DuckDrams

Scotch Single Malt • Natural Colour & Unchillfiltered • Part of Single Malt of Scotland Whisky Calendar 2022

Blind tasting notes from a 3cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Pastry notes (butter, sugar, and vanilla), fresh citrus (grapefruit rind, lemon), and herbal undertones (perhaps sage). Very fresh and clean, with a definite character to it.

Sipping

Pleasantly sweet and salty, with an oily and heavy spirit driving the experience. Lemond candies, orangey sponge cake with frosting, toasty and subtly smoky notes, with milk chocolate towards the end.

Comments

Nothing to fault here, certainly tasty, and not without personality, even as it remains within rather safe flavour territory. Cask strength (55-ish %), bourbon barrel, 10yo plus/minus, from some competent Speyside distillery. I would value this is at €50-65.

After reveal

10yo Glentauchers makes perfect sense. Very drinkable at the high ABV.

Scotch Single Malt • 1st fill PX quarter cask • Natural Colour & Unchillfiltered • €80 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 5cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Spicy oak and sherry notes against an earthy, herbal background (cinnamon, almond paste and marzipan, dry wood, oak but more so juniper, dried figs, pebbles, gorse bush). These two elements play off one another, but in the end the confectionary notes win out. [Addition: sniffing the diluted spirit in the near-empty glass brings forth the minerally, oily notes of the spirit]

Sipping

Strong, sweet, and drying in a tannic way. The texture and flavour point with full hand toward a PX maturation. Buttered scones, fig marmalade, with emerging notes of leather and tobacco. The latter elevate the overall experience considerably; so does water, which deflates the PX elements in favour of more dirty, minerally notes.

Comments

While nothing in the flavour profile is off, the strong (assumed) PX influence throughout the nose, texture, and taste make this an unbalanced dram for my taste. It tastes almost as if PX was directly mixed with a, say, 12yo Highland spirit at around 60% ABV. Maybe Glen Garioch.

After reveal

I’m quite delighted that my PX assertion was spot on; a quarter cask indeed, which increases the area/volume ratio and effect of the previous cask content. I wouldn’t buy a bottle, but I suppose a fair price on paper would lie around €50-60. The retailers are asking for too much here. To what extent one enjoys this dram really comes down to the enjoyment of the PX overcoat, and to me it’s a bit annoying.

Scotch Single Malt • Ex-Islay Barriques and Hogsheads • Natural Colour • €35 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 5cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Freshly and intensely fruity: sweet mandarins, pears, banana, passion fruit — a real tutti frutti. Gentle influence of vanilla and cardamom, olive oil. After adding water I was more pulled in the direction of berries, like currants.

Sipping

Good mouthfeel, and balanced sweetness. Overall malty and cereally, as well as generically fruity, though with some bitter citrus peel, and ultimately rather spicy and young-tasting, for which water was no improvement; perhaps the opposite. Pleasant fruits and a certain oiliness persist nicely in the aftertaste.

Comments

The nose is simple but very effective for a fruit-lover such as me. The palate does not live up to the high expectations, being ‘hot’ and spicy, which does not pair too favourable with a bitter element.

My tasting notes tell me that this is a bourbon cask, though I can’t shake a feeling that some kind of wine-cask with a weak influence is involved too. I’d guess 46% and sub-10yo, even a NAS.

After reveal

It’s interesting how a certain coastal note becomes apparent the moment it’s revealed that there’s an Islay cask involved… Though peat is absent for me, despite the label stating in bold “Malty & Peaty”. At €35 I can’t objectively fault the value proposition, but for me life is too short to drink a whole bottle of a too-spicy dram, when investing a little more cash can give something unconditionally delicious.

Scotch Single Malt • 1st fill ex-Oloroso sherry butt • Natural Colour & Unchillfiltered • €75 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 5cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

The nose immediately hints at a strong and cask-heavy dram, with a power that will need time and water to activate. Very dry wood, ginger beer, dried figs and the like, with an earthy and briny influence too.

Sipping

Sweet and savoury, chewy, with an oaky dryness. Caramelized sugar, ginger bread dough, some herbal notes, tomato.

Comments

I find this a successful sherry maturation. It’s not a sickly sweet overcoat, but well integrated with a heavy spirit that does bring some character. Other than sherry cask and high cask strength, hard to guess what this could be. Perhaps a Highlander or and Islander in the 8-15yo age range.

After reveal

All right, I’d say Glen Wyvis is hitting above its paper specs, so well done.

Scotch Single Malt • Bourbon, refill and recharred wood

• Unchillfiltered • €43 • WB🔗

Blind tasting notes from a 2cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Fruit-forward, with pineapple and banana, vanilla and cream. Some minerality and light smoke in the background.

Sipping

Sweet and salty, very succulent, and a bit spicy and mentholic. Pancakes with syrup and fruit toppings, orange zest, light sherry and cigar notes, turning a bit more earthy in the late finish. I notice that the sample is starting show off-notes from too long storage, but is still passable.

Comments

It’s a nice drinking whisky, with a classic Highland profile. 50%-ish, clear involvement of sherry casks, possibly a very light peat presence. Hard to guess more precisely.

After reveal

So I managed to be rather off. American oak, no sherry; standard 46%, and unpeated. This discontinued versions is called “Fruity and Sweet”, whereas the current official Loch Lomond 12yo is “Intense Orchard Fruit”. I would bet they are essentially the same (up to batch variation), and the latter is only €35 which would be a superb value indeed.

Scotch Single Malt • Natural Colour & Unchillfiltered • Part of Single Malt of Scotland Whisky Calendar 2022

Blind tasting notes from a 3cl sample bottle

Before reveal

Nosing

Honeyed and floral, lemon, vanilla, some alcohol sting. Trace of musk. Opening up, there’s more dry oak and some acidity.

Sipping

A predominantly malty experience, with barley sugar, cake icing, and dry oakiness. Beyond that, I can only mention mild citrus, perhaps blood orange, and the faintest hint of coffee.

Smooth

Comments

It’s a great malt in technical sense, robust and absolutely no off notes; a veritable reference for “malty” and “clean”, but the lack of contrasting element means this whisky does not fully satisfy. I imagine this is the kind of spirit where a finish in an interesting cask could yield a great result; the spirit has the muscle to take it, and would itself be elevated.

As for what it is, a Speysider in a bourbon cask, for 10-14 years, with an ABV exceeding 55%.

After reveal

Close enough to what I imagined. Citing ScotchWhisky.com regarding the distillery: “Cloudy worts and a short fermentation time give the nutty base, but it is distillation which adds real weight to the distillate. A controlled level of solids coming across in the wash still add a rich, deep, malt-loaf character to the new make. It is this character which allows it to show so well in ex-Sherry, although for blending purposes the majority of the make is destined for ex-Bourbon.”