Origin: Highlands (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 47.7%
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon hogshead
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Chorlton Whisky
Average price: € 215.00
Official website: chorltonwhisky.co.uk
Vote: 91/100
Back to the Nouvelle Vague according to the Manchester bottler with a single cask ex-Bourbon from Loch Lomond in one of its various incarnations, named after the loch’s largest island, Inchmurrin,
147 bottles from a February 1997 distillate in what is representative of the distillery’s slightly peaty style.
The sample in my glass comes from a generous splitting of bottles shared with members of the Facebook group dedicated to Chorlton Whisky fans, at the initiative of Corrado De Rosa: if you too love this bottler, I suggest you join.
Tasting notes
On the nose, the aromas are very intense and compact, suspended between humid and fruity, where the wood is that of an abandoned cupboard in the woods. Abundant tropical fruit mingles with aromatic herbs and balsamic evocations, drops of propolis and wax drip into the nostrils with handfuls of earthiness thrown in between sniffs. A mineral vein embraces its oily counterpart in a plastic representation of yin and yang. It never ceases to evoke new sensations (liquorice pastilles, apple juice, a vague citrus note, herbaceous tones…), it feels like Indiana Jones surrounded by the spirits of the Ark of the Covenant: keep your eyes tightly shut and let the aromatic furies swirl around you. Very rich and multifaceted.
In the mouth it is full-bodied and fleshy, a faint smoky note blows over the abundance of fruit and earth, the humid and woody evocations become more intense and balsamic, with mentholated touches, bringing out tobacco and high minerality. Liquorice, knife blade, green apple, pineapple, grapefruit, medicinal herbs… very compact coherence with the nose, the same tourbillon of sensations that take time and patience to unravel.
The finish is long, very mineral, in which the bitter streak mates with the fruity one on a herbaceous and distantly smoky bed.
Complex, engaging, fun, rich… adjectives are not enough for this whisky, truly surprising and multifaceted, a real challenge to identify every nuance, almost as exhausting in drinking as a night of unbridled passion.