Origin: Orkney (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 50.1%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon hogshead refill
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Whisky Facile
Price: € 77.00 on Whisky Facile
Official website: Whisky Facile
Vote: 86/100
There was great anticipation at the last Milano Whisky Festival for the presentation of the sixth bottling of the boys of Whisky Facile, this time dedicated to the fearsome Scylla and Charybdis, the sea monsters that live in the Strait of Messina and that Ulysses and his companions are forced to face after leaving the island of Circe and passing that of the Sirens.
In Milan, as new Odysseys, we resisted the attack of our personal Scylla and Charybdis, the Thirst and the Curiosity, but now the time has finally come to fight and, ready for anything, we pour ourselves this dram.
The provenance is an undeclared distillery from the Orkney Islands (well-informed suggest Highland Park), while the single cask is a former bourbon refill hogshead, filled in 2008 and bottled in Scotland, at the AD Rattray plants, in 2021, in its color. natural and without chillfiltration, with a slight dilution that brought the grade to 50.1% ABV.
Tasting notes
The color is a very light gold that reminds us of white wine and in fact, on the nose, the very first impression is almost that. Then it’s like entering a pastry chef’s laboratory, or grandma’s kitchen, where someone who half an hour earlier had gone out to smoke a cigarette, is now intent on preparing a tart with lots of white pulp fruit and a sprinkling of ginger. Worried that they weren’t greedy enough, decided to garnish it with a touch of vanilla and, at the end of the job, placed it next to a jar of heather.
In the mouth we discover that peach and almonds have been added to the white pulp fruit salad, and that the sprinkling of ginger was more generous than expected. The presence of smoke is now on the verge of a mirage, also because the pastry chef, the grandmother or both, have returned to the kitchen and are preparing a cappuccino.
The mid-length finish sees the smoke grow slightly in tone, but it’s still the white-fleshed fruit and ginger that impress.
Thirst-quenching and dangerously drinkable (a few other times we have tasted a whisky capable of masking its alcohol content so well), an almost unprecedented Highland Park, given that the distillery prefers to use ex-Sherry casks, which is presented to the drinker, both on the nose and on the palate, with a decidedly inviting assortment of aromas. In short, a new good result for Jacopo, Giacomo, Davide and Marco.
Congratulations!