Origin: Isle of Islay (Scotland)
Type: Single Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 57.2%
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon Hogshead, finished in ex-Sherry Oloroso First Fill
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Golden Drops Denmark
Average price: € 87,50 on their shop
Official website: Goldendrops
Vote: 89/100
Let’s take a trip to Denmark with a bottling made by an online shop, the result of a ‘shared’ cask whose shares could be bought from their website.
A 2012 whisky that rested for six years in a former Bourbon Hogshead cask, before being poured into a former Sherry Oloroso cask where it remained until November 2020, for exactly two years.
287 bottles cask strength and natural.
Thanks to Golden Drops for the kind sample.
Tasting notes
Straw yellow in the glass.
An explosion of peat on the nose, very thick and intense, with a marine profile of seaweed and smoked herring with pickled olives and apple cider vinegar, a hint of acidity that in time rips through the toasted blanket to bring out notes of wild strawberry, blueberry, lemon and tobacco. The Sherry cask has worked at the tip of its fingers.
On the palate the music changes drastically, with a sweet and creamy opening that finds a perfect counterpart in the smoke, where the berry jam is passed through the barbecue with plenty of black pepper and cloves, accompanied by bright tones of candied orange, cola and Catalan cream. Impetuous, explosive, it sweeps the mouth with all the energy of its youth and alcohol, pumping up the flavours without overpowering them, a sort of peated Tasmanian devil. Background of tobacco and leather, with touches of liquorice and splashes of the sea.
The finish is long and spicy, ashy, with licorice, orange marmalade and salt.
A whisky difficult to contain, so energetic and vital. Such imbalance may be annoying to some, but I find it amusing and exciting, reminding me that a dram isn’t always meditation but sometimes pure fun.