Description
Cask 59.86 The beneficence of bees (Spicy & Sweet)
The initial nose was dominated by bakery notes, from well-fired rolls and treacle scones to sugar buns. We also got heather honey, peach melba and new cask staves. The attractive and inviting palate had us smacking our lips to the sweet flavours of dark chocolate coconut bars, digestive biscuits, rice pudding and chocolate-coated brazils; the finish was a warming flourish of black pepper, chilli and cardamom. The reduced nose encountered iced caramels, marshmallows and sugared almonds, perfumed candles and pine sawdust. The palate now combined waxy honeycomb and iced gingerbread with liquorice, linseed oil, paprika and oak.
Cask 9.227 Chill-time (Juicy, oak & vanilla)
We started with a little ray of sunshine; a tropical smoothie packed with mango, pineapple, passion fruit and creamy coconut yoghurt, we might even have added a little ginger and turmeric. Smooth, thick and rich on the palate neat like an Italian custard dessert called Zabaglione made with egg yolks, sugar, cinnamon, grated lemon peel and Marsala wine, served with whipped cream and a biscotti. Water added a walnut whip, black currant coulis, caramel popcorn and clotted cream fudge on the nose. The taste was a sip of banana daquiri: light rum, lime juice, banana liqueur and sugar syrup all in a chilled cocktail glass.
Cask 77.73 Waxy McSherryface (Spicy & Sweet)
First nosing suggested to us waxed jackets, pine needles and spice, plus raisins, mint julep, malted milk biscuits and old-school dunnage warehouses. Some water added many notes of walnuts, tobacco pouches, dried tarragon, mushroom powder and cookie dough. The palate was initially full of mineral oils, waxes, putty, chai tea, spiced winter ales and smooth notes of old calvados and sultanas. Water brought milk chocolate sweetness, fruit loaf, yellow plums, olive oil cake, pistachios and caramel sauce. This matured for 10 years in a bourbon hogshead before being transferred to a second fill oloroso hogshead.
Cask 38.38 Chestnut forest confections (Sweet, fruity & mellow)
The nose, elusive at first, took us through a chestnut wood to a confectioner, where we saw marzipan petits fours, jammy dodgers and chocolate honeycomb bars displayed on wooden shelves. The palate (beautifully matured) offered juicy kiwi and lemon, vanilla ice cream, and raspberry, coconut and dark chocolate bars, plus lingering tingles of ginger and nutmeg. With water (careful!) – lemon tart, butterscotch, popcorn, and strawberries and cream on the nose; liquorice allsorts, green apple and macadamias on the palate. At 21 years of age, we combined selected casks from this distillery, and then returned the single malt into a variety of different casks to develop further. This is one of those casks.
R11.19 Rumbustious (Rum)
Initially plenty of fruity aromas, bananas and pineapples complemented by a vanilla sweetness and hint of macadamia nuts. There was smoke lingering in the background, growing in time. It reminded one panellist of a friend as he unrolled his well-used leather pipe and tobacco pouch. To taste, boisterous and unruly, heavily ashy and peppered, smoked jerk chicken and biltong. After reduction the scent was that of ash rolled watermelon, varnished fences, or indeed varnished pineapple cubes, while to taste there was sweetness and smoke in perfect harmony, with fruity mild ancho chillies in the finish. Following five years in an ex-bourbon barrel, we transferred this whisky into a refill barrel that previously held 20-year-old whisky from distillery 29.
