Port Askaig 9 Year Old New Zealand Exclusive Whisky Review!

A New Zealand exclusive Port Askaig single cask bottled for Whisky Galore / Dramfest. And it's a rum cask finish, which means this is probably a rum cask finished Caol Ila. And that's quite the rarity! 

Port Askaig is one of the independent bottling brands from Elixir Distillers, formerly owners of The Whisky Exchange, which is now owned by Pernod Ricard; and now the owners of Tormore Distillery, which was formerly owned by Pernod Ricard. Funny how these things pan out...Aside from Port Askaig Elixir also brings us independent whisky bottlings like Elements of Islay and Single Malts of Scotland and also Black Tot rum, with their own Islay distillery named Portintruan under construction just outside the village of Port Ellen. The Port Askaig brand only consists of Islay single malts, but is technically one of the "mystery"  undisclosed single malt Scotch whiskies. There is no Port Askaig Distillery, but there is a distillery in the village of Port Askaig that goes by the name of Caol Ila. Not all Port Askaig bottlings are Caol Ila mind you, but the two permanent bottlings in the range, the 8-year old at 45.8% and the delicious 100 Proof at 57.1% ABV (110 Proof and bottled at 55% in the US) are. The rest of the Port Askaig bottlings are limited releases to varying degrees, sometimes Caol Ila and sometimes from other distilleries, even including 45-year old unpeated Bunnahabhain in the past. Since Caol Ila is Islay's largest distillery with a capacity of over 6-million litres (ramped up from 4-million a few years ago) and is underutilised as a single malt by owner Diageo, it is therefore one of the easiest to source for independent bottling and/or blending. So it stands to mathematical reason that the majority of the anonymous & undisclosed Islay independent bottlings will be Caol Ila, regardless of which label they're wearing. That's certainly not a negative though, this distillery produces fantastic whisky, and if it weren't for the independent bottlings it would be difficult to experience "proper" Caol Ila as a single malt. There are rumours that Diageo are going to slow or even stop the on-selling of Caol Ila to brokers and independent bottlers, but let's just hope that isn't true. If it is, they'd better pick their act up and give this distillery the attention it deserves; i.e. bring back the cask strength!

Why am I reviewing a New Zealand exclusive bottling when I'm not in New Zealand? Well, firstly because a generous resident of NZ sent me a sample. But also because this is a rum cask finished Port Askaig, which is the first time I've seen such a thing in the southern hemisphere. Which means there's a strong chance that this is a rum cask finished Caol Ila, which is the first time I've seen such a thing - Google tells me it's been done before by a couple of much smaller independent bottlers, but I'm yet to see any of those examples, let alone try them. We don't see many rum cask finishes from Islay in general, but in my experience it can work beautifully with peated whisky when done well. Ardbeg have dabbled in rum finishes in the past with 2019's (lacklustre) Drum release and the (much better) Committee Release version, while Kilchoman have released some excellent rum finished single casks. Further afield some larger producers have started delving into rum casks recently, including Diageo with their special release Talisker 8-year old in 2020 and more recently the Cardhu 16-year old special release in 2022. With more traditional finishing casks (i.e. sherry) constantly becoming scarcer and more expensive, and with the large corporates now buying Spanish bodegas to secure their own cask supplies, we'll continue to see more unusual cask maturations and/or finishes in Scotch whisky, from mezcal to cognac and further afield. This shift has been spurred on by the changes made to the Scotch whisky regulations back in 2019. Crucially, oak is still the only permitted wood type, and the previous contents must be barrel aged in its traditional production, i.e. you can't throw some vodka or gin in a cask and then finish your Scotch whisky in that cask, because those spirits are not traditionally barrel aged. If you do you can't label it as Scotch whisky, and you can expect a visit from the SWA. Which is a good thing; without these regulations you'd have chaos. Look at what's been happening in Australian whisky with soft drink casks and Christmas mince pie casks for the worst case scenario, let alone just about every producer adding more unnecessary sugar to their whisky by throwing their 2-year old spirit, often already too sweet and too woody, in maple syrup casks...

This Port Askaig rum cask finish is a single cask New Zealand exclusive, selected and bottled in "collaboration" with Whisky Galore in Christchurch - the importer, distributor and retailer behind the biannual Dramfest whisky festival. This is a 9-year old whisky, matured for 7-years in a refill bourbon cask and then finished for 2-years in a first-fill rum barrel, bottled at a cask strength of 58.2% without chill filtration or added colouring. There's essentially no point in talking about price with this one since New Zealand plays by a different set of rules to Australia, but I can't help it. Retail pricing is just $112 NZD, the equivalent of around $105 AUD or $70 USD. That's an incredible price for a cask strength single cask Islay, let alone an exclusive bottling. Other reasons & factors (of which there are many) aside, the New Zealand government charges almost half the amount of alcohol excise on spirits than the Australian government does here - currently $60.54 NZD (around $57 AUD) per litre of 100% alcohol vs. $97.90 AUD (around $104.50 NZD) per litre at 100% alcohol. And the rate there is increased every 12-months there, as opposed to every 6-months here. Sigh. While we're on the subject, in the U.S. according to the TTB site their federal spirits excise rate is just $13.50 USD... per GALLON (that's 3.78L) at 100% alcohol. That's not including any tariffs or state taxes, which are significant, but even so, double sigh. Moving right along, it's time for a dram...

Port Askaig 9-Year Old, Rum Cask Finish Single Cask, 58.2%. Islay, Scotland.

Exclusive to New Zealand. Anonymous Islay single malt (likely Caol Ila), distilled 2013, matured in refill bourbon for 7-years, finished in first-fill rum barrel for 2-years. Cask #4432. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: A little sharp, vegetal, ashy, and sweet. Grassy malt with a touch of smoked ham (Caol Ila's calling card), thick boot polish (paste/cream, not liquid), and slight aniseed. Chilli salt, smoked pork rinds, and sea spray. Bandages and a hint of oyster shells around the edges. There are some subtle tropical fruits - banana & papaya, I'd say - with a light caramel syrup, but the rum cask certainly isn't shouting at me. 

Texture: Medium weight. Syrupy, ashy, sweet & grassy. No heat, nicely warming. 

Taste: More thick boot polish & chilli salt before Caol Ila's sweet grassy spirit comes through, bringing a wave of ashy smoke with it. The light caramel syrup & banana around the edges again. Bandages on the exhale. There's certainly a denser, more syrupy sweetness here than your typical Caol Ila, but it's still quite a subtle influence. 

Finish: Medium length. The ashy smoke and sweet syrup (maybe even cane juice?) continue, then the chilli salt - but it's green chilli now rather than red - and boot polish make a fleeting appearance. Grassy malt and a tough of woody (bitter) herbs & aniseed. There's possibly a slight "rum funk" underneath that syrupy sweetness, e.g. overripe banana and brown sugar, but that could be the power of suggestion. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Well the rum cask influence is certainly subtle, but that's not a negative. In fact this is a great example of a cask finish done well, where it integrates with the spirit rather than dominating it, boosting some aspects (sweetness in this case) and adding an extra flare without becoming distracting or obstructive. Most rum cask finished peated whiskies that I've tried do seem to lean that way, unlike some other cask types that seem to want all the attention for themselves. Casks aside, this is another tasty Caol Ila from Port Askaig / Elixir Distillers who certainly know their way around the spirit from this Islay workhorse. As one of Diageo's dependables the spirit is extremely consistent, but it does need to be handled with care by bottlers. Along with Elixir, Gordon & MacPhail and Signatory Vintage are in that same grouping I think. Diageo are up there too, they just don't want us to know they are. Their Feis Ile bottlings and distillery exclusives tend to be great spirit-driven Caol Ilas. Whereas some other bottlers think it's Laphroaig and end up bashing it over the head with cask influence - especially if first-fill sherry is involved. This rum cask finish Port Askaig is a great example, and it's an absolute steal at the NZ pricing.

Cheers!

Rosebank 30 Year Old Whisky Review!

The legendary Rosebank, the recently rediscovered gem of the Lowlands region. New owners, new releases, and (eventually) new spirit!

Before you ask, yes, this is an expensive bottle of whisky, and despite only being a 2021 release it's largely sold out. At $3,000 AUD on these shores when it was released a couple of years ago, it was already out of many whisky drinkers' reaches. My own included. That was a high price when this whisky was released nearly three years ago, but in the sorry state of affairs that is the current global whisky market, $3,000 for a 30-year old cask strength official bottling from a closed (but re-opening) distillery is actually reasonable. I know that's quite a bitter pill, but it's true. As an example the most recent of Diageo's Port Ellen releases, a 40-year old batch of 1,380 bottles, is priced at $12,500 here in Australia and £8,000 for those in the UK. 

Unlike Port Ellen, Rosebank managed to survive the wholesale slaughter of the early 1980s. In fact it was more highly regarded at the time, but that wasn't enough to save it from the accountants red pen. The doors were closed in June 1993, over 150-years after they'd first opened, when Diageo-predecessor United Distillers elected to close the distillery rather than spending two million pounds on necessary upgrades. Here in 2023 three legendary dead distilleries are being rebuilt and reopened, in fact Diageo's Brora is already up & running after nearly four decades spent gathering dust. Port Ellen is still under Diageo's ownership, but the site required the most work out of this dead distillery trifecta, compounded by its remote location and also the pandemic. Rosebank was slightly better off since the distillery buildings were still standing on the original site in Falkirk roughly 45-minutes north-west of Edinburgh, but the resurrection has been very long-winded, and at the time of writing the distillery is still under construction. Falkirk is now more widely known for it's "Falkirk Wheel" rotating boat lift and the Kelpies sculptures, but to the more devout whisky lovers it's still known as the home of Rosebank. Once the new distillery is finally up & running, it will be again!

Owing to its convenient location on the banks of the Forth & Clyde Canal, the neglected & unloved Rosebank site was sold to the government group that managed the country's waterways. The distillery buildings soon fell into disrepair, and the copper stills & mash tun were partially stolen (cut apart and stolen over a period of days/weeks) by metal thieves in the late 2000s. Diageo still owned the Rosebank brand and sporadically released some of the remaining casks as official bottlings, including a Flora & Fauna bottling that was launched in the late 1990s and concluding with a 21-year old cask strength in 2014. Rosebank was & is quite a unique distillery among the Lowlanders since it used 100% triple distillation combined with worm tub condensers; the former giving a lighter and more floral character, and the latter giving a textural, more robust character. In late 2017 Ian McLeod Distillers managed to purchase both the brand and the remaining stock from Diageo, and also bought the distillery site and buildings from British Waterways. Ian McLeod are behind Glengoyne & Tamdhu distilleries and own independent bottling brands such as Smokehead and Sheep Dip. In late-2019 they set about building a brand new Rosebank Distillery on the original site, while keeping some of the original structure where possible, although building works didn't actually commence until the early 2021. As you'd hope and expect they've installed the same brewing & distillation equipment that the original distillery had, with wooden washbacks, three new copper pot stills built to the original specifications (pictured above), and of course those crucial worm tub condensers. The new stills were installed in mid-2022, with eight new wooden washbacks following a few months later, but the new distillery still hasn't fired into life here in April 2023, over five years after the new owners purchased the distillery. Surely it can't be far off now! 

In the meantime Ian McLeod has been releasing the old stock that was purchased from Diageo, obviously distilled prior to the distillery closure in 1993. So far that's included two large batch releases; a 30-year old in late-2020 followed by a 31-year old in late-2022, plus a travel exclusive 1990 "Vintage Release" and a couple of single cask bottlings. We're looking at the 30-year old bottling in this review, titled "Release One" which was distilled in 1990 and released in late-2022. It's a vatting of 62% refill sherry butts and 38% refill bourbon hogsheads, yielding 4,350 bottles at a cask strength of 48.6% ABV and bottled without chill filtration or added colour. This 30-year old "Release One" bottling is sold out in Australia, but the 31-year old second release is readily available for the same price. Supposedly that second batch will be the last official bottling until the new distillery finally kicks into life, which probably means there'll be a commemorative bottling released when that happens. I've been lucky enough to try a few examples of Rosebank thus far, but this 30-year old will be the oldest to date thanks to a generous fellow whisky geek. Let's see how it goes!

Rosebank 30-year old "Release One", 48.6%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Triple distilled, 62% refill sherry butts, 38% refill bourbon hogsheads. Distilled 1990, bottled 2020. First "global release" (non-single cask) from new owners. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 4,350 bottles. 

Colour: Full gold. 

Nose: Fresh, floral, malty. Sweet thick honey, oat cakes, sweet floral perfume. Lovely rich maltiness, candied lemon & sweet orange rind. Powdered ginger, tinned fruit in syrup. Soft spicy & nutty oak further in. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich & oily. Malty, fruity, no heat at all. 

Taste: More thick sweet honey, rich warm maltiness, lemon peel & orange rind (less sweet here).  Tinned fruit in syrup again - peaches in particular. Those sweet & floral notes are around the edges here, it's more about the malt & citrus on the palate. Not overly complex perhaps, but lovely.

