: For best friends, or when you need reminded that life can be good

 Colour: Deep vibrant orange                             

Cask: Refill sherry butt                                    

Age: 26 years                                        

Date distilled: December 1984

Alcohol: 53.1%

$170

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Leather sofa seduction

Cask No. 63.26                     

Highlands, Speyside

The interesting, dynamic nose suggested fruit (schnapps, Armagnac, Victoria sponge); also caramel, spicy sweets and cough syrup; then descriptions began to emerge involving cigarette packets, perfume and leather (for one panellist it conjured up ‘a leather sofa, a hot guy and some cologne’). The palate, quite hot in its own right, contained dried papaya, orange, star-fruit and grappa, with big, manly wood and leather astringency. With water the nose found fruit pastilles and ‘masculine’ perfumes (spicy, woody, musky). The palate now balanced its leather and tobacco depth, with elegant, exotic, perfumed mango fruitiness. The distillery is between Keith and Dufftown.

Drinking tip: Best enjoyed on a leather sofa with a hot guy – obviously! (unless you ARE the                           hot guy)

Colour: Apricot gold                                          

Cask: Second-fill hogshead                               

Age: 21 years                                        

Date distilled: December 1989

Alcohol: 52.6%

$140

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A lady of the night

Cask No. 85.22                     

Highlands, Speyside (Lossie)

Dark scents beset us: date loaf with Pecan nuts, rum truffles, Jamaican ginger cake, fudge with raisins, and a waft of (unlit) menthol cigarettes. At natural strength the taste is sweet with a light bitterness like burnt toffee (‘salt-water taffy’ commented one), dark chocolate in the finish and Kendal mint-cake in the aftertaste. Water conjured a leather couch against a backdrop of dripping candles, Pecan pie, treacle tart and Caramac, with a smooth texture and a centre-palate taste, sweet overall, with hints of spice and camphor in the finish. The malt comes from the last distillery to be built in the 19^th Century.

Drinking tip: Reclining on a leather Chesterfield with a special friend

Colour: Pale amber                                           

Cask: Refill sherry butt                                    

Age: 12 years                                        

Date distilled: September 1999

Alcohol: 60.0%

$105

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Shockingly comfortable

Cask No. 127.12                   

Islay,LochIndaal

A powerful, prickly nose, with charred wood, machine oil and tar to start, and old crepe bandages, becoming smoky ‘Bacon Bits’, soya and smoked duck with plum sauce. Water reinforces the medicinal notes with Savlon cream; the smoke has receded slightly – now tarry vanilla-infused cigars. The taste is hot, sweet, smoky and very salty at natural strength, softening with water and reminding us of burnt carrots and turnips before the warm smoky finish. A ‘shockingly comfortable’ example of the heavily peated malt named after anIslay distillery which closed in 1929, but which may soon be rebuilt.

 Drinking tip: To accompany an Oriental meal

Colour: Full gold                                              

Cask: Refill barrel                                            

Age: 8 years                                         

Date distilled: June 2002

Alcohol: 66.3%

$85

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A model-maker’s dram

Cask No. G6.2                      

Grain

A complex nose – beeswax furniture polish, green grapes, gooseberries, tinned peaches and fresh puffball mushrooms; with its freshly sanded balsa wood and glue it also appealed to the model-makers. The palate was a complete surprise – vanilla, syrup, clear toffee, chocolate, roasted peppers and a stunning, light oakiness (almost with leaves on) – ‘Brilliant!’ someone exclaimed. The reduced nose became sweeter and more perfumed – vanilla, orange blossom, roasted vegetables and after sitting a while, a Chinese takeaway! The reduced palate was simple, but very quaffable – blossom honey with a slightly bitter lick-stick of oak. This grain distillery is near Springburn inGlasgow.

Drinking tip: A dram for pottering around in the shed

Colour: Pale yellow summer wine                                 

Cask: Refill barrel                                            

Age: 18 years                                        

Date distilled: February 1993

Alcohol: 55.2%

$130

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