DuckDrams

One recurring thought in the collective unconscious of the whisky sphere is: what happens if I add sherry to whisky? It’s not such a wild idea. So much of Scotch is matured in whole or part in ex-sherry casks. Technically, such cask must be completely emptied according to Scotch rules, so that the interaction of whisky and wine is entirely mediated by the wood, but probably that happens less than fully, less than always. Today I will run a little experiment to see how, for better or worse, a touch of directly administered sherry will transform the whisky. Two sherries (an Oloroso and a PX) times two whiskies (a Glencadam 10 and an Ardnamurchan AD/) — four chances to find out.

The sherries

The Oloroso is a classical one that I’ve had a few times: Fernando De Castilla Oloroso Classic at 18%. In the tasting I hosted the previous week for my colleagues, I included this bottle of sherry alongside a sherried whisky (Bunna 10) for an interesting comparison. Tasting the sherry now, there is grapes (actually more so than raisins), a nuttiness, leathery notes, and some quite funky notes too: mushrooms and soy sauce. The palate is acidic but nor sharp, dry but not extremely so, and with a creamy nuttiness.

The PX is quite an extraordinary one: Bodegas Toro Albalá “Don PX Selección” 1965 vintage at 16.5%. There’s an online fact sheet highlighting its merits. This was a gift from my father two years ago, and he had to win a ballot for the right to buy a bottle from the Swedish monopoly store. My original tasting notes from a year or two ago included raisins, liquorice, chinyang vinegar, and leather. It has perhaps by now become somewhat tempered with time and oxidation, but it is still rich and complex: musky, leathery, chocolaty, oaky. “Liquid raisins” is a short and (literally) sweet description of the palate.

Now let’s see what an addition of these sherries can do to an unsuspecting dram of whisky!

Glencadam 10 experiment

The unadulturated GC10 offers a nose of lovely fresh and crisp fruits, juicy oak, with a touch of vanilla and and somewhat dusty dunnage notes. A malty, bready, succulent and pleasantly sweet palate, with abundant fruit (pear), and a clean finish.

I add half a teaspoon of the Oloroso to the GC10. The crispness of the whisky gives way to a winier nose, inheriting also the somewhat odd mushroom and soy notes of the oloroso. Looking past this, there is a buttery and leathery quality to the liquid which, along with the dried fruits, makes me thinks of old-style sherried whisky; not very mature, but bottled long ago. On the palate, though, it gets weird: the texture has a fatty quality unlike what I have had in whisky before, and the acidity is unusual. A slight metallic note is also brought forth. Overall, weird and not a huge success, although not unpleasant.

Then, the PX-CG10, infused with just a few drops of that sweet stuff. The nose remains fresh, but we have made a marked shift towards red fruits and berries, and, unsurprisingly, dried fruits and raisins. There is nothing off with the nose; to me it would pass as a sherry-matured whisky of some quality, actually. The palate is perhaps abnormally sweet but not to a negative effect (the last few drops at the bottom of the glass got really sweet, though). The maltiness of the whisky fuses remarkably well with the richness of the sherry, for a meaty and leathery impression. Altogether the whisky was transformed quite successfully, I should say.

Ardnamurchan AD/ experiment

The whisky, presented in its natural state, has a nose leading with cotton candy, vanilla, then turning coastal (mineral, light seaweed) and peaty. Some lime zest liven things up. Briny palate, with some sweetness, and light-to-medium peat.

Now, I added a bit less of the Oloroso this time. The effect is subtle, the nose being richer, more farm-like, and more complex. Yes, farmier and more seaweed is the net effect of the Oloroso on the palate. I can’t specifically detect mushrooms in soy sauce, though. It surprises me to say this, after the GC10 + Oloroso result, but the present combination is perhaps a marginal improvement on the neat dram, or at least not strictly worse. Let’s add a bit more Oloroso… No, now we passed a threshold and it became too strange!

With the PX addition instead, the nose is richer, more biscuity and fattier. The palate is fine, the peat and aged sherry notes combine into a tobacco-y impression. Too sweet in the finish, though.

Very interesting results, with GC10 + PX and Ardnamurchan + Oloroso both working out really well. But a few drops in the glass suffices, and it’s easy to overshoot and change the experience outside the range of a “normal” whisky. Will I continue to regularly sherry dope whisky? Maybe a few drops of PX here and there when I feel a bottle is otherwise not giving me much excitement.