Early July 2013 Outturn Offerings 

Elegant ladies taking tea 

Cask No. 7.77                                    $155

Speyside, Lossie

The nose was attractive and evocative – lady’s perfume (talc, Yardley) soft leather, raincoats, mint, nettle, Plasticine and soap. In reduction, fruits emerged (banana loaf, apple pie, pear, berry compote, lollipops) with tea cakes, chocolate and perfumed cigarettes – imagine elegant ladies smoking after drinking tea. The palate was absolutely fabulous! Big fruit flavours (apple, raspberry, pomegranate) swirled around with perfume, leather, oak, coconut meringue and mint leaf to gain our resounding approval. With water – elegant and delightful – fruity perfumes, cookie jars, butterscotch, shoe shops and Woodbine fags on an oak mantel-shelf. The founder of Nikka had work experience here in 1919.

Drinking tip: A reflective dram – or one for the Calendar Girls to share

Colour: Runny honey                                                      Date distilled: February 1990

Cask: Refill barrel                                                               Alcohol: 54.8%

Age: 22 years                                               USA allocation: 120 bottles 

Melo-dram-atic 

Cask No. 9.66                                    $115

Speyside, Spey

The fragrant nose wafted Murray Mints, Blackpool rock, leather, apple, dark chocolate, gingerbread people with currant eyes and a man’s shaving cupboard. With water it became a fruity dessert served in an actor’s dressing room (sweat, hot light, dust, grease paint remover). The palate, however, was sweet and perfumed – with woody, spicy, men’s cologne (the actor now freshly shaven); finishing slightly nippy and drying with cold black tea tannins. The reduced palate had cherry lips and Juicy Fruit chewing gum; sweet, spicy, playful warmth (was that actor Kevin Spicy?) mingled with serious pleasure. Distillery founded by the Grants (not Cary).

Drinking tip: Pre-theatre, interval or back-stage

Colour: Light amber                                             Date distilled: April 1997

Cask: Refill hogshead                                                       Alcohol: 56.5%

Age: 14 years                                               USA allocation: 114 bottles 

Pregnancy Tea Mix 

Cask No. 29.124                               $145

Islay

To start honey glazed smoke ham with cloves, sugar butties, salted peanuts but also ‘Pregnancy Tea’ – a mix of dry raspberry, nettle and spearmint leaves. The taste is mineralic, pebbles on a beach or indeed licking a cockle shell; turning sweeter aromas of Orgeat Almond Syrup and Golden Grahams breakfast cereals appear. Adding water, first impressions are an astringency like lemon zest, herbal tarragon tea and then sweet like a Bakewell tart and dark red fruit pastilles. To taste, its again the balance of the mineralic, chalky flavours and the sweetness of a Cherry Jolly Ranger. This very unusual make, from this famous distillery “by the beautiful hollow by the broad bay”, is clean, sweet, fresh and salty.

Drinking tip: To wash the sand out of your mouth after a cold windy walk on the beach

Colour: Chlorine Blonde                         Date distilled: October 1991

Cask: Refill Sherry butt                                                      Alcohol: 56.9%

Age: 20 years                                               USA allocation: 120 bottles 

Takes the biscuit 

Cask No. 41.54                                  $85

Speyside, Spey

The initially reluctant aromas start as clean and fresh with apple boiled sweets, an artificial raisin and coconut then, muesli, old cut flowers, macaroons and milk chocolate. The taste was surprisingly sweet and long. A mix of rich tea biscuits, jammy Wagon Wheels, sweet tea and tropical fruits. With water the aromas remained rich. A selection box of biscuits, tropical fruit yoghurt and fruit salad syrup. The taste had a satisfying texture – biscuits, coconut and mixed fruit in Greek yoghurt with aromatic honey. In 1889 this was the first distillery to have a Charles Doig pagoda fitted.

Drinking tip: A dram for an indulgent afternoon

Colour: Sunlit gold                                                             Date distilled: May 2004

Cask: First-fill barrel                                                           Alcohol: 58.7%

Age: 8 years                                                USA allocation: 120 bottles 

Attractive spirit in a cloak of oak 

Cask No. G4.2                                   $190

Grain

The oak has a make or break impact on grain whisky – and we found abundant wood on the nose – dunnage warehouses and a French polisher’s workshop – plus corn cobs, tobacco leaf, Manuka honey, candy floss, vanilla, chocolate-coated marshmallows, pineapple and rum truffles. It became more buttery with water (marmalade on toast, buttered crumpets) with spun sugar, shoe polish and charcoal embers. The palate held our interest – bourbon-like sweetness (butterscotch, chocolate, peanut brittle, caramel, honey-glazed ham) with slightly bitter hints of cocoa powder, tobacco and leather and a pleasant oaky dryness insinuating resin and wood-sap. From the biggest distillery in Scotland.

Drinking tip: A good mood dram – perhaps to enjoy along with your favorite music CDs

Colour: Pirates’ gold in a cave                                       Date distilled: April 1984

Cask: Refill hogshead                                                       Alcohol: 55.4%

Age: 28 years                                               USA allocation: 54 bottles

 Please visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society at www.smwsa.com