DuckDrams

from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Bright fruits (pear, melon), sweet wheat bread, bourbon vanilla, dunnage, cheese in wax cloth, wood smoke

Sipping

Very dynamic: immediate impression if of a light mouthfeel, but over the course of the 10-15 second it blooms out with flavour, mouthfeel and oak spice. Somewhat austere; there’s fruit like melon, but little sweetness; bread, milk chocolate, dried tobacco leaf.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

The process of exclusion leads me to say this is the Brora: no detectable peat, ruling out the Islays, and not funky enough to be Springbank. It’s really nice and clearly an old whisky, but not like my first Broras.

After reveal
(note: only after I made my review/guess for each sample)

Ok, Springbank was the second guess, but still a little too clean for that, given how many other dirty ones there are in the line up. One can surely tell there’s old bottle effect with this one, but for me it made for an interesting experience blindly.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Rather shy on the nose at first. Fresh minerality, florality, orange, and coconut, toasted oak. With hours in the glass a really nice Trocadero note and some cheese!

Sipping

Balanced taste with bitter, savoury, salty, sweet, and sour all there. Quite a lot of oak spice. Vanilla, coffee, lots of toasted notes, leather. Mild peat and farminess.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

At first I was really uncertain, but now with a lot of time in the glass I’m getting a cheesy Springbank vibe, and the tasting notes are pointing there too.

After reveal

(note: only after I made my review/guess for each sample)

So I got the Brora and the Springbank swapped… At first I thought this might be Brora indeed, but I really couldn’t get #1 to be SB so I ended up convincing myself this was more likely the SB. Really good one, although not a contender to the 34 and 35yo ones I had earlier, obviously.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Rich and decadent old sherry profile: prunes, molasses, red berry compote, leather and old furniture. A cigar cabinet? Hint of rubber with time.

Sipping

Viscous, sweet, and really quite tannic; but the spirit still exerts itself and this needs some water. Fruit cake, balsamico, maltiness. Dried cranberry and other fruits in the finish.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Easy to pick out as Macallan in this lineup. It’s really good, but to me doesn’t reach the complexity of a really old cognac, which I suspect is still a lot cheaper.

After reveal

(note: only after I made my review/guess for each sample)

Yep, it’s a really strong Macallan. There are signs of youths, but also of maturity beyond what you’d expect to find in a 12yo sherried whisky these days. I’m betting this has to do with this being a real sherry cask, not a seasoned one, and to a smaller extent old bottle effect.

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Cheese doodles! Some really overripe fruits, matcha tea, aaaand cattle dung and yeast 😂.

Sipping

Very briny, heavy peat, some ripe stone fruits, a little vanilla. Comes together very nicely.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Hmmm from the nose I was really expecting Springbank. But on the palate the peat is so intense that this has to be Laphroaig, which I indeed have also found very “farmy” in the past. Or have they picked out a Longrow? Nah, I’ll stick with Laphi.

After reveal

(note: only after I made my review/guess for each sample)

Well, I don’t really know Port Ellen very well, so it’s not tough to be wrong here (and #6 which turns out to be Laphi was rather untypical). Imagine a 14yo being bottled nowadays and sold sub-€100, that’d be neat.

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from a 5cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Dry, minerally, and subtle tropical fruits (mango, pina colada) and something floral and candy-like, along with some oak and resin.

Sipping

Somewhere between dry and medium sweet; not bitter. The peat is medium-heavy. I’m getting fig chutney, green grapes, cheese, saffron.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Something about the nose is very subtly different from any other whisky I ever had… The decision here is between Springbank and Bowmore, but I feel a lot more like it’s the latter. If I were to choose one of these dram’s to get a bottle of, it would be this one.

After reveal

(note: only after I made my review/guess for each sample)

Yes, indeed!

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❤️

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from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly

🗒️ Tasting notes

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Nosing

Characteristic rubber note (sherry sulphur), mildly stinky feet, dried figs, toffee, costal spray

Sipping

Sweetish, salted caramel, some rubber, and a decent amount of peat.

💭 Comments

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Before reveal

Quite hard, because there’s basically sulphury sherry and peat to go on and not much else. So I’ll venture to guess Port Ellen, which just so happens to final name to place.

After reveal

(note: only after I made my review/guess for each sample)

Huh, it’s a bottling of Laphi that people seem to really wax lyrical about. I can get on board with the BBQ, bacon, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, etc, that I didn’t write down. There’s a lot of flavour, and maybe my palate was a rather fatigued by the final dram, but I just didn’t find it exceptionally good.

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