Happy New Year
Craigellachie 14, Hepburn’s Choice, K&L SP. 51.7%
A 14 year old in a refill (ok, it’s super blond, refill-refill) sherry cask and teaspooned with a Dailuaine. My guess it’s a 2nd refill. The nose is candied citrus peel, some spices and few sherry notes as well. Sweet toasted grains, and some minerality on the palate. The body is a little thin and I wish it was slightly thicker to enhance the experience. Long, malty, slightly spicy with soft citrus, and honeycomb aftertaste. Overall this may not be all time favorite but it’s certainly enjoyable. It does become slightly bitter, think ‘burnt orange zest’, with repeat sips, and then mellows out again. Value: This was $59 at KnL… A solid value, though Craigellachie stills do produce a lot of whiskey by volume; thus seeing reasonable prices for this distillery isn’t a surprise.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1510166
Score: B+
Rampur Double Cask; 45%
A NAS (No Age Stated) bottling that was part of a gift pack in late 2021. We’ll assume it was roughly bottled around 2021 as well. Fruit, with a very minor rubber note which acts as more of a bitter tone rather than offsets the nose. Slight upfront nutty note on the palate that fades into cascade of dried orchard fruit flavors in the reasonably long, and warming towards the end, aftertaste. The palate is unfortunately thin, the fruitiness balances it out but there’s almost no malt felt throughout of the experience and it tastes more of a brandy blindly rather than a single malt. It gives me an odd fruit-infused black tea impression, slightly bitter in the front, all fruit in the back. Overall: It’s fruit-tea… Fruity… get it? get it? Yes! It’s not ‘bad’ it’s very un-inspiring and basically tastes like brandy. Value: This came as a part of $80 gift pack with some glasses. In general I’m not a fan of paying premium for a NAS malt and I’ll stay true to my belief. Good try, but value isn’t really there. Not to mention the glasses it came with are heavily branded and are basically rocks glasses, so I’m not too sure who’s the target audience of the gift pack here; since enthusiasts won’t care and it’s not effective to do highball in a rocks glass.
Score: C
Macduff 14, 2003, Cooper’s Choice 46%
A single cask in a sherry cask bottled in 2018. Cask number 9598. The nose is honey almonds quite sweet and gentle with sherry especially when just poured. After a few minutes, the sherry notes and cologne becomes richer and deeper and somewhat woodier. Nutty, spicy, rather thinly textured palate with coffee, tobacco, some leather are in the secondary notes, this ends up tasting like a sweet ashtray (or a post-sigar palate). As I’m not a fan of smoking… this gives me odd mental images. Long and pleasantly warming aftertaste follows and fig compote comes up in the very end. Overall: I’m torn… The specs make me want to love it, the aftertaste is good, the nose is great and then the palate is… where stuff falls apart. Value: This was $69 in 2018 so right now it’s tough to find a single cask with age statement and sherry for anywhere near that at 14… It’s alright and priced about average.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1492182
Score: C-
Glentauchers 10, Sovereign, K&L SP, 58.3%
A Sovereign bottling finished in a wine barrel. The nose is spiced plums and cherries, together with a bit of nuttiness. The palate is nutty red wine… basically. Concentrated, tingly, chocolate, cherry, chewy, meaty, sweet as a dessert wine could be. Delicious, sweet, malty and sadly short aftertaste. I wish it was longer as it would be amazing. Water opens up some honey, cutting back and balancing the sweetness a bit as a welcome relieve. Overall: Heavily reminds me of Starward, this is a riff on manhattan in a bottle, quite delicious but aftertaste duration is a shortcoming. It never tries to pretend to be what it isn’t. Fantastic sweeter dessert pour, tasty with nothing to complain about for what it is. Value: At $55 this is a fantastic value for a weird, but welcome, cask mix as so very few scotches are red wine finished.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1524629
Score: B+
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Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown