Dear Customer,

The seasons are a-changing, and as we turn our collars to the cold and damp. we begin our annual flogging of wintery items. Unlike so many retailers, we know it’s far too early to even mention Christmas, but it’s certainly not too early to suggest some delicious winter warmers to ease us all into the chillier seasons.

This week we’re doing a sherry spectacular – we’re flaunting whiskies that have been aged in sherry casks. Each offers up distinctive fruity, plummy, rich flavours and will be sure to see you in good stead for brisk evenings by the fire.

Cheers!

– The Chaps at Master of Malt –

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OUR SHERRY AMOUR

Since Scotch whisky doesn’t taste particularly good when it’s aged in unused “virgin” oak, distilleries have to find casks that have already been used for ageing something. The classic casks used to age single malt whisky are from the bourbon or sherry industries.

Not only does sherry take the harsh, tannic, woody edge off a cask, it also leaves a flavour of its own. You see, casks are like sponges; as the seasons change and the wood changes temperature the cask sucks up the liquid in the barrel. After the barrel is emptied out there’s still a good amount of sherry flavour in the wood, so when the new make whisky is taken off the still and put into the cask, it gains all kinds of flavour (notably plums, dried fruits, black pepper and winter spices, and sometimes musty, umami notes such as truffles and leather).

We’ve come up with our top three “sherried” whiskies. They’re rich, full of flavour and utterly delicious.

Aberlour a’Bunadh

At natural cask strength this is a powerful, robust whisky from Speyside’s Aberlour distillery. It’s also noteworthy for being inspired by an old bottle of century-old whisky that was discovered, hidden away in the distillery. The contents (well, what was left after the distillery workers helped themselves to the bottle) were analysed and replicated (even down to the old-fashioned dumpy bottle).

The whisky is aged solely in Oloroso sherry butts – a style of sherry that is notably dark, nutty and rich. A’Bunadh (Gaelic for “Original”) developed wonderful sherried, nutty, fruity aromas from the sherry butt, and the palate is just huge – like a dry explosion of almond, ginger, mince pies, black cherries, pepper and thick malt. Oh, and at £33.45 – for a cask strength, Oloroso sherry matured classic from Aberlour – it’s a snip!

Yamazaki 18 Year Old

Japan’s first malt whisky distillery, Yamazaki is about as scenic as they come – set in the beautiful Vale of Yamazaki. In true Japanese distilling style, only the best sherry casks are used to age the whisky and they’re sourced from the top bodegas in Spain. Yamazaki 18 has been showered with awards and not without good reason – it’s a stunner from the more “umami-rich” school of sherried whiskies. Oaky, fruity, cherry and plum like aromas lead into a palate of dark fruit, hints of forest floor, pine needles, heather roots, dates and, naturally, sherry. This corker picked up a Gold at the International Spirits Challenge, and a Double Gold at the hallowed San Francisco Spirits Competition. Incredible value for money at £59.95 a bottle.

Glenfarclas 40 Year Old “Scottish Classic”

A super premium addition to the Glenfarclas range, this is not your everyday malt; this is something very special indeed. Matured in the best sherry casks Glenfarclas could lay their hands on (like all whiskies in their range) this is a limited edition of just 600 bottles.
The nose is full of exotic spices like nutmeg, ginger and vanilla and it offers thick malt and even thicker honey. The palate is rum-like, with full, rounded notes of sherry that just build and build with hints of molasses, figs, dates and black pepper. We can honestly say it’s one of the best whiskies we’ve ever tasted. Whilst it is expensive, we’d certainly say it was worth it…

£77.45 for a 3cl sample
£1489.95 for a 70cl bottle
 
NEW ARRIVALS

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Speyside’s Finest 42 Year Old

A secret whisky from an unnamed Speyside distillery, all we can say is you’ll just have to try it for yourself…

£139.95

Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength

 
Laphroaig turned up to 11 – powerful, medicinal and full of intensely peaty, smoky flavour…

£38.95

Buy from Master of Malt at www.masterofmalt.com