May Outturn Offerings
Cask No. 72.34 $235
Tropical Punch Pop Rocks
Speyside, Lossie
The Panel was greeted by a mixture of chocolaty and nutty aromas like whole Brazil nuts covered in milk chocolate. There are also freshly crushed walnuts and split conkers next to the warm spiciness of a Jamaican Ginger cake. With time fresh mint leaves appear and overall there is the smell of a ‘special occasion perfume’ in the air. The taste neat with plenty of green, floral and woody aromas – entering a tropical green house. At the same time there is a firm and fresh green grape acidity besides crystallized sugar swizzle sticks. With water like a fresh fruit salad, grapes, melon, mango and green apples sprinkled with Demerara sugar. The taste juicy and fruity, Haribo Tropifrutti, as well as golden syrup on toast and a sweet oakiness in the finish.
Drinking tip: Gets you in the party mood
Colour: Sand dunes
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 30 years
Date distilled: November 1982
Alcohol: 55.6%
USA allocation: 90 bottles
Cask No. 3.210 $145
Sooty and Sweet
Islay
The first impression is ‘sooty’: a ‘well-fired roll with melted butter and cremated bacon and smoked black pudding’; later, tide-line tar, sea-shells, beach pebbles and plastic rope, and with a dash of water (don’t add too much) coal dust and uncooked cabbage. The taste is sweet and very smoky, with some liquorice and coal dust at full strength and mixed herbs with lime marmalade and a trace of blackcurrant at reduced strength. A most unusual colour although this distillery famously bottled some ‘Black’ expressions from 1964 which now fetch around £1,600 at auction: the original RRP was £100.
Drinking tip: A talking point late at night
Colour: Green ginger, with black lights
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 17 years
Date distilled: May 1996
Alcohol: 58.9%
USA allocation: 120 bottles
Cask No. 10.76 $90
Duelling banjos dram
Islay
The unreduced nose had a definite kick – burning driftwood by boat sheds, canvas and leather (like a straight-jacket) and sucking salty smoke over oyster shells in a hookah pipe; but this duelling banjos dram had a pleasant side too – cranachan, honey, pear, citrus and vanilla; lime pickle and coal-dust never far away. The palate offered big, sweet, nutty smoke, liquorice, toffee and dark chocolate – grungy for sure, but tastier than expected – fruity flavours swirling around in a briny, oily puddle and chipotle and Tabasco tingling away at the mouth, like a memory of combat. The distillery is near a wreck.
Drinking tip: A dram for a hard road or daredevil moments – step up to the plate
Colour: Moon pool
Cask: Refill barrel
Age: 8 years
Date distilled: May 2005
Alcohol: 60.8%
USA allocation: 120 bottles
Cask No. 25.65 $175
The Whispered Kiss
Lowland
A whispered kiss from a ghost of a distillery. The nose tip toes around delicate peach skins, apple blossom and papaya. Sticky honey glaze on dainty cinnamon pastries. Musky notes reminded the panel of perfume departments and aromatherapy boxes. Crushed rose petals and wax candles in a dunnage warehouse. To taste they found crisp pear, mandarin, apple and mint and with water the fruits morphed into tinned peaches and cherry drops. Memories of childhood were evoked by talcum powder, allspice, citronella candle, and sandalwood. An gentle earthy warmth hovered while silky fruit syrup and honey lingered like a shadow.
Drinking tip: A graceful aperitif. Careful with the water.
Colour: Limpid gold
Cask: Refill barrel
Age: 22 years
Date distilled: July 1991
Alcohol: 50.0%
USA allocation: 60 bottles
Cask No. 31.27 $195
Bold sailor’s dram
Highland, Island
A complex nose – sweet, salty and medicinal, with light smoke – panellists mentioned salted popcorn, gammon with pineapple, seaweed and various impressions of wood. With water, we imagined sea-breezes and bold sailors strutting along a breakwater, by oyster shells and dying barbeques; also sweet suggestions of apricot Danish and Edinburgh Rock. The palate was fascinating – maritime notes joined by citrus (including Terry’s chocolate orange), clove-studded gammon, oak, ash, white pepper and coal-dust. The reduced palate found sweet tobacco, floral flavours (lavender, Parma violets) and the dryness of heather smoke and barbecued meat and shellfish. The K Foundation burned £1,000,000 here in 1994.
Drinking tip: Beach barbeque dram – with or without sailors
Colour: Salvaged bullion just below the surface
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 25 years
Date distilled: September 1988
Alcohol: 52.4%
USA allocation: 108 bottles
Cask No. 35.71 $340
Like a hug from your mum
Speyside, Lossie
The nose gave us happy, homely feelings – ‘like a hug from my mum’ said the Malt-meister; mellifluous sweetness of maple syrup, marzipan and heather honey – but also marmalade on toast, jaffa cakes, leather and polished wood. The palate impressed with its chewy textures, aniseed, tobacco and coconut depth – plus its minty fresh liveliness, like mint choc-chip ice-cream. The reduced nose suggested a wooden box containing rolling tobacco, Coco Pops, After Eight mints and menthol cigarettes. The reduced palate – light leather, tobacco, Arm and Hammer toothpaste and orange zest. A time-stopping dram from the Elgin distillery that was once a brewery.
Drinking tip: An after dinner or late evening dram – but go easy on the water
Colour: Evening sun glow
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 40 years
Date distilled: October 1971
Alcohol: 47.7%
USA allocation: 84 bottles
Cask No. 44.60 $130
‘Growing on you’
Speyside, Spey
The initial noses neat is not too inspiring, wet sand and freshly mixed cement, but give this one time. Notes of apricots, oranges and figs but also plum sauce, cedar wood, wild onions and a late summer rose emerge – intrigued? The taste is that of slightly burnt hot cross buns, black currant pastels, aniseed balls and coconut dusted chocolate truffles. With little water aromas of freshly cut wood, rosehip syrup, camp coffee and rye bread develop. The taste now is sweet and waxy with a dry grapefruit finish. This example, from the distillery situated in the village where the River Fiddich flows into the River Spey, is worth exploring.
Drinking tip: Teaches you the virtue of patience
Colour: Blingy brass
Cask: Refill butt
Age: 14 years
Date distilled: August 1999
Alcohol: 56.9%
USA allocation: 108 bottles
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