MrWizard's Ramblings

Another day, another entry of the endless review cycle.

Royal Brackla 2007, 11 years old. Signatory Vintage, 43%
A bottle I picked up on a whim from a liquor store. This is a Signatory Vintage line of bottling from Royal Brackla highland distillery. Distilled in 2007 and bottled in 2019 this is nearly 12 years old (while the box says 11). Single cask refill sherry butt. Color is super dark, so dark that it doesn’t feel like a refill but a first fill instead. Nose is oloroso sherry with varnish, earthy musky notes, some cloves perhaps. The palate is very much lightly smoked dried plums with number of other dark fruit compote little woody and not too sweet bordering on well toasted bitterness. Aftertaste is drying leather, some tobacco, more spices. Fans of leathery non-sweet sherry bombs need to apply. An interesting proposition to be sure. My primary problems with it is reasonably low proof and somewhat of a lack of flavors outside of sherry cask. If you wanted to know what’s it would feel like licking a sherry and whiskey soaked piece of charcoal… you can taste it right here. Also, I am mostly enjoying it, soooooo… It’s worth trying being somewhat of a rarity of a dry sherry bomb profile…
Score: B-

Mortlach 13, Hepburn’s Choice, 54.5%
Another Hepburn’s Choice spooned Single cask distilled in 2007. This one is called “Below Bhainidh”. The other nickname for Mortlach is “The beast of Dufftown”, a Speyside scotch aged in a refill hogshead. I’ll leave note here, that most Mortlachs are sherry-aged or got some sherry in them at least, so this younger refill bourbon cask definitely has little to hide in there. The nose is intense, vanilla, some alcohol, apples and *-berry notes. Honestly, a little overwhelmingly strong. Palate is quite a concentrated ball of malt, vanilla and spices, though not too sweet. Aftertaste is more spices and vanilla with cereal grains. That spice really goes through the entire experience. Water is highly recommended with it. Dark rich flavors come out with water in so much that they can in something the color of pale straw but I actually enjoy with water quite a bit. Bitter Dark chocolate and toasted nuts. Tasted blindly I would guess some sort of a much darker-colored liquid with first fill something in there. Water is strongly advised as it goes from workable but ‘typical’ to ‘very interesting’. With the price there’s no question about value though I’ll personally not going to be buying another bottle, as one is plenty for me. This would please those looking for a spicy, flavorful malt without any sherry in it, but it’s also not the easiest one to drink either due to sheer amount of spiciness in the glass.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1511225
Score: C+ (B /w Water)

Glenfiddich 23, Hepburn’s Choice, 53.8%
Hepburn’s Choice spooned single cask distilled in 1997 called Hector Macbeth. Notably, in refill sherry butt. Nose is perfumed orange zest/oil. Deeply nutty, slightly sweet yet well balanced vs spice palate. Aftertaste sees, spices fall off quickly in sherry like sweetness then come back once sweetness fades for a long and very pleasant finish. Lots of orange infusion on the palate too like a spiced orange zest pie. Overall fantastic stuff. Water makes it slightly spicier and woodier though cutting back on the sweet balance. I really like it as it’s right up my wheelhouse. So much that I got another bottle of it. A very minor downside of this overall great bottling are slightly metallic notes present in the background, though that may be the oranges. Not too sweet, not too bitter, not too sherried. It’s great and delicious.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1510167
Score: A-

Redbreast Small Batch. early 2021, 58%
One of the tree very slightly different Redbreast Small Batch series from early 2021 is here. I don’t have info which batch it is though. An Irish whiskey too. Boy this one is strong on vanilla and alcohol notes on the nose. Interestingly, smells more like a grain whiskey than malt. Onto the palate… It’s hot, and seems like a mix between malt and grain whiskey with bunch of different casks in the mix. Which I suspect it really is that a blend of grain and malt whiskeys from different casks. Little hot on the palate, high vanilla, and bit of wood notes, quite sweet. Aftertaste is mostly cooling off from the high that is the palate, this is really reminding me of whiskey version of vanilla extract with some wood involved. Takes water like a champ, being 58% abv to start with, with darker woodier notes coming to the fore after alcohol becomes little less fiery. Well worth trying, especially for those that enjoy irish and sweet whiskeys. I can certainly see myself enjoying this, though perhaps not an entire bottle of it. It’s dessert-like (nearly too much) sweet and slightly spicy, grainy-malty goodness.
Score: B-

