Origin: England
Type: London Single Malt Whisky
Strength: 58.7%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: The Bimber Distillery Company Limited
Average price: € 300.00
Official website: www.bimberdistillery.co.uk
Vote: 87/100
After a long time, I’m returning to the up-and-coming Bimber, a young English distillery which, thanks also to its very special communication and aggregation skills, has in a short space of time amassed a group of enthusiasts very close to pure devotion!
But it’s not just a question of clever marketing: the quality of Bimber’s whisky is confirmed with each release as solid and consistent, with increasingly aged bottlings that, even in their younger versions, show enviable personality and depth.
The releases are numerous, made up mainly of single casks alongside the few portfolio bottlings, with a plethora of special editions that are also hard to keep track of (and which vanish as quickly as a Macallan, fetching the same prices on the secondary market).
Here I find myself with a single cask ex-Bourbon, which created 264 bottles on 27 May 2020, cask strength and all natural.
Tasting notes
Full gold in the glass.
Very creamy to the nose, with a fruity and sweet core of apricot jam and peach melba on which rest spices (cinnamon, cumin), orange juice and freshly cut wood. With time, a more herbaceous and fresh trait emerges that caresses and mitigates the pastry aspect of the whisky, making it more three-dimensional with impressions of tea leaves and wet grass. Complex.
Almost vinous notes on the palate, very viscous, where the sweet aspect based on vanilla is still predominant but without becoming cloying, thanks to the presence of spices and herbaceous components that balance the tones. There are also touches of bitterness and acidity that cleanse the mouth with every sip, imbued with dried fruit, lemon and rhubarb. The alcohol content is well-integrated and not at all intrusive, expressed in a peppery hint that darts among the flavors.
The finish is quite long with bitter points on orange, herbaceous (and balsamic) notes and buttery brioche.
Young and yet already so multifaceted, capable of expressing complexity in its aromas and, above all, in its flavours, which are generally the prerogative of whiskies of a very different age. It perhaps suffers from a little too much bitterness, but expresses all the quality of a malt that is growing at a surprising rate.