May Outturn Offerings 

Cask No. 82.20                              $150

Big, bold and beautiful

Highland, Eastern

The aromas evoked feasting with scented pomander, dried flowers, cranberries and sandalwood. Our panel imagined nibbling on Christmas cake and bourbon biscuits while sipping an oloroso sherry and puffing a pipe while reclining in an old leather armchair. Beef gravy and roasting meat wafted from the kitchen. Strong dark chocolate orange, red berries, crème brulee and marzipan; all served on a polished desk fragrant with roses and honeysuckle. The chewy texture evolved with plums, apple and blackberry crumble sprinkled with demerara sugar. Baked banana with caramel sauce and pork medallions fried in butter rounded up the finale of this beauty.

Drinking tip: It will get you in the mood for old fashioned style celebrations

Colour: Tawny chestnut

Cask: Second-fill butt

Age: 17 years

Date distilled: May 1998

Alcohol: 54.9%

USA allocation: 102 bottles

Flavour profile: Deep, rich & dried fruits 

*President’s Choice*

Cask No. 36.87                       $150

Dinner at the diner

Speyside, Spey

The initial nose was brimming with strawberry and peach topped with fudge sauce and served with coffee flavoured toffee and cream soda. To taste it tingled with nutmeg and cinnamon, with warm woody spice numbing the tongue. Water opened a big bag of berry fruits and gummy confectionary, newly planed wood counter polished with linseed oil, crystallised angelica and eucalyptus. It reminded one panelist of a ladies cabinet with pressed powder, scented creams, fragrant lotions and potions. It retained a nippy sweetness with lemon bonbon, honey fudge offset with sharper citrus and mint. An invigorating and perky dram.

Drinking tip: Easy drinking

Colour: Strawberry gold

Cask: Refill barrel

Age: 17 years

Date distilled: August 1997

Alcohol: 57.7%

USA allocation: 90 bottles

Flavour profile: Spicy & sweet 

 

Cask No. 39.104                             $135

Getting steamy in the sauna

Speyside, Lossie

A peppery bite softens into blood orange, pear, peach and banana bread with honey. A steamy aroma reminiscent of saunas meshed with sunny orchards and freshly cut daffodils. Cheek clenching at first with some black tea and lime pickle but dissolved into tinned peach and pineapple. It had oily black olives that morphed into pine resin and Ambre Solaire when watered. Then bountiful sugared almonds, on iced fairy cakes, shortcrust pastry, blackcurrant cordial and cherry Bakewell tart bounced from the glass. The finale was of flapjacks and Digestives with dates, prunes and hazelnuts. Pine nuts had the final shout.

Drinking tip: A perky wee dram and needs the water

Colour: Spanish sun

Cask: Refill hogshead

Age: 14 years

Date distilled: June 2000

Alcohol: 58.5%

USA allocation: 90 bottles

Flavour profile: Spicy & sweet

 

Cask No. 50.70                              $200                    

Big bear hug

Lowland

We were greeted by an enticing combination of citric and sweet aromas with lemon cookies, lemon meringue pie, lime sorbet, candied citrus peel and a white chocolate and lime mousse.  The taste was like a big bear hug, a nice gentle feeling of warmth. Flavours still citric; lime and sea salt dark chocolate and a rose petal ice cream with ginger lemon shortbread. Water changed the nose and palate substantially; chalky, dry and a minerality for which the Mosel Rieslings are well known and liked for. In the long finish, there was a nice spicy sweet crystallised stem ginger note.

Drinking tip: Reminiscing the good old days

Colour: Manzanilla Pasada

Cask: Refill barrel

Age: 25 years

Date distilled: January 1990

Alcohol: 54.2%

USA allocation: 96 bottles

Flavour profile: Spicy & dry

 

Cask No. 10.88                              $100 

An old tar

Islay

Once you get past the nose-prickle, the scent is reminiscent of the rubber-bands inside a golf ball but quickly becomes medicinal (Germoline cream), with tinned fruit cocktail, waxed jacket and lactic cows. The taste starts sweet and finishes like bitter Colombian coffee, with ‘a warm hot water bottle’ in the middle and coal dust in the aftertaste. Water increases the water-bottle note slightly, then introduces Bavarian smoked cheese, smoked sausage and synthetic ham wrapped in linen, with lingering coal dust. The taste is very sweet, lightly salty and vinegary, with smoked dulse and sweetened hot milk, finishing with ‘Finnish Tar Syrup’.

Drinking tip: To accompany a plate of smoked meats

Colour: Tarnished silver

Cask: Refill barrel

Age: 9 years

Date distilled: December 2005

Alcohol: 58.6%

USA allocation: 72 bottles

Flavour profile: Peated

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