Amrut 6, Oloroso, Chris Hart Private Bottling. 60%
Rounding off this review cycle is a Chris Hart special bottling of ex-Oloroso-sherry aged Amrut from India aged 6 years. This is a sample from a private bottling so I’m expecting it to be quite unique. The nose is quite unapologetically wanders between sherry, some metal notes, and alcohol and is quite prominent. The palate is nutty, full of oloroso sherry and nearly overwhelming with alcohol. It starts sweet and then switches to being woody/tannic and spicy nearly to the point of being bitter. Aftertaste is reasonably pleasant and long with drying bitterness, spices and nuts as well as a little bit of sweetness from the sherry. With water, this becomes slightly more drinkable but the balance of sweet/sherry/bitter stays for the most part. I guess if one likes that woody/sweet almost bourbon-like combination this may be a single malt for you. Honestly I’m not finding much ‘malt’ in it for myself. It may as well be oloroso finished bourbon or a rum if tasted blindly, actually I can totally see this being a Foursquare rum product if I didn’t know better.
Score: B
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Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown

I’ve touched on Japanese whiskey before this write up here: https://www.aerin.or … y:entry201226-170937… And most of the facts stay true. Few interesting factoids did come out of this Suntory tasting.

• Japanese distill their grain alcohol from corn instead of wheat due to price reasons. Very very old grain may still be wheat but it’s been corn since 1970s or so
• Japanese distilleries do NOT trade with each other. Frankly they hate each other. It’s complicated and also very Japanese.
• To make any kind of purely Japanese blend, any distillery needs to distill every kind and type of cask and flavor themselves.
• Any Japanese blended whiskey components are produced by the same company, see above.
• Not all Japanese whiskey is Japanese due to lax regulations. This will be changing soon due to 2021 agreements.
• Hibiki 12 is gone forever due to Ume casks used. Hibiki Blender’s Choice is a good substitute being sherry and bourbon casks.

Chita Heavy Grain, 43%
Very corny, since distilled from corn. Somewhat available as a travel shop exclusive. Though Chita 12 is much MUCH better but not available in US.
Nose: Alcohol forward as expected of young-ish grain.
Palate: Initial tiny lick brought ice-cream like palate experience. Light but sweet vanilla. Creme brulee custard. Creme soda! Thin mouthfeel, it wants to be gone rather than to stick around.
Aftertaste: More vanilla up and down. Surprisingly long-lasting aftertaste. Almost like thin vanilla extract. No negatives here but also almost too sweet and not even remotely complicated. Just a vanilla creamer in a whiskey form.
Score: D

Hakushu White Oak Cask, 43%
This is not a regular release but something closer to a limited run few years back. The regular is much more peated!!!
Nose: Here comes the malt! Spicy malty oaky (vanilla), somewhat woody, goodness! So much orchard fruits, nearly overwhelming. Green apples for days. Pears, green peach, melons.
Palate: Almost a letdown after the glorious nose. Very slightly peated in the back with the residual still or cask smoke, this is a quite tasty ex-bourbon malt. Most of the notes from the nose apply as well as solid woody spicy core, again in the style of refill-refill casks. Old malt cask series comes to mind here.
Aftertaste: Somewhat reasonable old malt cask malt. The white pepper in the very back is welcome and overall this is very pleasant, though somewhat young and super mellow. The outstanding quality here is the nose. Saying frankly, it’s ‘boring’ in a same way that a clean canvas is even if this is a high quality blank. I would be okay drinking it, yet it offers nearly nothing of interest.
Score: C+

