Origin: Orkney (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Gradation: 53.4%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Chorlton Whisky
Price: € 220.00 on Atlas Company
Official website: chorltonwhisky.co.uk
Vote: 91/100
Another 2021 bottling, from a June 1999 distillate, with 311 bottles still in good supply from the usual impossible-to-guess distillery on the Orkney Islands.
At the last Milano Whisky Festival it got very good feedback, giving me a lot of satisfaction pouring it from the Italian distributor Beija-Flor‘s stall, but will I have enjoyed it?
Tasting notes
Herbaceous attack on the nose, where peat delicately expresses itself in its vegetal incarnation with a slight puff of smoke in the background, while fruity hints (peach, lychee, pear) blend with pastry touches of apple tart and lemon cream. Honey and a warm waxy caress continue the run of evocations, together with a slight coastal spray. Excellent balance between sweetness and peat, very elegant.
Smoke is more assertive but still gentle on the palate, where the push of pepper and ginger (and a touch of paprika) caresses a very viscous, full-bodied whisky, with fruit and vegetables pirouetting among the flavours in a weave that evokes the balance and elegance of the nose. A slight mineral note permeates citrus, peach, cooked apples, tobacco, tea leaves, propolis, custard: perfectly integrated flavours, an alternation of sweet and herbaceous that compensate each other, in a rich and complex structure, with the ocean waves closing the dram.
Not very long and dry finish with saline tips, herbaceous, with puffs of smoke on citrus, propolis, pear.
An extraordinary dram, to be sipped in the glass, being lulled and carried away by the elegance of a whisky that reinforces the exceptional quality of a distillate when treated with love and respect. A small disappointment on the finish, which doesn’t pursue the same line.