DuckDrams

from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Ripe and bright fruits (passion fruit, pear, citrus) and dessert wine, some minerality with petrichor and a dash of white pepper and vanilla.

Sipping

Very juicy, with loads of yellow fruits; sweet, but not in a sugary or confectionary way. Fairly prominent alcohol neat, but still drinkable. Responds well to water; simple but long finish, with golden sultanas.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

A solid “juicy oak” profile whisky, without bells and whistles. I’m very partial to this kind of stuff. Time for the first guess of the season. Single malt, for sure. Bourbon casks with a white dessert wine finish. Age 13yo, abv north of 55%, and distillery I have no clue, but Speyside would be a safe bet . Or could it actually be Irish? Maybe, but I think no.

After reveal

Not too shabby guesswork. I would say it’s a little boozy for 52%. Refill sherry makes sense. It’s mostly juicy oak, and a slight wine influence that I interpreted as dessert wine. Pricewise, I’d say the current retail price (was it lower at launch?) is way too high.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

In a word the nose is compact: thick winy and leathery notes, with savoury smoke-dried meats, and polished wood. I find myself going back and forth between vegetal, farmy peat and decadently sweet but burnt chocolate-walnut cake.

Sipping

Sweet and savoury, with distinct PX sherry notes, sticky pudding, glazed ham, oyster sauce, and peat.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Not a subtle whisky, but a really fun one! The sweet and savoury and smoky work really well together, despite not having “fused” in the way that one might find in a complex older whisky. The coastal Islay character is not strong here, so I would actually put this as a peated Highland single malt, finished in a PX cask. Around the 10yo mark, 50-55% abv. To get specific about origin, I’d guess Glenglassaugh.

After reveal

Hoopla! Not my best guess. A shame this seems to have been a single release that’s now off the market (at any reasonable price), ’cause I could have considered buying a bottle. A better impression than my first try of 1770 on the blog.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Sweet peat and fruits (stone fruits, strawberries, ripe orange), some coastal freshness and a hint of iodine.

Sipping

Good balance of sweet and briny; works well neat. Very yummy, fruity, fresh and moderately coastal. Cocoa nibs in the finish.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Simple but effective! I would guess Williamson (i.a. Laphroaig), or perhaps Lagavulin. Ex-sherry or dessert wine cask, 7yo, 56%.

After reveal

Okay, I’m not far off here – I think. No age statement, and a single malt but no indication of which distillery. I still put my bet on 7yo Laphi.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Sweetness and wood are my main thoughts (wood shavings, resin, herbes de Provence, toasted hazelnut, caramel, vanilla). With time I get lots of plum too.

Sipping

Oily, yet at the same time watery, somehow?Sweet. Gets quite spicy, almost chilli-like, with a little tannic bitterness in the finish. Flavourwise close to the nose.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

It’s not woody to the point of being not good anymore, but it is woody. Clearly grain whisky, or blended whisky with a high grain content. 44%. Unsure of the cask, but maybe (refill) ex-sherry butt.

After reveal

The guess hits the mark, but it wasn’t a very difficult one. Somewhat surprising is the price, which is quite affordable for grain this age, even taking the smaller bottle size into account.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Refreshing, with fruity and floral impressions (nectar, apple, stone fruits, fresh laundry, Swedish soft drink Champis), and some baking spices (foremost vanilla, cinnamon and with water also clove).

Sipping

Very dry mouthfeel, at least initially, with a gentle bitterness, and a malty robustness.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

This I quite like, and it’s subtle and delicious enough that I would enjoy exploring it more over time. Feels like a fairly well-aged whisky, say 17yo but it could well be 25, that has remained spirit driven. I’d say a refill cask of some sort. The profile would fit Deanston distillery. ABV is not so very high, low 50s in percentage.

After reveal

Punching above it’s age! (Like Jake Paul, lol) And below its ABV. From my brief 2cl encounter with this bottling, I’d say it’s one of those instances where the cask turned out really well, and it’s better than how it looks on paper.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Cask dominant, somewhat sour red berries and fruits, glühwein spices (’tis the season). Quite a bit of minerality shines through, though.

Sipping

Vinous, medium-sweet at first, but then becomes almost drying, with a sourness and gentle tannins. Dark bread, raisins, caramel, and a smoked note.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Some wine cask shenanigans going on here, I thought at first. But over time I’m getting so much Glenfarclas vibes that I convinced myself it is just first-fill sherry. 55%-ish.

After reveal

Holy mackerel (actually, that would work as a tasting note!), that’s quite a bit older than what I had in mind, and from a different distillery known for a lighter profile, but here an active cask has had a long time to work its magic.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Brown sugar, molasses, treacle — that’s the chorus. Some overtones of heather, some backing of earthy and vinous aromas. Whisper of rubber.

Sipping

Sugar-sweet, with quite strong alcohol, and drying oak. Flavours of wholemeal bread, dark Belgian beer, goat cheese (there’s a funky streak here), some light tobacco and smoke. The finish rings out surprisingly fast.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Young spirit in a really active cask. It feels a bit rushed and overexuberant. On a positive note, though, there is something peculiar in the intersection of the funky/tobacco that is characterful. Let’s say 7yo, PX cask, 59%. Probably a young and overpriced distillery asking for €80 or thereabouts. Or I’m just way off and this is a weirdly aged Glen Scotia…

After reveal

Ah, Bruichladdich. My guess was not so close, but I can make sense of the answer, and it explains the funky/fusile character.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Very generous and round nose, with mild yet ripe fruits (red apples, apricots, grapes, orange), flowers and a hint of grass, all underlaid by condensed milk and cola.