Yamazaki Spanish Oak Cask (Sherry Cask), 43%
… Yes the ~$5k bottle. https://www.wine-sea … le+malt+whisky+japan. Named Best in the World by the Whiskey Bible few years back the price of this bottling have skyrocketed since. Is it worth anywhere near $5000? Not at all. Will someone with more money than brains pay it? Yes. Is the supply smaller than the number of folks willing to pay the price? Likely.
A unique note, and a very Japanese specific. The casks for this are specially selected and commissioned in Spain by the master blender in person by picking specific trees they want to make into casks.
Nose: Very gentle oloroso sherry. This isn’t varnish. This is super delicate varnish for royal halls. Dark stewed fruits, baked apples, nuts for days, notably not sweet. Sign me up for having my nose in this forever if I can.
Palate: Still not sweet, perfectly balanced. Slightly smoky, perhaps just from sherry. More nuts, fruits and malt in the mix. Little bit of dark leather and dry wood come up in the secondary flavors and there are plenty of layers and layers here.
Aftertaste: More sherry, gently fading from the palate. Yet again balanced to perfection and lasts for quite a while with bit of tannin nuttiness (walnuts) lingering.
Overall: I feel like i should put my thoughts down as a separate line. This is hands down excellent, yet I don’t love it. I think Glendronach 25+ is easily as good if not better, at 10x less in price and fairly easily available comparably. Yes this is good, yet the low proof is a major downside and for my tastes it could do with being a tiny bit sweeter to balance. Price and availability isn’t even worth mentioning here… actually these are just sitting on the shelves because of the over-inflated valuation. Consider a heavy ‘buyer beware’ disclaimer here. Will I drink this? Yes, anytime and any day! Will I pay for it? Not in any foreseeable situation!
Score: A

Toki, 43%
A blend of the above in some sort of proportion. Mostly the Chita grain and Hakushu oak. Used a lot in highball drinks.
Nose: Green pears and apples from the orchard
Palate: Mint and green apples. Quite light and refreshing. Slight sweetness in the secondary flavors that are subtle yet complex.
Aftertaste: Enjoyable but really missing that maltiness. More mint and perhaps some garden herbs showing up. Little bit of wood and spice at the tail-end with a whisper of smoke lingering. A well-crafted blend with nothing outstanding and clearly aimed at highballs rather than neat. Still, quite drinkable as a summer drink without regrets if choices are limited.
Score: C+

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Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown

Or at least somewhat rare bottles. An odd comment here is that I try to write abv whenever possible but if no abv is available on the sample I’ll write the proof, thus the inconsistency of notation.

Barrell Armida, 56.77%
Armida is a blend of three Straight Bourbon Whiskeys finished separately in Pear Brandy, Jamaican Rum, and Sicilian Amaro Casks. I’ll be brief on this one as I don’t quite like it. Honestly, a bit of a mix between gin and some sort of herbal medicine initial sips are very rough. With time, it somewhat grows on me but I am not a fan. It is rather bitter and herbal, some whiskey notes come up here and there but for the most part are hidden away by amaro. The flavor profile is similar to a whiskey bitters. Perhaps something for the mixed drinks? Anyways, not a fan of this straight. It certainly is something and I have to commend Barrel on experimenting, but it’s certainly not what you’d call whiskey blindly. It’s uniquely weird and not quite like anything I’ve ever had. It grew on me slightly towards the very end of the sample but still not quite my type of pour. The score here reflects my preference for drinking it rather than quality of blending and flavor.
Score: D+ (C for most?)

