March 2014 Outturn Offerings
Cask No. 72.29 $235
Luxurious afternoon tea
Speyside, Lossie
Lively, fresh and fruity on the nose, it presents biscotti and Battenburg cake, espresso coffee, buttered toast with marmalade, honey pancakes, Danish pastries and chocolate cake with butter icing. The texture is thick and buttery and curiously soapy; sweet then sour, with orange chocolate in the aftertaste, and a trace of rosemary in the finish. Water depresses the aroma but adds warm sandalwood and tablet, but now the taste is much reduced: musty with gentle caramel and rhubarb sweets. Best enjoyed straight. The distillery draws its water from the Black Burn in the grounds of Pluscarden Abbey, which once made ale so good ‘it filled the abbey with unutterable bliss’.
Drinking tip: In a Continental café, after shopping
Colour: Tawny gold
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 30 years
Date distilled: November 1982
Alcohol: 53.2%
USA allocation: 90 bottles
Cask No. 26.95 $100
Rose petals on a tropical breeze
Highland, Northern
The nose was a fresh, sweetly tropical breeze, carrying suggestions of lemon drizzle cake, lime, rose petals, toffee waffles, honey and vanilla; with white wine, grass, wood and wax all deepening the complexity. The neat palate had the mouth-nipping warmth of nutmeg and other woody spices, but was also fruity and juicy – lemon juice, Frutella, honey on toast, Demerara, shortbread and donuts – we were salivating. The reduced nose continued perfumed and sweet – apricot Danish pastries, chocolate and polished wood. The palate now – so tasty – cinnamon-dusted crème brûlée – gentle spices teasing and playing with perfumed, waxy fruits. From Diageo’s most northerly distillery.
Drinking tip: To accompany any summery situation – or just to recall summer when it seems so far away
Colour: Polished straw
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 10 years
Date distilled: June 2003
Alcohol: 61.3%
USA allocation: 114 bottles
Cask No. 33.130 $110
The Farmyard and the Chip Shop
Islay
This presented two distinct scenarios which had the panel scratching collective heads. Malt in hessian sacks, sillage, tomatoes and compost in one camp. Fish and chips, in paper, oyster shells and lobster pots in the other. Vanilla pods and apple chutney and some tropical fruits popped up. Then the Islay personality roared into action with coal buckets, Germoline and barbeque smoke. With water it reminded one of a cedarwood chest of blankets with mothballs and another of laundry day at the beach. A curious creamy mouthfeel of peach yoghurt left the panel scratching their heads to the last drop.
Drinking tip: Eating a chippie on the pier
Colour: Silvery locks
Cask: Second-fill barrel
Age: 11 years
Date distilled: April 2002
Alcohol: 56.1%
USA allocation: 84 bottles
Cask No. 36.62 $170
The Italian Job
Speyside, Spey
We were greeted by a fresh, chalky and slightly mineralic aroma; laundry drying in a sea breeze, fresh cut wood and a hint of grappa-esque eau de vie. A light sweetness is lingering in the background, refreshers and Campino fruit bonbons. Fizzy on the tongue to start, then turning sweeter into grape juice and Rowntree’s Randoms. Herbal flavours follow; ciabatta bread, Parma ham and hard parmesan cheese grated on top. With water becoming even more mineralic, almost flinty, like an austere white Lombardian wine enjoyed on a terrace overlooking Lake Como late in the afternoon. The taste has an intriguing balance of sour cream crisps and a honey yogurt ice cream – Salute!
Drinking tip: Whilst on holiday in Italy
Colour: Virgin olive oil
Cask: Second-fill hogshead
Age: 21 years
Date distilled: October 1991
Alcohol: 51.3%
USA allocation: 89 bottles
Cask No. 66.46 $110
‘Pretty Woman’ in a new Maserati
Highland, Eastern
Apart from plum, dark cherry and smoky ribs on beach barbeques – this nose was all leather and wood – the interior of a new Maserati, polishing rifles in log cabins – one panellist imagined cedar ball-gags and Julia Roberts in ‘Pretty Woman’ boots. The taste also held plenty of wood – ‘trees growing in clove fields’, bamboo shoots – and ‘a baseball bat in the mouth’; besides that – tar, dry smoke, toffee and chicory coffee – fantastic intensity! The reduced nose elicited comments about bagpipe bladders, Bovril and old pipe stems. The palate developed Biltong, pecan brittle, hickory chips, treacle and chocolate. From Kennethmont’s 1899 distillery.
Drinking tip: While watching a DVD of Bruce Springsteen in concert – or a football match
Colour: Ox-blood brogues
Cask: Refill Sherry butt
Age: 11 years
Date distilled: July 2002
Alcohol: 56.7%
USA allocation: 180 bottles
Cask No. 127.38 $100
Enticing fume of a peat reek
Islay
This nose is big and with so many facets that it will be difficult to describe with the limitations of a tasting note. Sweet smoke, bacon crisps, pork cracklings, honey and soya sauce, slightly burnt corn on the cob, oily mackerels, Germolene and tarry drift wood. The taste was absolutely huge, stunning, WOW! Sweet, smoky, ashy, briny; like a peat fire blazing in a croft house by the edge of the Atlantic grilling mackerels and honey smoked bacon. With water less intense sweet peat smoke with earthy (compost), herbal aromas like that of a good fish stock. The taste now Mediterranean pork with sage plums and oven roasted tomatoes rolled in herbs.
Drinking tip: Just drink it!
Colour: Honeycomb
Cask: Refill Sherry butt
Age: 10 years
Date distilled: August 2003
Alcohol: 66.3%
USA allocation: 120 bottles
Cask No. G3.6 $270
Fascinating reminder of a bygone era
Grain
Everyone in the Panel relaxed and felt very comfortable with nosing this rare sample from the now closed Edinburgh distillery built in 1855. Very deep wood and new leather aromas are all very well integrated; smoked aromatic wood, polished wood but also freshly cut wood and sawdust. There is an underlying sweetness best described as breakfast waffles with vanilla ice cream. The taste surprises with a sweet smoke and a volcanic ashyness to start, then very smooth, floral and sweet; chocolate honeycomb, muscovado sugar and Black Jacks. With water the aroma becomes slightly chalky and soapy and the taste ashy, fruity (apples and watermelons) and a Starburst candy sweetness.
Drinking tip: We all agreed that this dram is enjoyed best without adding water
Colour: Tarnished bronze
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 33 years
Date distilled: May 1979
Alcohol: 53.2%
USA allocation: 60 bottles
Please visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society at http://www.smwsa.com/
