Cadenhead

Whisky #578: Cadenhead Small Batch Knockdhu 11 Year Old Cask Strength Single Malt

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Cadenhead Small Batch Knockdhu 11 Year Old Cask Strength Single Malt. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 54.7%. Tasted at Whisky a Day HQ, $172 (bottle).

Colour: Very pale straw.

Nose: Delicate. Cinnamon tea cake and petrichor…raindrops on fresh concrete.

Palate: Toasted malt and oaky notes, along with pepper and tart raspberries.

Finish: Dried raspberries; tobacco leaves from the end of a freshly chopped cigar. Medium length finish with a briny aftertaste and tingle on the front of the tongue.

Comments: The Cadenhead Small Batch Knockdhu definitely doesn’t drink like a cask strength whisky. It’s very subtle, where it keeps you sipping as you catch a whisper of a flavour here, a whiff of an aroma there. Before you know it, it’s gone…both the glass and eventually too the bottle.

Whisky #443: Cadenhead Small Batch Bunnahabhain 1976 39 Year Old Sherry Cask Single Malt

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FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby featherimg_8282.jpgCadenhead Small Batch Bunnahabhain 1976 39 Year Old Sherry Cask Single Malt. Islay, Scotland. ABV: 49.4%. Tasted at my good mate Brett’s place for his 40th birthday.

Colour: Deep, dark toffee.

Nose: Fresh vanilla sponge cake. Some dusty bookshelf aromas. Sounds weird, but it’s an aroma that I really enjoy about many quite old Scotch whiskies.

Palate: Smooth and creepy. No, that’s Brett…I mean smooth and creamy. Toffee apples, both ones with fresh green apples and also the toffee apple chewy sweets you used to get as a kid. Later flavours of honey and butter on freshly baked white toast emerge.

Finish: It’s a long and gentle fade. A dry tartness; oranges and raspberries with a delicate sweetness. Almost a slightly salty lemon sherbet tang as it tapers off.

Comments: To celebrate Brett officially beginning the downward slide into middle age as he turns 40, a few of us banded together to get him this fantastic whisky that was distilled in his birth year of 1976 and bottled after 39 years in 2016. One of only 648 bottles, it was matured in 3 sherry butts and bottled at its natural cask strength of 49.4%ABV.

Bunnahabhain may come from Islay yet their spirit is largely unpeated, certainly in comparison to its Islay neighbours such as Bruichladdich, Laphroig, Ardbeg etc.

Rich and delicate, this was one super smooth drop; not peaty at all. Complex and multifaceted according to Brett. It’s outstanding, the kind of whisky you want to sit back and slowly sip with a good mate, you don’t want to rush this one. The only rushing should be back to grab the bottle to pour yourself another dram…which I hope Brett remembers next time I come to visit!

Whisky #395: Cadenhead Small Batch Speyside-Glenlivet 18 Year Old Cask Strength Single Malt

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FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby featherimg_6430.jpegCadenhead Small Batch Speyside-Glenlivet 18 Year Old Cask Strength Single Malt. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 62.80%. Tasted at my mate Joel’s place, $0 (ah it’s great to have good mates with nice whisky!).

Colour: Bright toffee.

Nose: Like a not-so-gentle tug on your nostril hairs, this one wants to rip out all unnecessary olfactory distractions and dominate your attention. Freshly cooked toffee, caramelised balsamic, creamed cheese and a hint of straw. It’s a big nose.

Palate: A satisfying tingle as the whisky dances around your mouth. Joel got toffee and peanut brittle, while I detected some tart raspberries. There’s almost a dusty sweetness; think salted caramel macaroons.

Finish: It’s a drying finish, slowly fading from the centre of your palate to the extremities. Very long, which is unsurprising given the high ABV.

Comments: It’s interesting – Joel thought the nose sweeter than the palate, I also got loads of sweetness and also some straw notes. Yet looking back on what we got on the palate there’s a fair bit of sugar too. In hindsight it’s a rich sweetness, definitely not saccharine. It’s rich and full bodied, lots of complex flavours without any of them dominating. One of those whiskies to enjoy sitting back and appreciating as it offers something different, especially as an independent bottling it’s quite different to your typical company-released Glenlivet.

Whisky #372 – Cadenhead Creations 20 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky

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FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby featherIMG_5046Cadenhead Creations 20 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky. Scotland. ABV: 46%. Tasted at The Salopian Inn (McLaren Vale, South Australia), $18.

Colour: Burnt caramel.

Nose: Creamy toffee, with a very faint alcohol tickle of the nostrils.

Palate: Strawberries and cream, but not too sweet. Berry compote and honey on pancakes.

Finish: Medium length, mid palate finish.

Comments: Surprisingly not like your traditional sherry bomb, though it’s interesting in that it’s not too common to find a blended whisky that’s been aged in sherry casks. It’s a blend of grain whisky from Cameronbridge and Invergordon, and malts from Bruichladdich and Mortlach. Quite a unique drop, particularly being a 20 year old. Recommended.