December 2012 Outturn Offerings 

Arabesques of ash and high kicks of coal 

Cask No. 3.184                                             $115

Islay

This nose was complex – perfumed smoke, candles, black tea, vinegar on coal and buckets of brine – but sweet (barley sugars, sherbet lemons, cinnamon sweets, pineapple cake) and floral (lavender, geranium, jasmine). The taste swung from sweet (Edinburgh Rock) to savoury (smoked pork loin, honey glazed ham); also charcoal and witch hazel. The reduced nose had fragrant vanilla, lemon, roses, soap and White Linen perfume sprayed on driftwood. Flavours now danced around the tongue with leaps of liquorice, lavender and lemon, whirls of white pepper, arabesques of ash and high kicks of coal. 1779 distillery at the centre of whisky island.

Drinking tip: Perfect ceilidh dram – or as a reward for some other strenuous achievement

Colour: Moon gold                                     

Cask: Refill hogshead                                

Age: 15 years

Date distilled: October 1996

Alcohol: 61.0%

In a wild garden, late summer 

Cask No. 48.26                                             $155

Speyside, Spey

Distinctly floral to start – jasmine, lilac – with earthy, ‘mushroom grow-bag’ notes behind. We were reminded of a wild garden, but the heavy scents balanced by emerging lemon sherbets – and this citric note also modifies the sweet taste, with traces of paprika. Fresher and more Speyside-like with water, but still earthy, with a whiff of smouldering leaves, and a fresh note of ‘lemon-scented fabric-softener’. The taste is soft, sweet and quaffable; rounded and centre-palate – ‘mashed strawberries with black pepper’– with a medium length finish. This remote distillery overlooks the Haughs of Cromdale, where once a battle was fought, and its make is not currently bottled by its owner.

Drinking tip: Whilst watching someone else gardening

Colour: Pale amber; mousseaux beads            

Cask: Refill butt                                           

Age: 23 years

Date distilled: March 1988

Alcohol: 50.5%

Perfumed sweetness and zesty fruits

Cask No. 125.51                                           $90

Highlands, Northern

The nose took time to develop – eventually producing sharp zesty fruits, grated orange peel, vanilla, caramel, hint of mint and polished or waxed furniture. The palate was more immediately defined – the sweetness of Danish pastries (with vanilla cream and apricot jam) and the perfumed astringency of lime sorbet, starfruit and grapefruit; pepper and chilli arriving in the finish. In reduction, the nose expanded to include papaya, strawberry split ice-lollies, toffee, magic tree vanilla and yankee candles. The reduced palate delivered rich, perfumed sweetness (‘biting a woman’s neck’ someone suggested); oak sharpened the after-taste. The distillery was a brewery until 1843.

Drinking tip: The character comes through more in the palate than the nose

Colour: Dead man’s chest                                   

Cask: First-fill barrel                                    

Age: 9 years                                    

Date distilled: August 2001

Alcohol: 57.4% 

 Sweet and sour mélange 

Cask No. G9.1                                              $100

Grain

The nose balanced toffee, marzipan, glacé cherries and lemon puff biscuits against some spritzy, slightly acidic sherbet; we also found waxed paper, hazelnuts, greenery and geraniums. The unreduced palate had sharp, tropical fruits and lemon peel; also new wood and then something spicy and savoury. The reduced nose suggested peaches, cheesecake, woodland paths and a ruined castle by a lily-pad loch – quite a landscape. The reduced palate seemed a reasonable mixture of sweetness and astringency – a sweet and sour mélange of toffee, pineapple, green sappy wood with some white pepper spicy heat in the finish. Captain Haddock’s favourite dram, apparently.

Drinking tip: While watching (or reading) Tintin

Colour: Sunset gold                                               

Cask: Refill barrel                                       

Age: 11 years

Date distilled: September 2000

Alcohol: 57.8%

Please visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America at http://www.smwsa.com/ for further information on their single cask bottlings.