Silk City Straight Malt Whisky (Ghost Hawk Collaboration)

Silk City is a distillery local to me, and it happens to be right next door to a brewery known as Ghost Hawk. A buddy had a gig at Ghost Hawk not too long ago, and since I favor cider when it comes to non-spirit drinks, I popped over for a whisky. I noticed a whisky they had distilled from quinoa and asked about it and the fella gave me a sample and told me a while back they ended up with a bunch of quinoa and when they remembered it they decided to make a whisky. It was pretty good, but he said the quinoa was hell on the stills and they’d never do it again. He also told me they had a collaboration with Ghost Hawk releasing very soon where they were given what would have been turned into Ghost Hawk’s ‘Ravendark’ stout to use as the mashbill for this release. I popped back over to Ghost Hawk, ordered one, and decided I’d definitely be wanting to try the whisky version of it, and went back to grab one on release about a week later.

Silk City Straight Malt Whiskey, American Single Malt, 45% ABV

Minutia: Distilled from the ‘Ravendark’ mashbill and matured for 2 years in American oak casks yielding 225 375ml bottles. This is bottle number 132. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Tawny; 1.4.

Nose: Sweet, gum, acetone. Banana.

Taste: Banana, bubblegum, a bit of spice.

Finish: Malty, Virginia tobacco, chocolate malt. Banana returns later. Med-long.

Really nice, and quite unique from what I’ve had thus far. Silk City, whiskey-wise, primarily makes bourbon, but I continue to be impressed by what they make out of malt. I’m really looking forward to any future malt releases from them, particularly if the malt was smoked at all.

Score: 84

Musical Evocation: Immortal – “Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)” 

Allt-A-Bhainne 7 2011 SMWS 108.14 "An enjoyable curiosity"

I bought this quite a while ago so don’t remember what I was hoping for with it, but I believe I was after more ‘farmy’ type notes when I purchased it. Also, it’s neat how with the SMWS you can get to try a single cask from a distillery that’s basically a blend component.

Allt-A-Bhainne 7, 2011 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 108.14, Speyside Single Malt, 66.2% ABV

Minutia: Distilled on November 1, 2011 and matured in a 2nd-fill ex-bourbon barrel for 7 years yielding 217 bottles. This is part of the Lightly Peated flavor profile named “An enjoyable curiosity”. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Yellow gold; 0.5.

Nose: Bready, malty, yeasty, a bit of vanilla like a bread pudding. With water: root beer, toasted marshmallow.

Taste: Sweet, strong. Smoke and ash. With water: about the same.

Finish: Smoke, salty, bitter; a vague sense of a very concentrated dark chocolate with salt in it. Long. With water: the same.

This is nice, but hot. Water really improved the nose with some very interesting elements coming in there and at no real cost to the rest of the dram as can often happen.

Score: 81

Musical Evocation: After Forever – “Estranged (A Timeless Spell)”

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2021 PX Cask Strength

I don’t have much to say about this before getting into it, just that I was happy to see this was the release last year.

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2021 PX Cask Strength, Islay Single Malt, 58.9% ABV

Minutia: Matured in American oak ex-bourbon casks, quarter casks, and finished in European oak PX hogsheads. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Brown Sherry; 1.9.

Nose: Spiced fruit into musty into smoked maple syrup, fruity tobacco, earthy must. Delightful.

Taste: Cinnamon, herbal, spicy fruit.

Finish: Spiced liquor, smoke, tar, medicinal, salty.

Really quite nice, but fails to live up to the nose. Not because of anything bad, the nose is just that good. It’s pretty much what you want from a peated and Sherried whisky.

Score: 86