Origin: Isle of Mull (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 50.2%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-bourbon
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Hidden Spirits
Average price: € 185.00
Official website: hiddenspirits.it
Vote: 88/100
Hidden Spirits is an independent Italian bottler based in Ferrara of which, until now, considering the high level of its offerings, we have perhaps dealt with less than it deserves.
So let’s start to amend the situation, tasting a single cask of Tobermory, distilled in 1995, like the ex-sherry Cadenhead’s reviewed a few days ago, and bottled in 2020 at 50.2%ABV after 25 years in a hogshead ex-bourbon.
Outturn of 248 bottles, difficult but not yet impossible to recover.
Tasting notes
The colour is light gold.
On the olfactory level, the very first impact is with a rather evident note of passion fruit which, rather than on the island of Mull, projects us, in keeping with summer, onto a Caribbean atoll. Apple and pear under spirits enrich the fruity side, while a sprinkling of pepper and thyme lends further verve to the whole. There is some dryness: fruit (nuts), biscuits (Digestive) and a curious hint of leaves (also dry). A memory of vanilla cream is accompanied by one of Sperlari almonds (the latter not exactly summery…), with an impression of light wood in the background. Later, somewhat surprisingly, strawberry.
After the peppery opening, the correspondence with the nose is almost absolute in terms of markers, much less so in terms of intensity: apple and pear in spirit (more than on the nose), passion fruit (less), light wood (more), with almond cream and two interesting novelties: yellow orange peel and peach.
The finish is long and spicy, with lots of white-fleshed fruit under spirits and passion fruit ideally closing the circle.
If the length of the ageing process might have presaged an austere, compassed and somewhat predictable whisky, the reality in the glass is quite different, with a multifaceted, dynamic and never banal dram that certainly does credit both to the distillery from which it comes and to the bottler who selected it.