Barrell Cask Strength 15 (2019), 106.52 proof
This is the 2019 Barrell release. It is made up of bourbons distilled in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana and bottled at cask strength as is modus operandi for Barrell (cask proof). Let me summarize this in few words… It is a blend… and there’s a solid core of Dickel in there… and it’s thus full of peanuts. If you like Dickel, this is awesome. If you dislike Dickel (or peanuts)… This may not be your jam. Also it is by no means whatsoever worth the $200+ MSRP. Huge huge negatives for the valuation… But also same goes for Old Carter blended bottlings, though I digress.
Nose: Roasted peanuts galore (Dickel). Perfume/cologne and nearly no alcohol is felt.
Palate: Diiiiickel (roasted peanuts) primary palate but it’s real hard to get away from it… It’s not overwhelming of course, but a solid core around which other flavors are built. Mouth-coating and slightly oily texture helps it out. Still no alcohol burn so it’s really is proofed and balanced to perfection. The MGP spice appears around the peanut core and does it justice. Dark fruits, plums perhaps, are there too.
Aftertaste: Actually fantastic. The peanuts are gone and spices and sugars and wood and vanilla come to play.
Overall: It’s Dickel peanuts + MGP spice. It’s also reasonably tasty and would have been priced right at about $100. As it stood in 2019… the price is a huge negative point on this for frankly not very expensive ingredients. Dickel 15 year old single casks show up at about $60 in retail. But we’re not here to debate about value… So, what is the score really? Well, it’s basically a good Dickel and with repeated sips it is growing on me… Still not nearly anywhere near a bottle commitment. Try at a bar for a checkbox at best, bordering on skip if price is a factor.
Score: B-

Garrison Bros, Cowboy Bourbon (2019) 137.3 proof
Mash bill of 74% corn, 15% soft red winter wheat, 11% two-row barley, aged five years. Distilled in Texas and all. Nearly hazmat proof this is a dark monster in a glass. Thick, rich, burnt sugar caramel with solid wood core on the nose. Odd as it sounds… the nose doesn’t quite invite me to dig in… Yet it is super rich. Flavors galore on the palate with the toasted wood, corn caramel and warm baking spices taking the front. Very slightly metallic and almost savory at the immediate contact, it warms up and sweetens up as it flows through the tongue. The aftertaste primarily fades fast leaving residual sweetness for a long time. With water, the burn is mostly gone and sweetness comes fore. Slightly torn on water here as while making it easier to drink it loses some of its unique potency though near-hazmat isn’t everyone pour so few drops of water are probably recommended. Well worth trying though perhaps not buying a whole bottle, still this is something that is very nice. It’s hot, it’s rich and it’s full of multitude of good flavors. Majority of my A grade scores evoke a sense of ‘wow’ from me, this one happens to be one that is the opposite, it grew in the grade instead; leaving nearly nothing for me to criticize, other than overall value… this being a 5 year old bourbon with ~$250 tag.
Score: A-

Parker’s Heritage Collection 2020, 10 y/o, Heavy Char, 60%
A Heaven Hill product… Smells like Heaven Hill corn with wonderful dose of perfume. The palate is… well Heaven Hill corn and perfume profile plus a healthy dose of wood with a huge gollops of sweetness flowing through it all. Very much like a caramel lollipop. Much much gentler ECBP with less wood and more candied sugar. Quite delicious actually. Sweet sweet aftertaste that lingers and lingers for a while. Actually this reminds of a really good version of Fighting Cock. To summarize, this is right up my alley and I wish I picked up a bottle of this when it hit the stores as this is delicious and fantastic and sweet and full of perfume. A very specific type of bourbon for sure, this being a sweet corn variation vs Buffalo Trace more of a spicy, woody, cherry products, this is right up my alley of drinking. I would really love to keep on drinking this if available and strongly suggest others to keep one around… Yet, this being a limited release it’s all gone now. At the same time this isn’t a contemplative drink but rather a dessert in a glass and should be graded as such.
I don’t always agree with TheWhiskeyWash but this one mostly matches my opinion: https://thewhiskeywa … -heavy-char-bourbon/
Score: A

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Batch B520, 63,63%
Nose is dark corn caramel (as opposed to the PHC above), heavily laden with wood. Palate yet again delivers the warm flood of flavors from the nose. Very wood forward, this doesn’t descend into tannic bitterness but instead sticks with sweet char. Aftertaste isn’t as ridiculously long as the PHC fades a reasonably fast yet… plenty of wood, baking spices and sweet caramel. The woodiness borders on comfortable levels for me with being perhaps just a tiny bit too much. It balances and offsets other flavors nicely, but I’d personally would prefer little less intense. The proof is rather low for ECBP is still somewhat punchy. That being said, for bourbon and specifically for Heaven Hill fans, this is likely as good as it gets. A 12 year old full proof delicious flavor bomb. Good news! This being a 12 year old… it takes water like a champ. Even with water it’s great and doesn’t fall apart as most younger spirits do. The sliver of too much wood (for me) is the only detriment here. Great stuff across the board otherwise.
Score: A-

