Origin: Scotland
Type: Blended Scotch Whisky
Strength: 50%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry
Chillfiltered: No
Added coolouring: No
Owner: Duncan Taylor Scotch Whisky Limited
Average price: € 35.00
Official website: www.duncantaylor.com/whisky/black-bull
Vote: 82/100
This menacing behemoth gazing down at us from the label represents the Kyloe breed, the less hairy and more ‘resilient’ (due to climate) version of the well-known Highland cattle found on the western side of the region, chosen as a symbol for a Scottish blended whose nature is intended to be more ‘muscular’ than is customary in the category.
Composed of equal parts malt and grain, from Highlands and Speyside, and bottled at 50%ABV, it was born in the 1860s and has had much success, especially in the post-Prohibition United States, coming to the present day in the hands of Duncan Taylor who has owned the brand since the 1990s.
The line features peated and unpeated versions, as well as increasing ageing up to forty years, and has changed garb several times, including this edition in a black bottle, flanked by a more recent transparent one with a somewhat vintage design.
A basic, unpeated bottling, reflecting the original recipe with a small proportion of ex-sherry casks.
Tasting notes
Very fresh and amiable nose, in which mineral and slightly iodine notes intertwine with sweet and fruity ones, with custard, pear cake, cooked cereals, peach juice, jasmine. Apricot yoghurt. It’s the mineral and cereal part that tends to prevail in length, maintaining a good (albeit simple) aromatic compactness, with the alcohol perfectly integrated.
The palate fires a few spice cartridges (abundant black pepper, timid cinnamon) on a profile that follows some of the traces of the nose, losing some intensity along the way and choosing the company of cereals and cooked pear with incursions of lemon and lime. Rather dry, with the appearance of wood and a vegetal and slightly balsamic part along the length.
Fairly short finish of wood, pear, lemon, cereal.
It offers what one might expect from a young, basic blended, with just that little extra kick thanks to a recipe in which the grain doesn’t dominate. It certainly doesn’t leave its mark, but it’s not negligible either, and in mixology it has its merits.