DuckDrams

own bottle kill

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

The main themes are a gentle sherry, coastal minerality, fresh fruits (especially citrus), and some dusty oak and a whiff of a struck matchstick. Digging into the fruitier side, there’s lemon, orange, and apples. The sherry brings a nuttiness, dried fruits, along with caramel. There is a bit of waxiness, if I search for it.

Sipping

A nice balance of sweetness and brine, very round and velvety in texture. The flavours concur with the nose: sherry, citrus, mineral. A subtle tobacco-y smoke in the finish. Very drinkable.

💭 Comments

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It’s really enjoyable and quaffable dram. The sherry, while prominent, is not dominating the experience, with room for the citrus and especially the dusty and smoky tinge to make things more exciting. I bought two bottles of this at Lagavulin distillery for £58.50 a piece during the 2023 Islay trip. I’m quite happy I did. This has been a bottle I often turned to when I just wanted to enjoy a dram, perhaps with a chocolate on the side, while reading, playing games, or watching something. It’s just delicious, not too simple or complex.

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own bottle kill

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

White- and yellow fleshed fruit (litchi, crisp apples), wax candle, pineapple and ham, a hint of vegetable stock and green pepper.

Sipping

Beautifully oily and silky, goes down a treat neat. Meaty mango chutney, dirty-peaty, coastal, fresh. Inca berries, juicy oak, and a tad of bitterness in the finish.

💭 Comments

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This is the bottle I’ve enjoyed the most in the past year, though I think I opened it around October 2023. It’s a blend of mostly Clynelish (100L 9yo + 214L 8yo, both from refill bourbon) and bit of Dornoch distillery (64L 5yo, Bodega sherry butt – refill Glen Moray barrel), and teaspooned with Brora (1982/2015 Gordon & MacPhail). It just really satisfies me in my current phase of craving an dirty tropical fruit style without much peat influence.

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❤️

Personal favourite

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own bottle kill

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Red grape skins, leather, old chest, a little tiger balm.

Sipping:

Sweet, but not sticky; rich with lots of umami; some oak, but not too many tannins. Red, dried fruits, walnuts, hint of menthol.

💭 Comments

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Oxidation has certainly done wonders here! This is unusual, in that it’s cognac that was matured in Scotland in an ex-sherry cask. As I recall, I bought this online based on a hunch that it would be worth the money, and I’d say it was.

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own bottle kill

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing: baked pears with vanilla, earthy heather, orange peel, banana, forest honey, dark bread

Palate: rich, sweet and malty, pears, sultanas, gingerbread, spicy

💭 Comments

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This really is a bottle overkill. I brought two-thirds full bottle to a small wedding reception and it got emptied except for a few drops that I now try to write a very compromised review from.

This is actually the whisky I have bought the most bottles of (4). I first got it for a colleague tasting (but ended up not including it), and have now and again picked up bottles when I’ve seen it for close to €35. This is the second bottle I finish.

I think it just a really lovely Highland malt, with things I like from both the bourbon and sherry side of things, and this heathery, earthy aroma that spurs my memory of the great outdoors, and get a bit nostalgic about living in Scotland.

I recall the charismatic Ralfy (online reviewer) not being too impressed with it; that the high alcohol is there to bring life to the tired casks being used. Might very well be true. It even has caramel colouring, although no chill-filtration it seems. Still, I can’t help to enjoy this stuff, and there’s not much competition at €35!

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own bottle kill

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Fresh coastal character, sweet peat, and a balanced sherry profile: nuts, coffee, cola, sultana, strawberry, pear, vanilla, hay / dry grass, heather, smoked sausage, grilled corn, leather, fresh seaweed.

Sipping

Only medium sweet, slightly salty and savoury. Rich and warming peat, treacle, tropical fruit (appears also on the nose after a while), and seafood barbeque.

💭 Comments

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Banger of peated whisky. It may be worth noting that the final 5cl of the bottle have been sitting there for a long time (year?), but it remains great. In fact, I like it more now than I remember doing before even.

I bought this bottle to use at a tasting for my colleagues, and as I recall it was quite well appreciated. I later brought samples for hikes, and other adventures with Swedish friends, four of which ended up buying their own bottle after that.

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