A Fine Christmas Malt 2020 ~ 19 Year Old

Blended Malt Scotch Whisky

The Whisky Exchange

A sherry-aged whisky specially selected by The Whisky Exchange team to celebrate Christmas 2020. It’s packed with festive spice, Christmas cake, poached orchard fruit and zingy apples – an excellent all-rounder that’s perfect for sipping by the fire. This year’s Christmas Malt is once again a limited edition and 1918 bottles are available.

THE THIRD ITERATION OF OUR FESTIVE WHISKY

Christmas is a time to bring out your best drinks, and for the past three years we’ve bottled a special whisky for celebrating the festive season in style. Chosen for being an excellent whisky as well as having an ineffable ‘Christmassy’ quality, each limited-edition bottle is our gift to whisky lovers worldwide.

To reflect the magical feeling that the Christmas season brings, these bottlings bear a playful calligraphic label design that reflects the traditional elements of the festive season, combined with a series of poems that were originally inspired by The Night Before Christmas.

£74.95

TASTING NOTES

Billy Abbott, The Whisky Exchange

NOSE

It’s almost Christmas, and it’s time to bake. The cake has been fed with buttered rum, and raisins, sultanas and candied peel are soaking up sweetness and spice. Baked apples haven’t been in the oven that long, but already their fresh and fruity aromas have joined the mix. Spiced cupcakes are just about ready, filling the house with the scent of sweet nutmeg, cinnamon and clove.

PALATE

Our festive treats are ready to serve, and the apples lead the way, rich, spicy and baked to sweet-and-sour perfection. A handful of grapes and dates bridges the gap, leading to rich, dark and spicy Christmas cake, with brown sugar sweetness balanced by charred raisins. A bowl of sticky cherries hides at the back behind a slab of bitter dark chocolate. Fresh fruit makes a final return, with apple and pear jam spread thickly on slices of lightly buttered fruit loaf, all dusted with tingling cinnamon sugar.

FINISH

The raisins and dates are back, dark and sticky, a perfect post-dessert snack. A touch of ground coffee bitterness and oaky char parts to reveal a sliced apple and a mince pie, left out for ‘someone’ to nibble on later.

COMMENT

A dram for dark winter nights, that doesn’t forget to bring a bit of zing to the party. Dark and spicy at its core, with a fresh and fruity orchard-fruit edge that dives into richness as it develops.