Old Carter (OC) Straight Kentucky Whiskey, Batch 1, 58.75%
I’ll be brief in this one. I suspect the core of this is a 1792 Barton distillate with other things in the mix, likely being rye. The nose is menthol, spices and burnt sugar on the lighter side with less wood than darker bourbons would. This is light amber situation so refined sugar vs charred caramel. Palate delivers everything the nose promises and more. Aftertaste is light menthol lollipops. Overall: pleasant but not exciting bottle with too much menthol notes in the flavors and frankly at the price/scarcity Old Carter can do much better. There are OC releases that are truly delicious but this one is mostly middling. It really is mint sugar candies or cookies. It’s a fancy Barton that doesn’t evoke any wow factors.
Score: B-
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Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown

Another day, more bourbons to try. Some special some fairly common. Most will be high proof I think.

Barton/1792 Full Proof. Jackson’s Wine SP. 125 proof
Always bottled at 62.5% abv this is a single cask #3201 pick from Jackson’s Wine & Spirits. Originally priced at $45 according to the remains of the price label. Woody funk on the nose with cherries and wet tobacco. Palate is quite forward with alcohol but past that are more cherries, cola, woody, spicy and all sort of interesting flavors float up over and over again. Aftertaste lasts for quite a while and now that alcohol is mostly gone past the palate it is an absolute explosion of spices and bourbon flavors typical to 1792 line. This is not as sweet as Heaven Hill, not cinnamony like Beam, nor it is a cherry bomb like a lot of Buffalo Trace products. Yet it seems to take just a tad from everyone and combine it into something… interesting and uniquely self. The alcohol is a bit too much though even for a relatively tame proof, compared to say Bookers or Knob Creek that are very drinkable at the same proof point. A few drops of water lowers the burn and don’t seem to act too adversely on the overall flavor, perhaps making it a tad woodier. One of the few cases in bourbon where few drops of water are surprisingly welcome.
Score: B (B+ water)

Smoke Wagon Unfiltered/Uncut, 57.31% abv
Small batch regular release of cask proof Smoke Wagon MGP from sometime in 2020. The nose is musky MGP reminding me strong of Plumpjack’s SAOS pick previously reviewed here: https://www.aerin.or … y:entry200729-002755. The palate? About same as Plumpjack SAOS pick. Really really good, but basically MPG SAOS. Perhaps slightly older version due to higher wood influence. Aftertaste is an amalgamation of MGP spices, sweets and more wood. Not nearly as overwhelmingly woody compared to Joseph Magnus 13, not really all that sweet or ‘raw’ compared to some of the 5 year old SAOS picks but something in between. Overall I like this, though a full disclaimer here, I generally like MGP profile. Perhaps a touch too much wood is working against it for minor minus.
Score: B+

Ironroot Harbinger STR BRB, HBS Pick,133 Proof
A 100% Texas corn pick from Houston Bourbon Society, whom I have to admit got a pretty solid palate for good picks of those that I’ve tried in the past thanks to a group’s mole insider. Nose got singeing alcohol with more wood than I’d usually want to deal with but, at that proof it works due to flavor intensity to offset the fire, mint and apricots, lots of dried apricots. Sadly, mint and apricots mostly fade over time leaving woody spice notes to revel in. I wish it stayed fruity… but spicy woodiness is still not bad. The palate is interesting, mint and anise in the back, nutty caramel corn and wood notes in the front, it makes for quite a complete package. Reasonably long aftertaste of warm anise and woody spiciness rounds it out. Overall really good, though the proof is few points too high for me. With couple drops of water the burn is mostly gone and creamy, woody texture emerges with almost no loss of flavor. While I’m not willing to equate this to ECBP (frankly because it is NOT the same)… there are some similarities, in particular the high level of caramel and wood notes on the profile. I find this to be just as woody, but somewhat dryer and having some solidly different secondary flavors in comparison. To be fair, if one is a fan of ECBP this distillery bottlings are well worth checking out, but of course single cask disclaimer firmly applies here. While this does get a solid (wow) factor from me, the minty note isn’t something that I personally enjoy in large quantities. Aside from the mint, there’s really not much to criticize.
Score: A-

