I ended up buying a bottle of this before I tried the sample because it was a good deal. I kept the sample in the pool, though, and held off on the bottle until I had a chance to review it blind. I’m glad it came up so I can consider that bottle eligible for opening.
Minutia: Reviewed blind, neat in a glencairn.
Color: Russet muscat, 1.3.
Nose: Honey with light smoke. Some fruity/sweet vegetal note.
Taste: Honey/sweet cereal, subtle smoky background. Bit of a fruit menagerie, for lack of a better word, but behind the honey. The fruit and smoke kind of alternate precedence behind the honey/cereal. Subsequent sips give the honey a bigger feel than the first.
Finish: Smoke, oak, black pepper. Medium.
Guess: Talisker 18. Unfortunately I glanced an ‘18’ when opening the sample, but saw no more than that, so that skewed me a bit.
So, I think I might have gotten this without the peek. It’s too together for me to think it was one of the NAS samples I know could be in the calendar, too subtle to be an Islay or Ledaig, and no Campbeltown magic. I suppose if I didn’t know there were no peated Jura’s in the pool I might have thought that. Anyway. This is really nice. It is smoky enough for those who like that, I think offers enough other elements, mostly more prominent than the smoke, to appeal to less of a peat fan. Unless smoke was aversive in any amount, I can see nearly every whisky fan liking this one. While my score is lower than that given to the 10, I am just more discerning now than I was then. It’s a clear step above, and at a decent price worth the upgrade. In the US, though, the difference is likely too high to really be worth it, at least more than once every now and again, since the 10 is great itself.
Score: 89
Musical Evocation: Fire Saga – “Húsavík”
Here are links to the other posts from this calendar:
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