Digging deeper on April Outturn 2019
Every month, without fail, we get hit with heaps of questions from curious members on more detail on the casks in an upcoming Outturn. Don’t get me wrong, I love that, but rather than it just being a one on one dialogue, I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk a bit more in detail about some of the upcoming casks, from tasting notes to distillery curios, for all to read. Let’s dig a bit deeper on April Outturn’s casks being released this Friday 5th April!
Cask 88.11 A day at the beach
Nestled in the same village that has the likes of Glen Grant and Glenrothes, Speyburn distillery is often overlooked, somewhat unfairly, and a single cask like this might just turn that around. A strangely wavering core range that is almost non-existent in Australia, the distillery is owned by Inver House Distillers so most output goes straight into blends. Cask 88.11 is just the eleventh cask from distillery 88 in this case, and is a bright example of how good single cask whisky from this distillery can be. Only 24 x bottles available.
Cask 4.249 The mermaid’s marmalade
Boom! A warm welcome back to a proper sherried Orkney single cask, this distillery was famously called the ultimate all-rounder by the late great whisky writer Michael Jackson, and for good reason. Their certain Orcadian peat influence mixed with the sweet balance of a full sherry maturation, makes for a powerful and lovely late night dram.
Cask 29.250 Peat fire flame
There’s a certain magic to our 29’s hailing from one of Islay’s most famous distilleries, if not one of the most famous worldwide, and to be able to have access to a 19 year old single cask, at natural cask strength, from this powerhouse distillery is a blessing. One of the Kildalton trio of distilleries, Laphroaig is a substantial distillery with seven stills and a capacity of over 3M litres per annum (that’s 1m more than Lagavulin and 2m more than Ardbeg) and still malt approximately 20% of their own floor malted barley on-site. Delicious and delightful at this age.
G5.11 Flash, I love you!
Always a delight to have a new single cask grain whisky on offer, especially one as old and syrupy as this one from G5. Owned by Whyte & Mackay and quite a substantial capacity like most grain whisky distilleries of over 40 million litres a year. One mistake you could make is in thinking that grain whisky is in any way ‘lesser’ than malt whisky in complexity or only good as a filler for blends. A single cask grain whisky like this 30 year old can be a masterclass in flavour in itself.
All ten casks in our April Outturn go live tomorrow, Friday 5th April 2019, only for members of the SMWS and only through smws.com.au
Cheers!