Belle Meade 11 y/o MGP, 40 mo finish in 1940s brandy casks. 112.14 proof
Data above is from the sample label, no special information given aside from that. A special treat to myself and hopefully last MGP review I will write at least for the foreseeable future. Internet suggests that this is a Belle Mead Brandy Cask special release from 2019 bottled at 118.8 proof. Nose is full of dark chocolate notes, dark leather, like an old but well cared for leather jacket. The palate is mouth-watering and frankly amazing. It’s almost savory initially and then switches over to sherry-like syrup flavor and consistency in the secondary notes. Aftertaste is all chocolate, oak and spices gently fading for a long time. This strongly reminds me of ~30 y/o Cardinat Armagnac from 1984 which was so oaked that it tasted almost sherried and I loved it for that. With the disclaimer that this isn’t for everyone as it’s sorta like a woody sherried and surprisingly tame MGP… It’s real good. Perhaps just a tad of a wood bomb yet it’s not tannic, this is seriously delicious. It does have a weird note that I’m not quite able to place, perhaps a bit of sulfur, on the primary palate profile that briefly interrupts the experience mid-way and once past it, the amazing flavors come back.
Score: A-
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Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown

I’ll cover tea-spooning super quickly here by linking to a good summary and taking first two paragraphs from here: https://thecasks.com … -14-year-old-review/ as it explains the deal quite well.

Basically, teaspooning consists of adding a little bit of another distillery’s whisky to a cask of single malt whisky. Ostensibly this is done so the cask cannot be sold or bottled as single malt whisky because it now contains single malts from two distilleries. So…for example, say a big company, let’s call it Grant Wilma & Daughters, owns two distilleries – Glen Helheim and Inexorable Park. Throughout the warehouses of these two distilleries, there’s bound to be a few casks that just did work out. The whisky is perhaps not bad, but it strays too far from the house style and is too anomalous for the company to use or to want to slap the distillery’s name on it. Then let’s say an independent bottler comes to Glen Helheim looking to buy casks. They’re not necessarily worried about selling a distillery name, they’re more concerned with selling a unique whisky, or possibly creating a special blend. They decide to buy a teaspooned cask, an oddball Glen Helheim which has a bit of Inexorable Park added to it, thereby nullifying it as a Glen Helheim single malt. The independent bottler might pay a lower price for a cask like this than they would for a certified 12 year old Glen Helheim, but they also do not have the built-in distillery name recognition that might help with sales.

Dalmore 13, Cromarty’s Firth, 53.6%
A first of many Hepburn’s Choice ‘blended’ (spooned) malts to come, this 13 year old Dalmore has been cut with a tiny bit of Teaninich to make it a blended malt. Aged in refill hogshead and bottled exclusively for K&L Wines the bottle notes say lively, grassy, vanilla. Nose is malty vanilla with some grass minerality. More minerality is present on the palate, with loads of ginger spice, yet again malt and so much vanilla. The texture is slightly viscous which is surprising for low age and not super active cask. WIth repeated tastes more sugars come to the fore adding few notes of white raisins to the mix. Considering the rarity of independent unsherried full proof Dalmore this is somewhat of a treat to taste the distillery profile in its full glory. More minerality in the aftertaste as vanilla and sugars fade first leaving it a bit of a dusty feeling. Absolute treat to distillery fans, this may be slightly rough around the corners to be a true treat. With age really making a true difference in refill-aged spirits this is a tiny bit too young to truly have settled down, it is right on the cusp of greatness. Well worth trying but a tough sell for a full bottle of quality value out of this unless it’s the style one truly enjoys. That being said, adding few drops of water removes most of the rough edges making it much more enjoyable but perhaps less ‘unique’…
Product Page: https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1511212
Score: B

