Early June 2014 Outturn Offerings
Cask No. 93.57 $170
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of this!
Campbeltown
The nose was both interesting and appealing – appeal from sherry-soaked Christmas cake, honeyed apricots, balsamic-glazed pears, spun sugar, dark toffee and gorse flowers; and interesting thanks to benevolent smoke, tobacco, hessian, old sailing ships and new cars. The palate got us quite animated – cinnamon, nutmeg and iced gingerbread, molasses, toffee apples, honey-glazed ribs, salty limes, sweet sherry, prawn tempura and ‘biting a leather steering wheel’. The reduced nose – ‘Tim Burton gothic candy floss’ and ‘Sixteen men on a dead man’s chest’. The palate now gave honey, toffee and vanilla, plus wood, leather and ash (‘recently used electric chair!’). From ‘Scotland’s Glen’.
Drinking tip: Good dram for your last request (of the evening)
Colour: Burnished copper gold
Cask: Refill butt
Age: 21 years
Date distilled: March 1992
Alcohol: 58.3%
USA allocation: 180 bottles
Cask No. 4.188 $125
A ploughman’s picnic
Highland, Island
A bracing start to the day with breakfast of granary toast with marmalade, caramelised apple and fresh grapefruit. Our ploughman strides past hedgerows, damp woods and gorse bushes. The flavours are exotic with a dramatic blast of ginger, cinnamon stick and orris root. Lunch delivers pork pie and Branston pickle with pretzels, and salted crisps and cashews. Sweet apple pasties and gingerbread cake. One panel member likens it to a drag race between smoke and sweetness. A rolling mouthful of heathery smoke with blackcurrant jam, cherry lozenge complete this culinary joyride of adventure. Everybody agrees the whisky is the winner.
Drinking tip: An embracing and invigorating hug of a dram
Colour: Foxes whiskers
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 13 years
Date distilled: June 2000
Alcohol: 61.8%
USA allocation: 114 bottles
Cask No. 53.192 $180
Mojitos, cigar smoke and everlasting joy
Islay
The nose evoked beach scenes – sea air, rock pools and a new tar road through the sand dunes; gammon was cooking on a smoky barbeque – also pineapple, coconut and lemon puff biscuits. The palate was interesting and tasty – lemon pepper pork, chalky mineral notes, good wood (pencils, cedar boxes, wood-burning oven in a bakery) and a perfect balance between sweetness and smoke. The reduced nose was a walk on the beach – sea-shells, sun-tan lotion, trees, sun coming up – heart singing with happiness…. The palate now had mint humbugs, caramel, ash, mojitos, cigar smoke and everlasting joy. From Islay’s biggest distillery.
Drinking tip: For relaxing on the beach – or whenever you are feeling happy
Colour: 18 carat gold
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 23 years
Date distilled: December 1989
Alcohol: 55.9%
USA allocation: 120 bottles
Cask No. 76.109 $90
Sinfully seductive
Speyside, Spey
Attractive perfumes made the nose sinfully seductive; elderflowers, daffodils, white grapes, lemon and pepper, floated like pretty clouds over luscious landscapes of cereal. With water, we found it spritzy, fresh and clean; fruit salads of pineapple, strawberry, peach, pear and grape on beds of vanilla custard. The immediate palate was deliciously sweet (iced donuts, dried fruits) with entrancing orchard flavours (Williams pear and delicate blossoms made us long for Spring), but besides that, we also encountered zesty lemon sorbet, magnificent malt, subtle wood, peppery spice and (believe it or not) salty leather. An amazing, lip-smackingly tasty dram from Dufftown’s oldest distillery.
Drinking tip: Not very typical of the make – could be an aperitif – especially for the first picnic lunch of Spring
Colour: Translucent buttercup
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 8 years
Date distilled: May 2004
Alcohol: 59.5%
USA allocation: 126 bottles
Cask No. G4.6 $150
Ray Mear’s Digestif
Grain
Pre-dilution, the panellists were post supper. The nose suggested sweet treats- Battenberg cake and flapjacks smothered in Golden Syrup. Once tasted sweet transferred into cinnamon and then- liquorice, chicory, smoked meat, coal tar soap and pitchuli. The addition of a tiny portion of water encouraged the scent of petrichor. To taste- Victorian Lemonade drunk from a plastic milk carton along with wet cardboard. One panellist suggested a wet muslin package with clove, ginger, tagine spice and dried banana.
Drinking tip: While Foraging
Colour: 18 Carat Gold
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 18 years
Date distilled: February 1988
Alcohol: 55.4%
USA allocation: 72 bottles
Please visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society at http://www.smwsa.com/
