Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Dram Mor Group
Official website: drammorgroup.com
Annual appointment with the independent bottler from Dumbarton, which has also officially landed in Italy although it is in fact still unobtainable, with the six single casks released last May.
In the photo you can see five of them because (unfortunately) I couldn’t get my hands on the Jura 9yo, but in short, I can’t complain too much, right?
Pitilie 2015 9yo
Origin: Highlands (Scotland)
Strength: 54.8%ABV
Ageing cask: Finished in ex-Bourbon first fill
Average price: € 80.00
Vote: 85/100
Pitilie was a distillery founded in 1825 that was very short-lived, closing some forty years later until it was demolished. Obviously this cask doesn’t come from this ghost of the past, but is a nom de plume concealing Aberfeldy, founded a few years after Pitilie’s birth less than two kilometres away.
Initial unspecified maturation with a finish in an ex-Buffalo Trace cask, producing 247 bottles.
Tasting notes
The nose is very sunny and summery, with a tangle of flowers (heather, lime, gardenia), wet grass and honey along with a fruit salad of apples, pears, kiwi, white grapes, peach, yellow plum and lemon juice. There is no lack of pastry, emerging secondarily, of butter biscuits, vanilla cream, caramel, almond paste.
On the palate, the spicy thrust is decisive, with white pepper and ginger well present, together with an alcohol content that, at least initially, makes itself felt. The white fruit of the nose dominates, with a more marked acidic edge (lemon and lime), while the vegetal part creeps in among the flavours, with greater intensity in the aftertaste. Sweeter evocations form the background, providing pleasant support.
The finish is quite long and peppery, with vegetal notes, citrus, white fruit, honey.
All the fresh pleasantness of the nose is somewhat lost on the palate, where, however, a good balance of flavours remains despite betraying its youthfulness.
Duich 2016 8yo
Origin: Speyside (Scotland)
Strength: 57.2%ABV
Ageing cask: Finished in ex-Sherry PX first fill
Average price: € 80.00
Vote: 83/100
Another made-up name hiding a Speyside distillery, known for its maturation in ex-sherry casks, which also in this single cask doesn’t fail to choose Spanish influence, in 230 bottles.
Tasting notes
The nose is acidulous and slightly lactic, of raspberry yoghurt, gradually opening up to red fruits (strawberries, currants, blackberries) also in marmalade-like consistencies on tart, with lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon, liquorice root, wood shavings, leather and cola. Initially a little pungent.
In the mouth, the red fruits become warmer and rounder, adding black cherries and blueberries, enriched by dried figs, ripe plums and the whole host of rather marked Sherried influences. Spices (black pepper, cloves, nutmeg), sweet liquorice, chocolate, caramelised almonds and blood orange make up the corollary, with undertones of graphite and leather.
Long, astringent finish of red fruit jam, spices, chocolate, candied blood orange, leather.
A sherried bombshell as one might expect, though with a certain underlying composure that you wouldn’t expect given its youth. Complexity is certainly not its forte, but for lovers of the genre it can give ample satisfaction.
Caol Ila 2015 9yo
Origin: Isle of Islay (Scotland)
Strength: 55.2%ABV
Ageing cask: Finished in ex-Sherry Oloroso
Average price: € 90.00
Vote: 86/100
Inevitable is a young Caol Ila, aged in an French hogshead barrel of ex-oloroso sherry, with 288 bottles produced.
Tasting notes
Burning barbecue embers with a nice mixed meat grill sizzling on the shoreline near the pine forest, partying with friends: the nose of this whisky leaves no room for doubt as to its provenance. It soon opens to impressions of toasted nuts (pine nuts, hazelnuts), grilled fruit (pineapple, mango, peach, papaya), blackberry juice, candied orange and marshmallow. Catalan cream and cloves. Direct and no frills.
In the mouth, it loses much of its carnivorous soul in favour of a fruity and sweet one, with a clear presence of stone fruit, blood orange, blackberry jam, nuts (walnuts, peanut skins). The spicy compartment (cloves, black pepper, cinnamon) marries with baked cream, meringues and liquorice powder, with toasted thyme smoke caressingly encircling the whole.
Long finish of light spices, citrus, nuts, toasted thyme, humidor wood.
Difficult to go wrong with a Caol Ila, and indeed it didn’t this time either: a young but multifaceted whisky, full-bodied, rich, giving a full and satisfying dram.
Tomintoul 2010 13yo
Origin: Speyside (Scotland)
Strength: 56.1%ABV
Ageing cask: Finished in ex-Sherry PX first fill
Average price: € 120.00
Vote: 83/100
The most mature ageing of the bunch, with a first-fill PX hogshead (pretty intense, I guess) that produced 218 bottles.
Tasting notes
The finish mustn’t have been very long, despite a theoretically substantial cask the influence on the nose is in fact quite delicate: red fruits (currants, wild strawberries, blueberries), ripe plums, cocoa, coffee beans, carob, non-invasive spices (nutmeg, cinnamon). The fruity and sweet aspect emerges over time, with peach, dried apricot, praline peanuts, toffee. Malt cream and caramel undertones. Balanced, thanks also to a not at all present alcohol content.
On the palate, the integration of the cask with the distillate takes a bit of a back seat, finding warm notes of cocoa and coffee combined with those of darker fruit (blackberries, blueberries, plums, black cherries) and candied fruit (orange, apricot), with a spicy caress on nuts and berry tart. Slight astringency, with the alcohol less integrated than on the nose.
Quite long finish of red fruits, black cherries, chocolate, nuts, slightly spicy and astringent.
More convincing on the nose than on the palate, where the balance is broken even though the dram is pleasant and convincing but with a few smears.
Benrinnes 2013 10yo
Origin: Speyside (Scotland)
Strength: 54.3%ABV
Ageing cask: Finished in ex-Sherry Palo Cortado refill
Average price: € 120.00
Vote: 88/100
I close by staying in Speyside and again with an ex sherry maturation, specifically Palo Cortado (which is experiencing some notoriety recently), for a distillery that always gives a lot of satisfaction in independent bottlings, with 221 bottles produced.
Tasting notes
Rather elegant and sinuous nose, the dark notes of red fruits (blackberries, ripe cherries, blueberries) are warm and marmalade-like and intertwine with mentholated and balsamic tones, maintaining a pastry background (shortcrust pastry, soft orange and chocolate pastries) with a slightly metallic, copper coin vein. Macadamia nut in length.
On the palate, a slight spiciness (black pepper, cinnamon, ginger) stands out against ever-fruity tones, in which the red fruits of the nose are accompanied by sour cherries, baked apple, sultanas in spirit, sachertorte, chestnut honey and maple syrup. It retains the elegance already perceived in the glass, still with that slight mentholated and metallic connotation that reveals itself towards the end of the sip.
The finish is quite long and full-bodied, with light spices on red fruits, chocolate sponge cake, orange marmalade, balsamic notes.
The sherried influence plays with delicacy, with an elegant and balanced dram that knows how to enhance both the distillate and the cask, allowing both to shine.