DuckDrams

English Single Malt • First Fill Bourbon and Red Wine • Natural colour & Non-chillfiltered • €40 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 5cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

The immediate impression was buttery bourbon and toffee, then some fruits, papaya, orange, sour cherries, ginger, a bit of yeast, and gingerbread spice.

Sipping

Very full, and flavourful, brimming with ripe orchard and tropical fruits, brine, spices, and a touch of tobacco, old furniture, and smoke in the finish.

Overall

The nose is nice enough, though a little on the acidic sherry side. The palate on the other hand is really great. Quaffable! If I’m correct in thinking this is a mixed bourbon-sherry matured core range product at 46%, I must surely buy it. Could it actually be the new Scapa 10?

After reveal

Big surprise. I really cannot remember what prompted me to get this sample. But I’m glad I did. [I ended up buying a bottle!]

⭐

Scotch Single Malt • First-fill sherry and bourbon casks • Peated 🔥 • Natural Colour • €70 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 5cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Warming, nutty, toasted, and spicy, with some dried fruits and a subtle farm-cheese vibe. Sundry notes: pecan pie, dried apricot, pine wood and resin, soil and heather, cheddar cheese powder, peat.

Sipping

Mouthcoating, salty-sweet, like salted caramel on a pecan pie. Weighty spirit underneath. Clearly peated, but not overwhelming.

Overall

It’s a solid dram. Perhaps, for me, after a while its gets too heavy on the toasted oak, and would need something a little fresh to sustain the appetite. ABV is difficult, on the nose I though 48%, but drinking it feels it could be a little lower. Maybe it’s a Benromach?

After reveal

Ah, indeed it was. I’m surprised that it’s only 43%.

Scotch Single Malt • €90 at auction • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 5cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Orchard fruits (apples, pears), some banana, lots of vanilla, like ice cream melt, and a dusting of cinnamon.

Sipping

Not so sweet, rather malty, with a grassy bitterness and spice. Some dried herbs, ginger, dried mango. Some notes of used dishcloth in the empty glass.

Overall

Tastes like a rather generic (but decent) Highland malt in the 10yo range. Perhaps Fettercairn? Tastles like mostly bourbon casks but with some sherry in the mix.

After reveal

Ah, somewhat more “special” on paper than what I thought. Not a great performance, then.

Scotch Single Malt • First Fill Chinkapin Oak
• Unchillfiltered & Natural Colour • €90 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 5cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Most prominently, a dry, woody, and farmy impression (dry juniper wood, and juniper berries, sun-dried dung, burning peat, mustard), behind which red fruits and geranium hide.

Sipping

Very dry, and strong, at first sip. Savoury; hickory-smoked bacon, or dried ham from feeding on acorns. Trailing sweetness, and more balance with water.

Overall

It’s fun, because I can’t remember buying any sample that I’d imagine to be this heavy-peated profile, unless it’s a new distillery. To me, it’s a highland peat, relatively young, and just shy of 60%. Probably some European oak casks.

After reveal

Confirming this is a new distillery, sense is once again made. And virgin oak is really what went through my mind, though I did not think of the rather unusual American Chinkapin variety (Quercus Muehlenbergii).

Scotch Single Malt • Re-Charred Hogshead • Unchillfiltered • €50 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 5cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

An overall dry impression, with dry wood and herbs (rosemary), stony minerality, some yellow fruits, not yet ripe, a hint of citrus, and vanilla. Slightly soapy.

Sipping

Thin in the immediate mouthfeel, then a medium sweetness. Mostly barely sugar, lots of dry oak, and wood smoke. The soapiness lurks in the background. Growing bitterness in the finish.

Overall

Overall it doesn’t feel very balanced or generous. The palate just lacks some liveliness. I’m guessing this is a rather old bottling of some (at the time) rather standard whisky at 43%. Probably there’s no cask info, but let’s say refill sherry butt.

After reveal

Wow, I know you won’t believe me, but I did think, what if this is a Linkwood, how sad that would be. And such is indeed the case. I’m an avid fan of both the distillery and the bottler, but here it’s gone wrong. Perhaps my sample is off? I actually think not, and that these re-charred hogsheads were just too tired to lift the Linkwood.

