Origin: Campbeltown (Scotland)
Type: Single Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 52.6%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Sherry Fino Butt
Chillfiltered: No
Additional Coloring: No
Owner: Valinch & Mallet Ltd.
Average price: € 600.00
Official website: www.valinchandmallet.com
Vote: 89/100
A short while ago I recounted a summer visit to Fabio Ermoli’s office in Milan, during which whisky samples materialised in front of me between chats.
One of those that created the most mouth watering (or hype, which sounds much better) for me came from a 2017 bottling under Fabio and Davide Romano’s label, Valinch & Mallet, which always creates high expectations in itself, but when the cask of provenance is Springbank and of a not exactly negligible age, it’s hard to contain the groupie shrieks.
Distillate from 1996 poured into a single ex-Sherry fino cask, which in 2017 produced 399 bottles that are now virtually unobtainable.
Tasting notes
The nose expands with a flow of mineral fruit, peach and white melon beaten on the rocks like an octopus on the coast of Bari. Persuasive waxy notes infiltrate the aromas, driven by a sea breeze on which macadamia nut, candied cherries, almond candies and flint ride. Greatly absent is smoke, but not peat, which expresses itself in the damp earth after rain. Proudly Springbank.
On the palate it starts with ginger and pepper, a lively greeting before bringing peach and green apple back to the fore, holding hands with wild strawberry and gooseberry, salt crystals and lots and lots of minerality. Lemon tart, liquorice root and vegetal notes (at times cucumber) form the background, with a rather pronounced bitter streak especially along the length. Decisive and assertive, with the alcoholic shoulder giving body and substance.
The finish is long and dry, with saline traits on custard, vegetable textures and rock juice.
Uncompromising and sharp, anything but polite and almost overbearing, it bewitches you with an elegant nose and bewilders you with an iridescent palate. Fun in spades that doesn’t care about consistency, perhaps imperfect but precisely for this reason to be loved.