October 2012 Outturn Offerings

Moorland after rain 

Cask No. 26.84                                               

Highlands, Northern Highlands

We immediately noted a lightly mentholated effect, then a complex of fruity and woody scents: artificial peach, fruit syrup, varnish, natural liquorice, stripped wood, sawdust, beeswax. The taste, unreduced, is sweet, herbal and fruity (‘lime pith’), with light waxiness and white-pepper spiciness. It takes a while to open up with water, then becomes very fragrant (patchouli and vanilla, meadowsweet and elderflower) and fruity (fruit salad chews, fresh pineapple, rhubarb), with a whiff of snuffed candle. The taste is sweet and waxy; the floral note is now jasmine, and the fruity element Juicy Fruit chewing gum and orange pith. The distillery stands adjacent to another of the same name, overlooking the North Sea.

Drinking tip: An early-evening dram in the Highlands, when the rain has ceased

Colour: Mid gold                                            

Cask: Refill barrel                                            

Age: 21 years

Date distilled: August 1990

Alcohol: 49.1%

$145 

Laundry in the Bakery 

Cask No. 5.35                                     

Lowlands, Western Lowlands

Initial nose is fresh and light, elderflower cordial, green apples and lemon puffs. Deeper and sweeter notes develop quickly, giving homely and warm feeling, like baking bread or jam doughnuts. Quite hot and lively to taste, strawberries with black pepper, turning fruity and fizzy like strawberry Creamola foam, also creamy similar to a raspberry milk shake or Macchiato coffee. That creaminess carries on when adding water and aromas of apple toffee, rice pudding, butter icing, strawberry jam and doughy bread emerge. The taste is that of dark hot chocolate, brown sugar, cinnamon and blackberry jam. And to finish, from this distillery known for distilling three times, cold peppermint tea and fresh slightly soapy laundry.

Drinking tip: Whilst baking bread and doing the laundry

Colour: Tarnished copper green                                

Cask: Second-fill hogshead                           

Age: 12 years

Date distilled: June 1999

Alcohol: 54.7% 

$105

Sweet, peaceful dreams 

Cask No. 33.113                                              

Islay, South Shore

You’re in a fabulous pavilion – soaking in a bubble-bath – sweetly peaceful. Nearby, a platter of exotic fruits (pineapple, papaya, lychees) and a dram of this. Across the room there’s a fire of fragrant pine cones. Outside, the eighteenth green of the world-class golf course that you have just completed way under par. The door opens and another serving girl appears with poppy seed biscuits, Italian fennel-flavoured salami and a beaming smile. You are tired but still feeling strong and proud of your achievements. Everything is in balance and harmony – the dream, the feeling, and the evocative scents and flavours from this ‘small headland’ dram.

Drinking tip: The perfect dram for unwinding after a hard day

Colour: American dry ginger ale                               

Cask: First-fill barrel                                         

Age: 8 years

Date distilled: July 2003

Alcohol: 60.4% 

$85 

Burnt granary toast with bramble jelly 

Cask No. 85.23                                               

Highlands, Speyside (Lossie)

The first notes are typical of ex-sherry wood maturation: lightly sulphury, with struck matches, or as one put it ‘home-made egg mayo with granary bread’. The sulphur notes soon blow off, leaving yeasty, sour pumpernickel bread and baked pecan pie. At natural strength the taste is very sweet, burnt and aggressive. Water re-introduces the sulphur notes, which linger behind burnt toast spread with butter and bramble jelly or plum jam, and later treacle toffee. In the mouth, the texture is thick and smooth, the taste very sweet and slightly bitter, with raw brambles and redcurrants.

Drinking tip: Strolling in an autumnal orchard

Colour: Pale amber with khaki lights             

Cask: Refill Sherry butt                                    

Age: 12 years

Date distilled: September 1999

Alcohol: 59.4% 

$105 

Seaweed, sushi and Arbroath smokies 

Cask No. 93.47                                               

Campbeltown

The nose seemed unusual – salted almonds and rice crackers; seaweed, sushi, and Earl Grey tea; smoked sausage, tar, hospitals, garage workshops and farmyards. The unreduced palate was enormous – tar, smoke and ash – big time; also salty liquorice, menthol, Arbroath smokies and the seaweed found in Japanese rice crackers. Adding water brought the nuttiness and sweetness forward on the nose; we also identified flying saucers, soap and dried strawberries. The reduced palate was still interesting but more tamed – vanilla sweetness, tongue-tingling ginger and cured sausage with subtle caraway and mace flavourings. The distillery is owned by the Loch Lomond Distillery Company.

Drinking tip: A garden shed dram

Colour: Pale yellow gold                                

Cask: Refill barrel                                            

Age: 9 years

Date distilled: April 2002

Alcohol: 59.7%

$90

Please visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America at http://www.smwsa.com/ for further information on their single cask bottlings.