Distillery Dive #19: A Highland Adventure

This selection of malts combines intense fruitiness and maltiness to create an overture of sweet and savoury complexity. Let’s discover just what complexities are in store for us as we examine three casks all distilled on the same day and all aged 18 years in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels. The resultant single malts transport us to the Highlands in the first days of Fall, offering sublime depth and nuance! Cask No. 19.63 Leftovers in the pantry struts its “Spicy & Sweet” flavour profile with toffee and butterscotch sweetness, just the right touch of spice and loads of ripe fruits. The “Sweet, Fruity & Mellow” Cask No. 19.64 Sweet moment impresses with fragrantly floral notes and citrus tones to accompany rich chocolate and marzipan. Yet a third flavour profile is represented by Cask No. 19.65 Fifties nostalgia! Our “Juicy, Oak & Vanilla” dram boasts a waxy mouthfeel as vanilla and custard melt with bergamot and brioche on the palate. Tropical fruit notes link these single malts as each one displays a different side of this storied distillery. A truly unique opportunity to learn about the impact of wood maturation on whisky and enjoy three totally different flavour profiles!

If ordered separately: Cask No. 19.63= $210; Cask No. 19.64= $210; Cask No. 19.65= $210.

Cask No. 19.63 - Leftovers in the pantry
Date distilled: February 2003
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 18 years
Alcohol: 58.6%
Region: Highland Eastern

Tasting Note: The nose was immediately appealing, a delightful amalgamation of roses, carnations and butterscotch with fruit biscuits, apricot jam and toasted nuts. After an initial explosion of chilli heat on the palate, waves of fruit salad, apple crumble and toffee popcorn arrived drizzled with sticky syrup while the finish was much drier with herbs and pine sap. With a dash of water came aromas of green grass with toasted cereals and dry straw. Mango and melon delivered juicy fruits while custard was served over now singed apple crumble and malted biscuits. A theme of juicy fruits and syrup continued on the palate but now with the addition of stone fruits, cocoa nibs and nut husks on the dry finish.

Cask No. 19.64 - Sweet moment
Date distilled: February 2003
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 18 years
Alcohol: 57.9%
Region: Highland Eastern

Tasting Note: A wonderful, floral aroma with those citrusy overtones one finds in orange blossom essential oil combined with the dry woody as well as sweet hay and barn yard nuances made this a fascinating nosing dram.  The taste was equally impressive, thick cut marmalade, lemon vanilla custard slices, chocolate almond butter bars and Gulab jamun. After the addition of water remained very elegant, buttered croissants, apple turnover, marzipan, lime zest and maple syrup on fluffy American pancakes. Syrupy and spongy on the palate like Anton Berg delicate biscuits with an apricot jam centre and marzipan soaked in brandy and finally covered in a thick coating of dark chocolate.

Cask No. 19.65 - Fifties nostalgia
Date distilled: February 2003
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 18 years
Alcohol: 57.5%
Region: Highland Eastern

Tasting Note: A typically rich and satisfyingly deep aroma to begin, lots of malt syrup, mothballs, cough mixtures and herbal resins all betray this is an older style highland malt. We also noted toasted nuts, bergamot, citronella wax and tea tree oil. With water we found milk bottle sweets, cold cubes, vanilla sponge cake and dusty waxy tones. The neat palate opened in classically waxy and syrupy form, lots of tinned fruit juices, myrtle, wintergreen, herbal teas, ointments and spiced custard. With water emerged lemon oils, fir wood, hardwood resins, furniture oil, camphor and honeyed brioche toast.