March 2013 Outturn Offerings 

Just so-ooh nice 

Cask No. 35.61                       $145

Speyside, Lossie

One or two panellists found the nose slightly musty, and some said slow to open, but we identified fudge, candy, toffee, vanilla, carrot cake, melting Demerara, hard fruity sweets, mandarins and upside-down pineapple cake. The palate was immediately big, stimulating and fab – lots of juicy fruits, sherbet, woody spices (including quinine) and slightly over-baked cakes. The nose became more interesting with water – now including gin botanicals and herbs (gentian, Chartreuse), almost salty even. The reduced palate was ‘just so-ooh nice’, though perhaps a tad bitterer with traces of mint in the aftertaste. The distillery takes the name of the county.

 Drinking tip: One to enjoy while reading a good book

Colour: Bright tobacco leaf gold                            Date distilled: January 1990

Cask: First-fill barrel                                          Alcohol: 60.4%

Age: 21 years                                         USA allocation: 138 bottles 

Massive and volcanic 

Cask No. 29.105                      $110

Islay

The nose leapt out with smoke, tar and smouldering embers (waking up the ‘danger’ zone of the cortex); it was also briny, with minty humbugs, some kind of green leaf and vanilla. The palate was described as “Massive!” and “Volcanic” – ash, liquorice, tar and salt, with wild boar sausages and something lovely and sweet hiding away, like a ballerina in a group of miners. Water hardly dented the nose – sweet-cured bacon, diesel exhaust and molasses. The palate seemed sweeter – chocolate in among the smoke and a lavender after-taste. One of the founders, Donald Johnston drowned after falling into ‘burnt ale’.

Drinking tip: A late night dram

Colour: Deep ginger gold                          Date distilled: March 1999

Cask: Refill Sherry butt                                        Alcohol: 59.6%

Age: 12 years                                         USA allocation: 138 bottles

Peat-fire toasted marshmallows 

Cask No. 53.165                      $120

Islay

The nose was multi-layered – medicinal (liniment, plaster-cast, deep heat) – sweet (peach syrup, digestive biscuits, heather honey, peat-fire toasted marshmallows) and meaty (pulled pork) – also damp wool and walnuts. The unreduced palate had bacon bites, cashmere, camphor, salted almonds, smouldering embers and immense, scrumptious sweetness. The reduced nose conjured up an old-fashioned matron standing at the hospital laundry door – while in a parallel dimension we found cooked lobster and ocean spray. The reduced palate, clean and sweet with muted smoke, had light medicinal elements, cloves, honey, lavender, and Marram grasses waving over moonlit sand-dunes. The distillery looks over the narrows to Jura.

Drinking tip: With your lover on the beach at night

Colour: Milky Way starlight                                  Date distilled: August 1995

Cask: Refill hogshead                                           Alcohol: 56.4%

Age: 16 years                                         USA allocation: 90 bottles 

Soul-touching and heart-lifting 

Cask No. 125.56                      $85

Highland, Northern

The nose was beautifully fruity and sweet, bursting with black cherry, tarte au citron, pecan pie apple and blackberry crumble and other decadent patisseries – also honey, vanilla, toffee, hazelnut, cherry blossom and meadowsweet. It whispered seductively ‘Drink me!’ – so we did – absolutely gorgeous! – apple, cinnamon, lemon curd, pineapple sprinkled with chilli and salt, oatcakes and a nip of pepper – it could have passed for an 18 year old. The reduced nose – more of the same – cherry clafoutis and apricot jam on brioche. The reduced palate had wood-sap, orange zest and preserved lemons – a soul-touching, heart-lifting dram from Tain’s tipple temple.

Drinking tip: Absolutely any time – even for breakfast on a special day

Colour: Candied lemon gold                                  Date distilled: January 2003

Cask: First-fill barrel                                          Alcohol: 60.8%

Age: 8 years                                           USA allocation: 132 bottles 

Please visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America at www.smwsa.com