Finish: Medium length. Black pepper fading into powdered ginger. Damp porridge, before the orange rind & lemon peel kick in again. Tinned fruit - peach again, maybe some pear now - and that warm maltiness to finish.

Score: 4 out of 5. Close to a 4.5, though. 

Notes: Another delicious Rosebank. No surprises there! What is surprising though is how fresh & malty this whisky is after 30-years in oak. And that's the beauty of Rosebank, the magic is in the contradictions - triple distillation for a lighter spirit, but worm tub condensers for more weight & texture which help it withstand longer ageing. Refill casks too of course, which is a winning recipe with any Lowlands whisky at an advanced age. No need for any fancy cask finishes or extra wood influence, absolutely nothing needs covering up or enhancing here! I suppose given the choice I'd like a little more length on the finish and maybe a little more complexity as well, but I'm picking nits again. This whisky has certainly been put together very well. Great balance, lovely freshness & clarity. 

I look forward to the "new" Rosebank releases in a decade or so - hopefully the distillery is up & running soon so that milestone is brought a little closer. Thanks to the generous bottle owner for this sample!

Cheers!

Cadenhead's Littlemill 22 Year Old Whisky Review!

My first Littlemill! This is a dead distillery rarity from the Lowlands region with a long & chequered history. There are still the odd independent bottlings around, but stocks are certainly certainly dwindling. 

Image from whisky.com

Littlemill is one of the lesser-known lost distilleries in Scotch whisky, even among fans of the Lowlands region where only Rosebank & St. Magdalene are held in particularly high esteem. I've previously gone into more detail on these oft-forgotten dead distilleries here, but suffice to say that while most of them were closed for a reason, surviving casks can still be lovely "old school" whiskies here in the modern era. Littlemill distillery dates back to 1772 on the banks of the River Clyde, although records from that time are understandably sketchy, with  the distillery passing through a slew of different owners even following production ceasing in 1992 and it's final decommissioning in 1994. In 1996 the site was sold to property developers who set about dismantling it, and the remaining buildings were destroyed by fire in 2004. The Littlemill brand and the remaining official stock is now owned by Loch Lomond Group, with the most recent release being a 45-year old bottled in 2022 and selling for $11,000 USD. Speaking of which, the owners like to claim that Littlemill was "the oldest distillery in Scotland", which doesn't make sense to me because a) it was dismantled over 25-years ago and completely destroyed a few years later, and b) it's beaten by Glenturret anyway which dates back to 1763 and is still in production. I suppose that erroneous claim helps the LLG marketing department sell their bottlings to unsuspecting buyers, but it's misleading at best. As with many of these lesser-known dead distilleries there is still the occasional independent bottling of Littlemill released, particularly by Cadenhead's, with more reasonable pricing. Independent supplies are dwindling for obvious reasons, but there's no word on how many casks of Littlemill are still out there.

Littlemill practiced triple distillation until 1931 when hybrid pot stills with rectifying heads (pictured below) were installed. These were early precursors to the somewhat-controversial Lomond still which would be invented twenty years later. Like most users of "hybrid" pot stills Littlemill was able to produce multiple styles of spirit; the lighter and unpeated namesake Littlemill, a heavier lightly peated "Dunglass", and a heavily peated "Dumbuck". These were only produced until the 1970s, and most was sold to blenders of course, so single malt examples are extremely rare now. The use of hybrid stills that were similar to Lomond stills - a.k.a. "straight-necked pot stills" - and multiple spirit types will probably remind you of Loch Lomond Distillery, which as it happens is where the Littlemill stills wound up when the distillery was dismantled. Littlemill was located only eight miles away from Loch Lomond Distillery, albeit on opposite sides of the Highland line, with the former being a Lowland distillery and the latter a Highland. These similarities aren't too surprising though, because Loch Lomond Distillery was actually built by the company which owned Littlemill at the time, in 1966. A couple of interesting factoids here; Littlemill was the first Scotch whisky distillery to be licensed to a woman, Jane MacGregor, from 1823-1839, and in 1840 the distillery was sold to Hector Henderson, who would go on to build Caol Ila in 1846. 

The Littlemill we're looking at today is a 22-year old independent bottling from Cadenhead's, Batch code 14/392, distilled in 1992 and bottled in 2014. It was matured in ex-bourbon hogsheads, and 558 bottles were released at a cask strength of 53.7% ABV without chill filtration or added colouring. This bottling was part of Cadenhead's "Small Batch" series of cask strength bottlings which were sadly discontinued and superseded by the 46% ABV "Original Collection" series a few years ago. The sample for this review came from a very generous friend over in New Zealand who managed to get the bottle for a reasonable price at auction, and then opened it to help celebrate her recent birthday. Tasting a single malt from a dead distillery is certainly a great way to mark any occasion! While we've exchanged samples a few times now we've never actually met in person, so sharing such a special whisky like this with me is greatly appreciated. With a premise like that, and with this being my first Littlemill, I obviously had to review it! I know I've almost pigeonholed myself with the title of this blog, but I do also love unpeated malts, especially a St. Magdalene / Linlithgow or a Rosebank when it comes to the Lowlands region - when I've been lucky enough to taste them. I'm expecting this Littlemill will be right up there as well. Let's see how it goes!

Cadenhead's Littlemill 22-year old, 53.7%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Distilled 1992, matured in ex-bourbon hogsheads, bottled 2014 at cask strength. Batch code 14/392, 558 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Full gold.

Nose: Creamy, citric, grassy. Freshly cut damp grass, milk bottle lollies, rich tea biscuits (with currants). Lime cordial, the natural sort (e.g. Bickford's), and a touch of candle wax. White pepper, lemon peel, and green apple coming through with more time. Touches of concrete dust & baking spices around the edges. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, spicy, grassy, citric. Slight heat but very pleasant. 

Taste: Malty & grassy entry. Black pepper here, and more rich tea biscuits (with currants). Lime cordial, candle wax, and milk bottle lollies again. Dry grass / hay now, and more baking spices and dried fruit coming through - dried lemon peel, and currants again. 

Finish: Medium-long length. Lime cordial, black pepper, baking spices, dried lemon peel & currants. Buttery pastry and a touch of creamy white chocolate, before pencil shavings, cut grass & white pepper round things out. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Very interesting, and very enjoyable! Much more richly flavoured & oily than I expected. We're still in the Lowlands with that grassy & malty backbone, but there's a richer texture and a great complexity in this Littlemill and I certainly wouldn't call it "clean" or "light". Quite an unusual flavour & aroma combination as well, particularly on the nose in fact. That citrus tang is great, lime cordial & dried lemon peel, and a very nice malty & creamy profile. It's certainly very different from the St. Magdalene / Linlithgow that I've been lucky enough to try, and Rosebank as well for that matter - although you'd expect that with the triple distillation. This is much richer, heavier, oilier, and it's very tasty! We're certainly going to miss these cask strength Cadenhead's bottlings that we used to take for granted before they were taken from us. I think there might be a song lyric in there somewhere... 

Thanks to the owner for sending the sample over!

Cheers!

Hazelburn 15 Year Old (2022) Whisky Review!

Even Campbeltown fans often overlook Hazelburn, thinking of it as the "weaker" of Springbank's three spirits. Yes, it's unpeated and triple-distilled, so it's generally a little cleaner and more refined than the namesake Springbank spirit. But there's nothing remotely "weak" about Hazelburn!

Triple distillation has an image problem. It's mostly associated with Irish whiskey, despite the fact that a significant proportion of Irish whiskey is actually double-distilled. By volume, most of those triple-distilled Irish whiskeys are bottled at 40% ABV, chill filtered and artificially coloured, and the same applies to Auchentoshan back in Scotland. This does not help with the perception that triple-distillation means less flavour and less character, particularly when blenders are using these whiskies/whiskeys to create light, bland, inoffensive, and "smooth" (shudder) products. The fact is that triple distillation is further-refining the spirit, so all things being equal a triple-distilled spirit will be lighter in flavour and texture than a double-distilled spirit. But it's no guarantee of better quality, and it doesn't have to mean that it is lighter in character. The Redbreast range is a good example in Irish terms, and I'd point to Benromach's Triple Distilled release (reviewed here) as a great example in Scotch terms. It was bottled at a good strength - higher than most of their bottlings - and was also lightly peated. Benromach produce characterful whiskies, and in that regard the triple-distilled bottling was no different. The same applies to Springbank and to its triple-distilled spirit Hazelburn, which is the only unpeated spirit that this Campbeltown distillery produces. I suppose that could be part of why it's not as lusted after as their other two brands, although you'll struggle to find evidence of that disparity in today's secondary market. 

Glancing at the photo above, you can see that just like the heavily-peated & double-distilled Longrow and the lightly-peated and 2.5-times distilled Springbank, Hazelburn goes through the distillery's direct-fired wash still, and also the first spirit still / low wines still which is equipped with a traditional worm tub condenser. These two pieces of equipment are partly responsible for the character that is present in this distillery's whisky, or rather in the spirit itself. The obvious difference with Hazelburn is that all of that worm tub condensed spirit then goes through the third still, meaning less spirit yield at the end, but with a higher ABV. Obviously the size & design of the stills (and fill levels) & condensers have an important role to play here, particularly regarding reflux and copper contact, as do the cut points, which are the portion of the distillation run that is captured to become new make spirit. While the cut points for Hazelburn are higher in ABV due to the third distillation they're also fairly wide, taken from 79%-63% ABV. As an example, the aforementioned triple-distilled Auchentoshan only collects from 82.5-80% ABV, giving a much lighter and more refined spirit, while the remainder of the run (the foreshots and feints) is sent back into the second still / intermediate still for re-distillation. That distillery somehow still manages to make a rough, fire-y spirit, but that's a story for another time... The wider spirit cut used for Hazelburn effectively means more feints in the spirit, which all other things being equal means more spirit character - you could even call it intentional and desirable roughness! For reference here, a typical double-distilled malt spirit in Scotland would be cut somewhere in the low-70s down to the mid-60s, while Springbank's double-distilled Longrow cuts from 69-58% ABV, and the 2.5-times distilled Springbank cuts from 76-60% ABV. Again, intentional and desirable roughness, and arguably a more characterful spirit - provided you don't go too early or too late. 

Testament to Hazelburn's spirit character is that it holds up surprisingly well in a multitude of cask types, and much like Longrow it's often matured or finished in first-fill red wine or sherry casks. The Hazelburn spirit is lighter on the sulphur and the "Campbeltown funk" than most Springbank or Longrow whisky, so it tends to be "cleaner" and much less divisive when combined with active sherry casks. It does also work well in bourbon casks given some age (one brilliant example reviewed here), and even in small casks as shown in the Rundlets & Kilderkins from 2014. But I must admit I've never really loved the standard / flagship 10-year old bottling. Back in the day when we could actually buy almost any of these bottles with ease, I'd skip the 10-year old altogether and consider the now-discontinued 12-year old Sherry Cask as the entry-level Hazelburn. As far as limited Hazelburn releases there's typically one per year, which much like Longrow tends to have either red wine or sherry cask influence. The 2022 release that I'm reviewing here is a 2006 vintage 15-year old that was fully matured in fresh (which is Springbank-ese for first fill) Oloroso sherry casks and bottled at a cask strength of 54.2% ABV. 9,000 bottles were released in April 2022, but the Australian allocation only arrived in late January 2023 and lasted around 45 seconds as per usual. Retail pricing here was circa $250 AUD, although as usual some retailers decided to bump that up - some actually decided to double it, and they should be removed from our importer's allocation sheet. One of the worst offenders in the country for this sort of thing, who is basically a flipper with a liquor license and website, still has it in stock at the time of writing; for $650 AUD. Please, for the love of god, nobody buy it. Let them crumble into dust with it still available on their website. The inevitable auction listings will be cheaper than that. Moving right along...

Hazelburn 15 Year Old (2022), 54.2%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Distilled 12/2006, fully matured in first-fill Oloroso sherry casks, bottled 4/2022. 9,000 bottles. 

Colour: Very dark amber. 

Nose: Rich, sweet, savoury & sherried. Tons of salted dark chocolate, almost fudgy. Sweet raisins & plums, salted hazelnut & walnut, a few drops of good quality aged balsamic vinegar. Touches of sweet pastry and musty warehouse (dunnage) around the edges. Date syrup, bitter orange dipped in dark chocolate sauce, fresh sweet red apple with a spoonful of cinnamon sugar. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich, syrupy, cleanly sherried, turning acidic & lightly astringent. No heat at all. 

Taste: Rich & fruity entry with that red apple & cinnamon sugar, raisins, and bitter orange. Salted hazelnuts & walnuts again, touch of leather, and salted dark chocolate fudge. Aged balsamic following close behind. 

Finish: Long length. More acidic and light astringent here. More balsamic vinegar, and those roasted & salted hazelnuts & walnuts again. Rich dark chocolate, date syrup, and bitter orange. Musty warehouse (dunnage), baking spices, and that sweet & crisp red apple again. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Fantastic. This is the best sherry cask Hazelburn that I've tried to date, and it's comfortably in my top three Hazelburn overall. For the record the other two are an 18-year old ex-bourbon cage bottling and the sauternes cask Society bottling, although the latest 21-year old is also a close contender. This 15-year old is quite heavily sherried obviously, but in an integrated & measured way where the spirit is still coming through nicely - even after 15 years in first-fill sherry casks. Call me crazy, but I actually think there are shades of the old discontinued Tobermory 15 sherry finish in here, albeit with more depth and with less funk - the particularly sulphur averse tended to struggle with that Tobermory, but they should be fine with this Hazelburn. The depth and character in this Hazelburn are really fantastic, and it easily beats the other wine cask & sherry cask examples that I've tasted to date.

Call me crazy again, but I think Hazelburn works better in first-fill sherry casks than Springbank or Longrow. Refill sherry is a different story, but with fresh & assertive Oloroso casks like these the cleaner and more refined Hazelburn spirit seems to really shine. Note that I've said "cleaner" and "more refined", not "clean" and "refined" - this is still a Campbeltown malt, and it's still a Springbank whisky. Like I said up top, there's nothing remotely "weak" about Hazelburn!

Cheers!

Old Master Spirits XXO Armagnac Review!

No, that's not two kisses and a hug. Sorry to disappoint you! XXO stands for "Extra Extra Old", referring to a brandy that is at least 14-years old, but without giving a vintage or age statement. Read on!

We're entering the murky world of brandy/armagnac/cognac age "classifications"! There are eight different terms used in the cognac & armagnac industries including a couple of unofficial terms, but the three that are most commonly seen are VS, VSOP, and XO. Rather than actual age statements, these relatively loose terms range from the 2-year minimum age VS "Very Special", to the 4-year minimum VSOP "Very Superior Old Pale", through to the 10-year minimum age XO "Extra Old". Prior to 2018 that was the highest official classification, meaning if you wanted to release a 50-year old cognac or armagnac with one of these classifications on it, then XO was as far as you could go. XO is still considered to be the "cream of the crop" among many brandy drinkers. As with an age statement on a Scotch whisky the age classification of a cognac or armagnac can only refer to the youngest component contained in the spirit. As we've talked about before, an age statement on a cognac or armagnac can legally include time in glass vessels as well as time in cask - so a 4-year old brandy may have spent one year in oak and then three years in an inert glass demijohn. However, one advantage to these age classifications is that they can only include time spent in oak, and not time in glass. So an 8-year old cognac or armagnac that then spent another two years "ageing" in glass cannot be given an XO classification, because it only spent 8-years in oak casks rather than the minimum of 10-years. In 2018 the brandy industry increased the minimum age of the XO classification from 6-years to 10-years, and they added the XXO "Extra Extra Old" classification for spirits that are a minimum of 14-years old.

What we're looking at today is an XXO armagnac from Melbourne's Old Master Spirits, who have previously brought us the likes of vintage-stated 51-year old single cask cognacs and two 39-year old single cask armagnacs - reviewed here and here, along with more general armagnac information. Most of the "luxury product" big brand cognacs and armagnacs are blended products with spirits taken from many different producers, and are chill filtered, artificially coloured, and artificially flavoured with wood flavouring ("boise") and/or added sugar. I've delved into this sordid state of affairs in more detail here, so let's just say that the cognac industry's marketing departments have a lot to answer for... Thankfully Old Master Spirits are proper spirits enthusiasts, so they steer clear of those shenanigans. This latest "XXO" release is a single cask & single estate armagnac, which is cask strength, unblended, unfiltered, and unadulterated - no added caramel, or sugar, or wood flavouring. Just how any brandy purist would want it! This being Old Master's tenth release though, they decided to forego the vintage and age statements, instead giving us only the same age information as many of the gigantic corporate "luxury" brands do; simply the XXO classification, reflecting a minimum age of 14-years. I have it on good authority that this single cask armagnac is considerably older than that, but they're playing their cards close to their chest on this one. Just to mess with the "VSOP" and "XO" crowd even further, and as we'd expect from Old Master Spirits, there's no luxury price tag attached to this bottling. Retail pricing is just $159 AUD! 

This latest armagnac release hails from the Bas Armagnac region, specifically from Chateau Garreau, the 17th century estate pictured above which is located an hour's drive south-east of Bordeaux in southern France. Mr. Charles Garreau purchased the Gayrosse estate in 1919, changing the name to Chateau Garreau and installing a new armagnac still - which is still in use today! His grandson is now the current Master Distiller, over a hundred years later. This Old Master Spirits XXO Bas armagnac was aged entirely in a French oak cask from Gascony, matured entirely in the Chateau's unique 19th century dirt-walled underground cellar. Like most older brandies this 100% Baco grape armagnac was initially filled into a new virgin French oak cask before being transferred into a larger, older refill cask for long-term maturation. The cask yielded only 170 x 500ml bottles at a cask strength of 44.8% ABV. This tenth release from Old Master Spirits will be released to their subscribers on Wednesday the 29th of March, with the general release at 7pm (AEDT) on Thursday the 30th. Deni from Old Master Spirits was generous enough to send through a sample, obligation free, but it'd be rude not to share the XXO (no, they're still not kisses & hugs, sorry) love, wouldn't it? 

Colour: Amber. 

Nose: Rich, fruity & sweet. Stewed dates, molasses, leather, currants, orange peel. Touch of solvent (varnish & acetone) around the edges but fleeting. Thick & dark toffee sauce, oily builder's putty, touch of rum & raisin ice cream, dark chocolate, and warm wood spices. 

Texture: Medium weight. Warm, soft, velvety & fruity. No heat whatsoever. 

Taste: Sweet, warm & rich. Molasses, rum & raisin ice cream, oily varnish, baking spices. Dark chocolate mousse, currants, orange peel, tinned peaches in syrup. Stewed dates again. 

Finish: Medium length. Wood spices, warm toffee sauce, more dark chocolate mousse. Soft old leather, tinned peaches, currants, and oily varnish. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Lovely stuff. Another delicious brandy from Old Master! This one alternates between an old leather & wooden armchair and a slice of x-mas pudding with toffee sauce, and dark chocolate mousse with sweet stone fruit. And it's extremely easy-drinking, without sacrificing weight or texture. The amount of wood influence is spot-on for my brandy tastes, this cask has clearly been well cared-for and well-managed. Like the good NAS whiskies out there, I have no complaints about not knowing the exact vintage or age here. The liquid is what really matters, and this is another great "malternative", especially at $159 AUD. As mentioned, there are only 170 x 500ml bottles, and it's releasing on the 29th of March for subscribers with the general release on the 30th. All of Old Master's releases have sold out very quickly, and I'm guessing this one will be no different. So don't snooze on this one brandy fans!

Thanks as always to Old Master Spirits for the sample for this review, and a big congratulations on their tenth release. Here's to the next ten, and beyond!

Cheers!

Springbank Local Barley 10 Year Old (2021-2022) Whisky Review, plus a bonus!

Yes, more unobtainable Springbank. Two, in fact, both bottled in 2021. So I apologise in advance! Also, don't skip the bonus round on this one folks. 

The previous release of Springbank Local Barley was controversial. Mainly because of the ridiculous pricing brought on by secondary market stupidity, which was due to a) it being the first 100% sherry cask matured Local Barley release, and b) the colour, and c) timing (covid madness). But beyond that it was controversial because it was dominated by the sherry casks, which almost defeated the purpose of making a local barley whisky in the first place. I say "almost" because it was still a great whisky, but the character of the barley itself wasn't there. Unfortunately many local importers and retailers were watching those secondary prices and took advantage when their own allocations landed. But I'm not going to make this review another rant about price gouging importers & retailers, because I've already covered that in the review of said 10-year old sherry cask. Thankfully this more recent release, bottled in December 2021 and arriving in most markets in 2022, was slightly better-priced here in Australia. The RRP on this latest 10-year old was $299 AUD, which is still a ridiculous price compared to what was generally paid overseas, and yes, many retailers still decided to take advantage on top of that. Allocations were tiny again when the shipment landed in early 2023, and it was gone in the blink of an eye. Some fair & reasonable Australian retailers decided to use a ballot system this time around, which if you ask me both the importer and the resellers should be doing every time the Springbank stock comes in. But enough of all that, the distillery is doing all they can - apparently even sending warning letters to the less-scrupulous retailers - and they cannot be blamed for any of this. Their main concern is to continue making excellent whisky, just as it should be. So let's move on. 

This late-2021 bottling of Springbank Local Barley is actually the fourth 10-year old in the series so far, all distilled from barley grown on the Kintyre Peninsula within a few miles of Campbeltown, which is then floor-malted and lightly-peated at the distillery. Each of these 10-year old releases have consisted of a different mix of casks; the 2017 57.3% ABV bottling (reviewed here) was 70% ex-bourbon and 30% ex-sherry casks, then the 2019 56.2% ABV bottling (reviewed here) was 77% ex-bourbon, 20% ex-sherry and 3% ex-port casks, and the aforementioned 2020-2021 55.6% ABV bottling (reviewed here) was 100% ex-Oloroso sherry casks. This time around though, like the latest 12-year old Cask Strength that I reviewed recently, the 2021-2022 release was fully-matured in ex-bourbon casks. I've always preferred my Springbank to be ex-bourbon cask, or at least majority ex-bourbon cask, so I have absolutely zero complaints there, and nor should any real fans of the distillery. Hazelburn & Longrow too, for that matter. Ex-bourbon casks, particularly with both first-fill and refill casks involved, give the spirit character the best chance to show us what it can do. Never mind the damn colour, people!

This 2021 bottling / 2022 release is the largest batch of Local Barley that Springbank has ever released, consisting of 15,000 bottles, where the rest of the contemporary releases have numbered in the 8,500-9,000 range. It also has the lowest ABV to date at 51.6%, excluding a couple of the mythical 1960s vintage bottlings which were released around the turn of the century. I can't find any official word on whether or not this ABV was the natural cask strength, and given the higher number of bottles this time around it would make sense if they'd reduced it slightly. It's safe to say that there'd be no notable loss of flavour if that was the case, and if it makes the whisky more available then I'm all for it (just don't go all the way down to 46%, please). Then again it's close enough to still be natural cask strength, the 11-year old release was only 53.1%, which funnily enough was also from 100% ex-bourbon casks. So who knows. More importantly, as with everything Springbank and J&A Mitchell release it's natural colour and non-chill filtered. Even more importantly, let's find out what it smells & tastes like! The sample for this review was donated by a generous friend over in New Zealand. 

Springbank Local Barley 10-year old (2021-2022), 51.6%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Distilled 05/2011 from Belgravia barley grown on Kintyre Peninsula, matured in 100% ex-bourbon casks (both first-fill and refill), bottled 12/2021. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 15,000 bottles. 
 

Colour: Mid-gold. 

Nose: Malty, acidic (sour) & sweet, in that order. Dusty, dry, gristy (floury) malted barley. Pickled onions, and apple cider vinegar. Sweet liquorice, and runny honey. Sea salt too. Touch of clean sewing machine oil, and gentle, powdered, earthy peat. 

Texture: Medium weight. Malty, honeyed, much less acidic here. No heat.

Taste: More golden malted barley, less gristy / floury here. Thick rich honey, with olive brine behind. Hint of sourdough bread behind that. Touches of the pickled onion & apple cider vinegar but they're in the background now. Vanilla cream & sweetened lemon juice too. 

Finish: Medium length. Hefty pinch of sea salt, touch of icing sugar. That earthy peat comes through more strongly here, with a touch of hay barns & dirt floors. Sweetened lemon again, and peppercorns. Malty & earthy to the end. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Cleaner & less complex than some of the earlier releases, a little lighter too. But no less tasty. The casks have been very well-mannered, there's no bucketfuls of over-sweetened vanilla custard or sweet coconut here, and the malty & citric spirit character is front & centre. What isn't front & centre though is the "funky", "foosty", musty dunnage notes that we Springbank fans adore. In fact it's hardly here at all, save for that slight hint in the finish, and it's not as mineral as I expected either. The salty & earthy notes are still there though, alongside the gristy / malty and citric notes. The things that we all look for in an ex-bourbon dram from Campbeltown, with an extra dose of sourness / acidity. 

So, like I said in the latest 12-year old Cask Strength review, if you managed to get one of these at the RRP wherever you are, then you did well. But if you didn't, my advice is to let it go. Don't give the flippers what they want. The only way this'll slow down is if we ignore the F.O.M.O. and let things go, leaving them staring at their "investment portfolio" while it gathers dust. And yes, once again I'm also talking to myself. I didn't get one either!

Now for the bonus round, another 100% ex-bourbon Springbank. But it's a little different from the 10-year old Local Barley. This is an independent bottling from North Star, and it's a 21-year old single cask. One refill ex-bourbon barrel, bottled for the Facebook group "It's All About Springbank". This one was distilled in March 2000 and bottled in May 2021 at a cask strength of 45.2% ABV. Obviously this is far more unobtainable than the already-unobtainable official bottling we've just reviewed, with only 238 bottles released and only sold by ballot to members of said Facebook group, direct from the bottlers. Obviously it was also significantly more expensive at around £400, not including international shipping, duties or excise. So probably around $1,000 AUD landed on these shores, or just under. But that's relatively reasonable compared to what they could've charged for it here in 2023, and I don't want to know what these go for now on the secondary market. The owner of this bottle was generous enough to give me a sample for the purposes of review, and it'd be silly not to do so!

North Star Springbank 21-year old Single Cask, 45.2%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Distilled 03/2000, fully matured in a refill ex-bourbon barrel, bottled 05/2021 at cask strength. Exclusive to Facebook group "It's All About Springbank". Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 238 bottles. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: My god. It's brilliant. Mineral, malty, fatty, and lightly honeyed. Creamy milk chocolate, aniseed, pork fat, camphor, sour cream. Well-integrated soft earthy peat, lemon butter, slightly waxy & greasy, floral too. Cold fireplace (soot), salted lemons, vanilla pound cake, black pepper. The complexity & changeability on the nose is incredible, taking my time with this one! 

Texture: Medium weight. Buttery, fatty, waxy, citric. No heat whatsoever. 

Taste: Rich with melted butter, lemon cake icing / frosting, sea salt, and creamy milk chocolate. Sour cream, touch of bitter orange. Licking a cold fireplace (soot) - or should that be, licking the mesh floors in Springbank's kiln? No, I'm getting carried away there. Pork fat / drippings, vanilla pound cake, greasy/oily saw coolant. Red apple skins, and aniseed powder. 

Finish: Medium length. More lemon butter, vanilla pound cake, damp malted barley, then bitter lemon peel, very soft earthy peat & soot, red apple skins, and table salt. Touch of pickled onions, preserved bitter lemons, and sour cream again. I don't want it to finish!

Score: 5 out of 5. 

Notes: Mother of god. I'm refraining from using colourful language here, but this whisky is a stunner. The nose alone is incredible, I'd happily nose it for hours (days, even) without ever taking a sip. Like I said, incredible complexity & changeability on the nose alone, every minute change in time, temperature & position brought out new notes. But the palate is also fantastic, in fact this whisky never drops the ball. From what I've tasted to date, I'd say this is my ultimate ex-bourbon cask Springbank. Apologies to the 14-year old Bourbon Wood which held that title previously, but it's not even close. I really did not want this one to end. Not at all. If I'm really picking nits, I suppose I'd like a little more length & weight on the finish. But only if that change didn't dampen a single other aspect, otherwise I'll leave it as-is without complaint, thank you very much. This is one of my all-time greats.

Every now and then we whisky geeks come across a dram that makes our eyes widen, one that makes us laugh out loud and involuntarily shake our heads like idiots. Or at least I do! And this is one of those drams. Of course it would have to be an ex-bourbon cask Springbank. A hall of famer, and a mind-melter.  

Thanks to the generous owner for this sample. What an absolute stunner. 

Cheers!

Lindores Abbey Casks of Lindores Whisky Review!

Lowlander Lindores Abbey Distillery's whisky has been around for nearly two years now, but I haven't actually gotten around to trying any. Until now! 

Lindores Abbey is one of the "new breed" of Lowland single malts. Easily the fastest-growing of the five official Scotch whisky regions, the Lowlands is a large one geographically, and it actually produces more whisky than Speyside. That's down to the gigantic grain whisky plants in and around the central belt of course, including the largest distillery in Scotland, Diageo's Cameronbridge site which pumps out over 136,000,000 litres of grain spirit per year. But when it comes to malt whisky, just twenty years ago the Lowlands was home to only three active distilleries; Beam Suntory's Auchentoshan, Diageo's Glenkinchie, and the then-recently revived Bladnoch. The Lowlands region had seen a number of closures during the industry's most recent low point of the early 1980s-early 1990s, including famous names like Rosebank and St. Magdalene and less famous grain distilleries like Carsebridge and Cambus. Bladnoch had also sat silent for seven years, until it reopened under new owners in 2000. Things are a little different now though, with close to 15 active malt whisky distilleries in the Lowlands, with at least another ten currently in development. That latter figure includes the revival of Rosebank nearly twenty years after it closed, although it's really a completely new distillery built on the original site. Most of the new crop of Lowland distilleries are located in the central belt, being close to Glasgow and Edinburgh, but there's also a smaller revival in Fife, the peninsula that sits between Edinburgh and Dundee. The region is more widely known for golf than it is for whisky, but that's changing now. Tiny farm distillery Daftmill was one of the first of these new Fife distilleries, opening back in 2003, and is still the most famous of the bunch. Unfortunately that fame is mainly due to their whisky being extremely scarce, even five years after their first release.

In the north of Fife you'll find the small town of Newburgh, and on the edge of that town you'll find the ruins of Lindores Abbey church, which was built in the early-12th century and operated until the late-16th century when it was sacked and closed down by John Knox and his brutal Reformation movement which essentially changed Scotland from a Catholic nation to a Protestant one. More relevant to us though is the fact that Lindores Abbey is closely tied to the history of Scotch whisky. The earliest written record of whisky production in Scotland dates back to 1494, when King James IV granted "eight bolls of malt" (equivalent to half a tonne) to one Friar John Cor of Lindores Abbey, to "make aqua vitae". Aqua vitae is Latin for "water of life", or "uisge beatha" (pronounced "oos-ga-bay") in Gaelic, which was then shortened to uisge ("oos-ga"), which was then anglicised to whisky. Further adding to the history of whisky in the area, during archaeological work in 2018 remnants of a distillation vat were found at the site, along with traces of barley, oats, wheat, and charcoal. The legendary whisky writer Michael Jackson visited the site circa 2001, going on to write about the abbey and it's history in his book "Scotland and it's Whiskies". Prior to this the site owners had been unaware of the abbey's link to Scotch whisky history, and Jackson's book was the spark which eventually, 16-years later, would inspire the owners to build a distillery of their own.

On the farmland across the road from the historic ruins you'll find Lindores Abbey Distillery. Founded in 2016 with distillation first taking place in late 2017, this is a small, privately-owned distillery with a capacity of approximately 260,000 litres per annum. Lindores was yet another distillery that was heavily influenced by the late Dr. Jim Swan, employing his go-to recipe of clear wort, long fermentation (just under 120 hours in this case) in wooden washbacks, and slow distillation in small stills with boil balls and downwards-angled lyne arms, plus the use of STR and/or first-fill casks. The idea behind all of this is to give a light, fruity spirit that will mature relatively quickly and will lend itself well to a range of different casks, preferably without sacrificing distillery / spirit character - which is helped by bottling at 46% and above, and without added colouring or chill filtration. Unfortunately Dr. Swan passed away before distillation began at Lindores, so the actual distillation regimen is all down to the distillery staff - which interestingly uses one larger wash still and two smaller spirit stills. So I'm guessing we'll also see a triple distilled release in future. 

Speaking of different cask types, I suppose we should talk about the whisky! Lindores single malt first hit the shelves in July 2021. Rather than some limited release collectable in fancy packaging - although the bottle design is certainly unique, as you can see below - this bottling would become the core range Lindores product, with the first commemorative batch consisting of 12,000 bottles released at 46% ABV. It was a mix of three cask types: ex-bourbon, ex-Oloroso sherry, and ex-STR red wine casks. Today though, the three whiskies that we're looking at are the next step from Lindores, titled "The Casks of Lindores". As you can probably guess, they've separated the three cask types that go into the core range single malt to show how the spirit works in the individual casks. So we have an ex-bourbon barrel matured, an ex-STR red wine barrique matured, and an ex-Oloroso sherry butt matured, all presented at a slightly higher bottling strength of 49.4% ABV. These are obviously young whiskies, so we should get a good idea of the distillery character with each - the (natural) colour on that sherry cask matured is hard to ignore though, despite being a young whisky matured in big 500-litre casks. Obviously very fresh casks, so that'll be an interesting one in comparison to the others - a bit of a sherry bomb, perhaps? Pricing on all of the Lindores single malts is very reasonable on these shores, at $110 AUD for the core range bottling and $125 AUD for each of these "Casks of Lindores" releases. The samples for this review were kindly sent to me, without any obligation to review, by Scott Farrow of Wonderland Drinks, the Australian importer for Lindores, among other brands such as Bimber and North Star. Let's see how they go! 

Lindores Abbey "Casks of Lindores" Ex-Bourbon, NAS, 49.4%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Fully matured in ex-bourbon barrels, non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Light, fresh & malty. A little nippy, i.e. hot chilli flakes. Beyond that is warm barley porridge, fresh sweet stone fruit - white peach especially - with vanilla custard in the background. Touch of toasted oak, baked red apple, and cinnamon. 

Texture: Light weight. Malty, fresh, lightly creamy. No heat here, that nose prickle doesn't carry through on the palate. 

Taste: Creamy vanilla custard, more barley porridge & sweet stone fruit. Baked red apple, white peach, touch of sweet green grape. Black pepper, nutmeg, toasted oak again. A little tangy & creamy lemon around the edges. Lemon cheesecake. 

Finish: Short length. Dusty barley porridge. Malty, fruity & spicy. That black pepper and toasted oak coming back with vanilla custard and that creamy, citric tang in the background. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Young & fresh, as expected, but there's nothing wrong with that at all - this is a very tasty young Lowlander! The spirit itself is clearly very good, and the bourbon casks have done a great job in the time that they had. Interesting that the nose prickle didn't carry through to the palate, which is a good thing, and I'd assume it's because of the creaminess of the spirit. This is certainly very promising for the distillery's future, although there's no reason not to enjoy it now! A great example of the youthful, malty "new" Lowland style. 

Lindores Abbey "Casks of Lindores" Ex-STR, NAS, 49.4%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Fully matured in STR (shaved, toasted & re-charred) red wine barriques, non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Brass. 

Nose: Fruity, fresh & spicy. A little prickly again. Fresh red apple, orange, and apricot. Touch of red grape, and toffee. Spicy toasted oak. Creamy sweet cheesecake with fruit syrup. 

Texture: Light-medium weight. Malty, creamy, spicy. No heat at all, once again the nose prickle doesn't carry through. 

Taste: Spicy, creamy & fruity. Fresh sweet orange, vanilla cream. Apricot syrup over creamy cheesecake (continental, not baked), with the sweet biscuit base. Black pepper & grassy malt, touch of grape skins (tannins) as well. 

Finish: Short length. More sweet orange, vanilla cream, apricot syrup, sweet continental cheesecake. Spicy toasted oak, and mild wine tannins again (red grape skins). 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Richer & spicier (as in spices, not alcohol heat / prickle) than the ex-bourbon cask, as you'd expect. Those creamy continental cheesecake notes are interesting, and they work well against the fruitiness and mild tannins. There's obviously more weight and more cask here than in the ex-bourbon, that's what STR casks do of course, but the creamy & malty notes from the spirit still show through nicely.

Lindores Abbey "Casks of Lindores" Ex-Oloroso Sherry, NAS, 49.4%. Lowlands, Scotland.

Fully matured in first-fill Oloroso sherry butts (500-litre casks), non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Red bronze. 

Nose: Rich & sweet, a little metallic too. Copper coins, dried orange, sweet & thick blackcurrant cordial (Ribena). No nose prickle to this one. The malty warmth comes through with more time. 

Texture: Medium weight. Sweet, metallic, fruity. No heat at all. 

Taste: Toasted oak, wood spices, dried orange, prune juice, and blackcurrant cordial (Ribena) again. Touches of creamy vanilla underneath, with a slight hint of sweet maltiness. A little nutty as well, walnut, and a touch of marzipan. 

Finish: Short-medium length. More Ribena, dried orange, and marzipan. Flashes of grassy malt in the background, and peach yoghurt in the final moments. 

Score: 2.5 out of 5. 

Notes: A young sherry bomb, and the simplest of the three different expressions. Thanks to that hefty cask influence no doubt. There are still flashes of the creamy & malty notes from the spirit though, so it hasn't been a landslide victory for the sherry casks. This is the softest of the three on the nose, and the sweetest on the palate. I do prefer the extra spirit character in the other two, but I can see sherry-heads liking this one more. 

Overall Notes: Three very different styles of course, there's something for everyone here. I can see sweet-tooths preferring the sherry cask, my personal pick is the ex-bourbon cask, and the ex-STR holds the middle ground between them. The distillery character does show through nicely in the ex-bourbon and ex-STR, and it's not completely overwhelmed in the ex-sherry either. These are young & fresh whiskies of course, very reasonably priced and well worth trying. I'd say the future of Lindores Distillery is going to be bright. The same goes for the rest of the new Fife distilleries, based on what I've tried so far, and for the Lowlands region in general. It's about time!

Cheers!