Aberlour A’Bunadh Alba, Batch 1, 57.1%
An ex-bourbon counterpart to the regular A’Bunadh which is sherry cask aged. No age statement but full proof and I’d expect full flavor. Tropical fruit and spices on the nose with good amount of malt and cereal notes, some honey emerges after a while. Concentrated, sweet, baked apples and a bit of spice on the palate with additional lighter fruits appearing as time progresses. Palate fades with more tropical notes appearing, like a mango vanilla mousse cake. Very much a flavor bomb for ex-bourbon cask style of maturation (vs regular A’Bunadh sherry bomb) quite pleasant, concentrated and very flavorful offering. It’s an excellent example of a style… that’s frankly saturated in excellent examples so while by no means a bad choice, the field is quite crowded in good choices at that price point.
Score: B

Fettercairn 21, Old Particular, K&L Sp, 55.3%
A 21 year old Old Particular Bottling. The nose is shortbread cookies and cereal. The palate is… mouth-watering and mouth-coating, full of malt, dollop of cereal sugars, tropical fruits, vanilla and just enough spice to tie it all together. Creamy, bready texture. Just fantastic. The aftertaste is long full of more cereal notes, super gentle spices, vanilla and creme. Little bits of tobacco or char come up in the very back to put the cherry on top of the whole experience. It’s rare that a pour works so well beginning to end and this is one of the rare ones. It is even rarer that it works well with ex-bourbon casks. The wave of Old Particular bottlings and specifically a bunch that came though around 2017-18 though K&L got outstanding level of value and quality… but this was ages ago in whiskey years. Regardless of me reminiscing, this is fantastic stuff.
Product Page: https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1298485
Score: A

Glen Moray 10, Chardonnay Cask, 40%
No particular expectations on this low proof 10 year old young one. High minerality and malt, citrus and melons, rich and slightly buttery on the nose. I wonder where the citrus and melons come from? Oh yeah… the wine… On the palate… light, fruity and slightly peppery. A distinct lack of secondary palate is clearly evident there though, after the initial bold flavors fade, there’s a very pronounced ‘emptiness’ on the palate before the aftertaste kicks on. On the aftertaste, more pepper, some light wood finally shows itself. Butter, melons and yellow citrus as the nose promised. Extremely light smoke or tobacco in the tail end of the aftertaste rounds it off. This is a summer shandy (50/50 beer to lemonade) of scotch. Very summery and quite light, this feels like something I would enjoy chilled in the summer evening or with similar food that Chardonnay wine would pair with. Lack of mid palate makes it not worth contemplating upon and this is best paired with a good conversation or food. A solid minus though for being exactly 40% abv.
Score: B-

Glenlivet Nadurra 16, Bourbon cask, 111.5 proof
A discontinued bottling as of few years back when Glenlivet replaced all the Nadurra line with NAS expressions. This of course a is loss, but not surprising in the current market where the stocks are dwindling and demand is rising. Nose is malt, sweet cereal grains, slight baking spice, little bits of alcohol and wood but what a fantastic balance there. More wood and spice than would (see what I did here?) be expected based on reasonably pale color. Fantastic balance of flavors and a great example of what ex-bourbon single malt should be. Primary aftertaste flavors quickly fade leaving little tingle in the back of the tongue for quite a while. I’ll summarize here… “It’s real good”… Certainly different balance and style to Fettercairn above which tries to be a fantastic and smooth experience throughout, the Glenlivet Nadurra line does not pull its punches. This is like watching a champion boxer in a match: folks get hurt but it’s an amazing experience nonetheless. Spicy, sweet, malty the flavors are all wound together for quite a literal palate punch that’s beautiful to experience. Still stings a tad though, but not as much as finding my glass empty.
Score: A-

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Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown