Origin: Scotland
Type: Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 47.4%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon refill
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Spheric Spirits
Average price: € 450.00
Official website: sphericspirits.com
Vote: 91/100
At the latest Milano Whisky Festival I was able to meet this German bottler and its two founders, Benedict John Skelton and Claudio Schoeller, who since 2020 have dedicated themselves to single and blended malts, particularly vintage malts, thanks to the painstaking (and patient) search for forgotten casks in warehouses around Scotland, managing to unearth gems from a time gone by, recovering aromas and flavours that no longer exist.
Not only Scotch but also mezcal, armagnac and several direct processing projects focusing on different fermentations and yeast strains, in collaboration with Norwegian producers.
So much ambition and so much passion, perceptible in the words of Benedict (of British origin), for a project that makes research and historical recovery its focus.
So much so that the labels are not exactly attractive but focus on the content, such as this blended single malt that emphasises vintage over age, unearthed in Ben Nevis’ warehouses as part of an unused stock for blends (probably The Dew of Ben Nevis) that contains part of the distillery’s product plus other unknown malts. 336 bottles released, following the first version realized in 2020.
Tasting notes
A soft, persuasive nose, where fruit dominates the stage in the form of peach (lots of it), mango, crushed banana, ripe pear, and baked apple. The profile is rich and sumptuous, with products of the beehive (beeswax, honey, propolis), custard, tropical fruit tea, a hint of milk chocolate and a damp cellar background. It’s the waxy part that becomes more and more present in length, with a continuous and elegant evolution in the glass without the wood showing through. Worth spending hours on.
A light but present spice opens the passage to the palate, with white pepper, cinnamon and aniseed, rediscovering the fruity soul imbued with a more bitter and acidic part, adding pineapple and lime to the company with brushstrokes of cinchona and bitter orange. The waxy component emerges after a few moments, suspended between wax and propolis, again with tea (green and tropical) and custard to which peeled almond and a definite vegetal note are added, more intense along the length.
Rather short finish of tropical fruit, tea leaves, nuts, dryness of the wood.
A pity about the somewhat disappointing ending, but the rest of the experience is absolutely impeccable, with an amazing harmony and elegance: the cask made a balanced contribution that falls back just at the end, but it’s 34 years excellently maintained.