Scotch Single Malt • Bourbon and etc casks • Unchillfiltered • €250 at auction 💎 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 5cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Main impressions of orchard fruits, petrichor, and something a little savoury/sour. Mealy apples, pears, Turkish delights, lemon zest, cinnamon, heather, and perhaps a little parmesan cheese.

Sipping

Reasonably mouth-filling, and on the sweeter end with lots of honey and biscuits, some tinned fruits. Turns more ashy and tonic bitter in finish, with hints of smoke and mint.

Overall

I’ll be damned if it’s another Linkwood! No, I think not; some Highlander, instead. There’s something a little “sweaty” in here, which I imagine (re-)conditioned sherry casks.

After reveal

Sure, makes sense.

Scotch Single Malt • Refill hogshead • Unchillfiltered & Natural Colour• € ? – Unavailable • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 2cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Lovely, sherbet-y nose, with fruits (notably ripe grapefruits, raspberries), garden flowers, coffee with cream, and a definite chalkiness, even some soot. The empty glass offer more lactic, yeasty, even mushroomy notes.

Sipping

Medium sweet, and there are balanced hints of all of saltiness, savouriness, and bitter. Medium to light in texture, but big flavours and with a very robust spirit at the base, subtly enhanced by the cask influence with mature notes of tobacco and leather that bloom out over a long development, over a backdrop of fruit salad (grapefruit, pear, nectarine) and a hint of soot or burnt fat. Fruits and dried berries in the finish.

Overall

Right up my alley, this is. Which is probably why I bought this sample, whatever it may be. Glenlossie perhaps? With a subtle sherry influence, but mostly spirit character and bourbon maturation shining through. I don’t think this needs to be very old, but it is wise beyond its years. The nose plays more to summery and pleasantly fruity, and the palate delivers a more ‘adult’ profile. This is absolutely excellent. If it’s not something very expensive, I’ll have to get a bottle.

After reveal

Makes absolute sense for this to be a Benrinnes. It was quite old, though. And not available anywhere. On to look out for on the auctions, though I shouldn’t get my hopes to high.

❤️

Scotch Single Malt • Butt • Nat. Col. & Unchillfiltered • € ? • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 3cl sample bottle

Nosing

Chocolate fondant with maraschino cherries, freshly squeezed orange, some herbal notes (dry herbs [edit: this is probably the peat influence], and fresh mint), dry oak

Sipping

Sweet and salty: salted caramel, strawberry coulis, and an earthiness with leather, tobacco, and, hint of smoked bacon. Popcorn in the finish.

Overall

As already signalled by the colour, this must be a full-on sherry maturation. And it tastes like a quality sherry cask, carried well by good spirit. It’s been a while since I was really enjoying a sherry-heavy maturation this much. Could be any of a number of Highland or Speyside distilleries. Probably in the upper 50% range, but quite drinkable neat.

After reveal

What went though my mind as I was peeling off the was – it’s probably going to be Highland Park or something not caught in the wide net of my Highland/Speyside hedge. But I’m not familiar with drinking HP, so it did not feel right to make an official guess for it. I’d be quite happy to buy a bottle of this for, say, €70, but this cask was never released as bottle. It’s coming from the Single Malts of Scotland Christmas calendar.

Scotch Single Malt • Refill American Oak Hogsheads + Sherry Hogshead • Natural Colour & Unchillfiltered • €75 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 2cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Coconut and Pina Colada, lemon sorbet and green apples; but these fruity notes are equally matched by maritime notes, iodine, hay, and smoked bacon.

Sipping

Strong! Really dry, almost making the mouth curl, but not without a sort of sweetness from the smoke and peat and lots of dried seaweed (lingering in the finish), earthy tobacco. Bitterness creeps in towards the end.

Overall

It’s pretty good, if a bit extreme in its dryness. One has to be in right mood, such as at the end of tasting to kill of the finish of sherry monster. I would tend to think this is Laphroaig, but in any case an Islay, for sure.

After reveal

Islay, guaranteed, but the distillery is not disclosed. Caol Ila seems to be the predominant guess, and that is sensible. But I’m really not getting much of the sherry cask.