Poit Dhub 8yo Unchilfiltered Gaelic Whisky (43%, OB, +/-2008)

The label has a lot of unrecognizable words all over the label; the only English, other than ‘Gaelic Whisky Unchilfiltered’ is malt Scotch whisky which one has to take as a vatted malt or a blended malt but not a single malt. The label has two seahorses, facing each other…and Poit Dubh, the back label reveals (in English), is pronounced ‘Potch Ghoo’. Microsoft Word struggled with those two…..none the less the nose is sweet and mildly smokey with dried tree fruit (think apricots, plums and cherries) along with vanilla and fruit cake. Also some tiny hints of green notes (very briefly),  sherry and some more peat smoke (reek) but it’s very gentle and not overly strong however it’s all well in balance. The taste is gentle at first with some malt and then there’s a wee bit of a peat reek attack intermingled with the sweet sherry and some slight green notes and raw tobacco and leather which all becomes quite sweet at the end. It’s very nice. The finish is at first mildly peaty followed by some malt ad then some chocolate and dryness from the oak, more of the tobacco and leather (although very gentle) and then the sweetness and dryness, end over end. After a short while, the malt shoves through the rest and you’re left chewing on the malt for quite some time.

What a great dram! Not sure it’s worth it to frighten folk with those sea horses on the label however……

C$55 in the  single malt waste land of Ontario. Score 88 Points

http://www.gaelicwhisky.com/ (the absence of sea horses on the website is note worthy and the webiste is in English!).