Origin: Orkney (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 54.2%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon barrel refill
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Whisky Italy
Price: € 98.00 on Whisky Italy
Official website: Whisky Italy
Vote: 88/100
When you start bottling under your own name, you get a taste for it, and the Malaspina brothers don’t let the opportunity pass them by.
After the excellent Laphroaig of some time ago, the two return to the scene of the crime with another peated whisky but with decidedly more tame tones, discovered on a remote island that hardly leaves any doubt as to the distillery of origin (and of which there is certainly no mystery even on the label).
A single cask of second-fill ex-Bourbon, which was poured into 120 bottles on 16 November 2010.
Intrigued? I am!
Tasting notes
I seldom mention the colour of a whisky, but in this case it seems to be a very clear white wine in the glass.
The nose is definitely a surprise: fresh, herbaceous, with delicate notes of citrus, honey, hawthorn, eucalyptus and flint. The smoke is a distant, ethereal impression of freshly roasted herbs spread over slices of dried orange. Over time, some apple juice and a very subtle note of cereal emerge.
The palate welcomes a remarkable wave of pepper and ginger on a full, pungent body, where dried citrus returns in the company of crisp apple, pineapple, grapefruit, balsamic tones and green tea. Mineral and herbaceous notes glide across the palate, with a hint of salinity imbued with anise and honey. The peat is an elusive veil at the mercy of the wind, which blows lightly through the notes without ever pausing: the time to feel it and it is already lost among the spices and the sea.
The finish is quite long and dry with citrus, pineapple, balsamic impressions, aniseed pastilles, ginger and a patina of smoke.
Fun and carefree, it chases itself in a crystal-clear, lively roundabout, giving you a smile of playful defiance as you try to grasp its essence.
As summery as a game by the sea.