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
