Scotch Malt Whisky Society ‘Christmas at The Ballet’ – Scotch Whisky News
A silky-smooth melody including an overture of croissants meets antique polished oak, roses, walnuts, confit melon and marzipan in Fruit Utopia. But there’s another waltz to be had, in the amaretto-infused mince pie notes of Skooshy Stroopwafel, a dreamy sipper with apricots, oranges and pears next to toasted almonds on brioche.
FRUIT UTOPIA
Age: 25 years
Cask: Bourbon & French Oak Hogsheads, Barrels & Barriques
For this unique small batch single malt release, our spirits team took inspiration from maturation techniques they encountered on their travels in the Cognac region. A more hands on approach, shaping the flavours through cask management and constant monitoring of the maturation. At twenty years of age, we combined selected bourbon hogsheads of Speyside single malt and filled the whisky back into custom toasted French oak barriques from Seguin Moreau cooperage. Following three months of intense maturation in these highly active casks, we combined the spirit again and filled into 2nd fill bourbon barrels, just freshly emptied of Speyside malts. The whisky was closely monitored every six months for a further five years to develop a silk-like texture and wonderful layers of fruity complexity.
On the nose, a prelude of bananas ripening in a room filled with Cognacs and Armagnacs on French-polished oak furniture. Hints of camphor, tobacco, dried apricots, peaches and pears lend a je-ne-sais-quoi of gravitas to the otherwise silky-smooth mood. The flavour was a smooth overture of croissants, red berries then a cornucopia of exotic fruits, dried apricots, an antique white wine and tobacco with a mentholic timeless classiness. Water flowed in like a melody bringing more delicious elderberry jam on freshly baked shortbread, antique polished oak, roses, waltnuts, confit melon and marzipan with a drizzle of blueberry sauce and melted butter. A grand finale on the palate offered a highly elegant assortment of lemon sponge cake covered in crème patissière, honey, lychee, clementine slices, desiccated coconuts and the soothing whispers of oak and age.
SKOOSHY STROOPWAFEL
Age: 11 years
Cask: Bourbon
& European Oak PX
For this special small-batch single malt, we sourced some top-notch European oak sherry butts from our friends at Tonelería Juan Pino in the south of Spain. The butts were seasoned in the sherry triangle for 13 months with syrupy sweet PX wine, before coming to Scotland to be filled with a wonderfully fruity Speyside single malt, which we are now proud to present to you.
We were reminded of popping the cork of an orange muscat wine bottle, with those typical aromas of apricots, oranges and pears next to toasted almonds on brioche and fragrant exotic wood. At first on the palate we found tingling spicy fruit flavours before we had a sip of very pleasing hot mulled white wine made with fresh orange juice, star anise, honey and cinnamon. Following reduction, we opened a tin of amaretto-infused mince pies – sweet, spicy and tart yet perfectly balanced, with mellow almond notes emanating from the liqueur. To taste, this was like a pumpkin-spiced iced coffee and “skooshy” (a very ‘technical’ Scottish term for cream in a can) cream on a stroopwafel.
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ
Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm). Visit the Society at here for membership information
This is your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers!
Spot the SMWS bottles in this amusing You Tube video