Sipping

Oily, sweet, yet lively through a robust spirit and a dab of bitterness. Candied orange, toasted wood, toffee, vanilla. Really long juicy oak finish.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Simply delightful! Perfect balance of spirit and sherry character, where it has just ‘fused’. It’s not quirky, or surprising, just very harmonious and well-integrated. If it’s under €120 I’d buy a bottle in a heartbeat, but I suspect we’re in the €300 territory. (Actually, I should take a stab at guessing the price always from on!) For the other data, I’d guess 20yo (plus minus a few years), sub-50%, and a nice slow sherry-cask maturation. Speyside is a safe bet, specifically I have a feeling it’s Tamdhu!

After reveal

I was on the wrong Island, and inside the wrong kind of wine cask. Actually, whenever Irish whisky pops up in these blind tests I tend to have a very positive evaluation, same for marsala cask. I do love my fruits, and so do the Irish theirs apparently.

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❤️

Personal favourite

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from a 5cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

An enchanting nose, warm, sweet, rich, and very complex; one thinks of venerable, old ex-wine casks, perhaps PX. Dried fruits, strawberry and mango, nuttiness and marzipan, undergirded by musty and earthy aromas of old wood, leather, moss, and assorted herbs and spices (clove, saffron). Touch of menthol.

Sipping

The alcohol is strong neat, but the flavour is big too. But not so sweet, in fact; rather dry, but without much wood astringency. Predominantly nutty, along with buttered toast, coffee, dates, warm strawberry coulis, leather and a touch of tobacco. Medium length finish.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

The cask influence is strong here, but has done an amazing job. On the nose I get a sense it might be a grain whisky, from that vegetal and perhaps even a slightly gluey note. On the palate, however, I taste malt. So I suppose I should conclude that this is a really old blend, 30yo at least, maybe even closer to 40. Highland or Speyside style, but with a blend the origin is often mixed. The alcohol for me feels like above 50% at least.

After reveal

What?! This might be the most wrong I’ve ever been… OK, so I did have in mind a wine cask (from taste, and looking at the reddish colour), but then didn’t dare to commit to it because it seemed unlikely that such an old whisky (ahem) would be finished in a red wine barrel. But the clearly very strong alcohol also spoke against a really old whisky… as did perhaps the relatively quick finish. Trying to rescue my reputation here, Kavalan is in Taipei and maturation should happen a lot faster in such climates, and wine casks can impart lots of musty flavours that makes age-classing a whisky quite hard. Still, I can only explain away so much of my ignorance.

Value for money here become interesting. On paper, it would seem preposterous to pay €169 for a 7 year old whisky, but it is darn good, and I mistook it for whisky of an age that would have cost €300 and more. So in the end I have to say the price is fair, and I’m quite tempted to buy a bottle.

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❤️

Personal favourite

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from a 2cl sample bottle

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

A strong candy-like sweetness and esteriness (foam bananas etc), salted caramel, hint of iodine and smoke.

Sipping

Heavy, earthy peat first and foremost, with some sherry sweetness, salted caramel, crème brûlée.

💭 Comments

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Now, I accidentally saw most details about the whisky before having it, so not really a true blind tasting. This is a bold but simple whisky, youth betrayed by the fact that there is mostly peat and ex-cask contents doing the flavour work. I’m not too fond of the candy profile, in comparison with natural fruits, but it’s better than blandness for sure. I’d have guessed it’s one of the new Scotch distilleries with a fresh dessert wine cask … and I’d be wrong! But it is clearly a malt, if not a Scottish one.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Fresh, lots of juicy oak, really floral, and with some honied tea, herbs (perhaps oregano), and vanilla.

Sipping

Quite sweet, a bit bitter and acidic. Juicy oak flavour, light honey, and not so much more. Very slight hint of overoxidation.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Quite different, this one. My first thought was that this might actually be bourbon, or something finished in a Koval bourbon cask. But then moved on to thinking this is ex-bourbon Scotch, finished in Sauternes cask. Probably 8-ish years. Somewhere around 55%. Price around €70.

After reveal

Haha, now I’m way off in the other direction, compared to the Kavalan. It’s impressive that the whisky stayed so fresh with this amount of age. But that’s where the impressiveness ended for me.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Main themes here are zesty and confectionary, with some earthy notes as well: orange, pecan pie, caramel, sherry, and the associated spices (like cinnamon); also a slight vegetal peat, without much smokiness, really.

Sipping

Sweet, oily and mouthcoating, briny, and with quite the alcohol burn. Malty and biscuity, with round sherry, conserved pears, and a very light, almost ashy peat appearing in the development.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Could it be Bunnahabhain cask strength? Probably too obvious peat influence here. Something lightly peated, or just aged in ex-peated casks? No, I think perhaps mix of peated and unpeated spirit, predominantly sherry matured. Ardnamurchan then comes to mind, also for the briny note. We are close to 60%, I believe, and up to 10yo, but probably a bit younger. I’d imagine something in the €80 range. It’s a solid single malt, and it’s memorable for the fact that this very lightly peated style is not so common, although otherwise might not stand out against other high quality offerings for me.

After reveal

Ah, now this makes total sense! And smelling the empty glass, and primed by the knowledge of what has actually been in it, I indeed get a funky vibe. I maybe thought more of vegetal peat and slight sherry sulphur than “farmy” or “funky”.

Value for money is with regard to the RRP in this case.

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