Origin: Highlands (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 55%ABV
Ageing cask: Finished in ex-Sherry Palo Cortado First Fill
Chillfiltered: No
Additional coloring: No
Owner: Dram Mor Group
Average price: € 65.00
Official website: drammorgroup.com
Vote: 86/100
The Dumbarton bottler returns to a Highland distillery not exactly prominent, with two summer releases from sister but decidedly different casks.
Let’s start with cask 144, filled in 2015 and finished in ex-Palo Cortado sherry, considered to be halfway between oloroso and fino, producing 267 cask strength bottles.
By Christmas 2020 they had already bottled another sister cask, formerly oloroso, in that case with five years of ageing, which I found to be far too full of sherried tones: let’s see how the distillate dealt with another type of this fortified wine.
Tasting notes
Sour notes clearly emerge from the glass, a mixture of wild strawberries, macerated grapes, at times even red wine vinegar, but you have just enough time to grasp them that a softer, more persuasive blanket follows: toffee, caramel, trifle, macaroons, candied orange peel. A caress in a fist, one might call it. The two souls intertwine and alternate with each approach to the glass, with a background of nuts and nougat. Intriguing.
The palate begins with a definite spiciness, ginger and pepper anticipating the victory of the sweeter soul, albeit with traits of roughness, declined in the tones of red fruits, sultanas in spirit, almonds, honey, malted biscuits and a brushstroke of caramel. But it isn’t an overwhelming victory, underneath there are hints of sour cream and vegetable notes that open up the horizon and intrigue. No alcoholic bite, and dangerously dry at the end of the sip.
The finish is quite long where nuts and vegetable tones prevail, with ginger, toffee and macerated red fruits acting as a side dish.
Definitely different music and depth, although it loses a little on the palate but remains an interesting and lively dram, the sherry plays skilfully with evocations and integrates well with the distillate. Promoted.