Sherry cask matured Archives

Whisky #598: Glengoyne Pedro Ximenez Sherry Finish Single Malt

January 21, 2023 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

Glengoyne Pedro Ximenez Sherry Finish Single Malt. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 46%. Tasted at Whisky a Day HQ, $155 (bottle).

Colour: Shimmering topaz.

Nose: Very soft, quite delicate actually. Pineapple jubes, soft hay and freshly baked lemon tarts.

Palate: A sweet-spicy dichotomy. Raw sugar, cinnamon scrolls with a hint of cloves, washed down with creaming soda. A rich, creamy, oily mouthfeel.

Finish: The creamy sweet flavours fade, leaving the spices and oaky notes to poke through. Medium length.

Comments: Finished in ex Pedro Ximenez casks after initial maturation in European oak, this Glengoyne Pedro Ximenez Sherry Finish has a robust juicy sweetness and fantastic balance with the spicy oaky notes. The 46% ABV is also a great balance, affording plenty of rich flavours to shine through whilst being an approachable ABV point for most drinkers.

Whisky #597: SMWS 44.143 Good Traditional Fare

January 8, 2023 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

SMWS 44.143 Good Traditional Fare. 17 year old cask strength, single cask bottling from Craigellachie distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 57.0%. Tasted at Whisky a Day HQ, $260 (bottle).

Colour: Electric amber.

Nose: Initial nose prickle, then quickly giving away to caramelised balsamic, blueberries and sweet BBQ beef jerky.

Palate: Heavy, chewy and rich. Dried muscatels, smoked honey, rich raspberry jam and salted caramel macarons. Sweet cigar box & saxophone reed woody notes.

Finish: A drying finish, with a long-lingering warmth on the front half of the palate.

Comments: It’s a delightfully intense and chewy dram. A meaty and oily mouthfeel, but then a drying finish. The contrasting flavours and sensations perhaps reflect the double cask maturation, initially in an ex bourbon hogshead, then finished in 1st fill ex Olorosso sherry barrique. I can’t help but wonder if the bold, meaty, and oily flavours and mouthfeel are driven to a large extent by Craigellachie’s worm tub condensers, which are nowadays somewhat of an outlier compared to most distilleries with shell & tube condensers.

A definite departure from the typically grassier, lighter notes of Craigellachie’s original bottlings, but damn it’s a tasty drop. Worth every penny.

Whisky #588: Blackadder The Legendary 2016 Single Malt

November 9, 2021 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

Blackadder The Legendary 2016 Single Malt (Cask LTB 2016-01). Scotland. ABV: 46%. Tasted at Whisky a Day HQ, $150 (bottle).

Colour: Bright copper.

Nose: Mulled wine and stewed apple gently simmering on the stovetop.

Palate: Dried raisins, dry sherry and a thin oily mouthfeel. Light and delicate creme brûlée flavours dance over the tongue.

Finish: Gentle oak and spicy nutmeg, soft black pepper and cinnamon flavours in the fade. Medium length.

Comments: A delightfully gentle sherry cask finished whisky, without being a stereotypical sherry bomb that hits you around the chops. Calling your whisky “Blackadder The Legendary” is a tad pretentious, but did it live up to such lofty self proclamations? No, but it is eminently drinkable. No Age Statement (NAS) and Scottish region unspecified, it has a touch of mystique about it.

I’ve loved other Blackadder whiskies that are more often than not bottled at cask strength. This one is at a more approachable 46% ABV, but it’s still an excellent drop. This was one of only 666 bottles produced, but if you can find one it’s definitely recommended.

Whisky #572: Glengoyne 21 Year Old Single Malt

June 13, 2020 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by Glengoyne 21 Year Old Single Malt. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 43%. Tasted at Whisky a Day HQ, $235 (bottle).

Feet up on a Saturday, time to kick back with another stunning drop from Glengoyne Distillery.

Colour: Deep brilliant copper.

Nose: The nose is a little faint. Allen’s Strawberries and Cream lollies. Very faint leather notes.

Palate: Stewed strawberries, dried cranberries. Then melted brown sugar atop your morning porridge that you’ve splashed with a dash of milk. Creamy, sweet and caramel flavours…very moorish.

Finish: A dry earthiness to finish. Creamy dustiness, like cocoa powder atop a cappuccino froth.

Comments: The nose was probably the only thing that I was a little disappointed in here. With a lot of older Scottish malts, sometimes for me the nose has layers of complexity and so many interesting things going on that it can be even more enjoyable than the palate. With this Glengoyne 21 the palate is fantastic, but the nose is just a little…flat.

Perhaps it’s just been sitting in the opened bottle a little too long…I’ll just have to drink a little more rapidly in future!

Whisky #562: Edradour Straight From The Cask 10 Year Old Single Malt

January 22, 2020 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

Edradour Straight From The Cask 10 Year Old Single Malt (Cask #160). ABV: 57.7%. Highlands, Scotland. Tasted at Whisky a Day HQ, $143 (500mL bottle).

The carnage continues during Whisky a Day bottle kill week, tonight it’s a cask strength Edradour that bites the dust!

Colour: Deep amber.

Nose: A slight prickle, sweetness and zing initially, like opening a packet of ground cinnamon. Slightly overripe strawberries and raspberries too.

Palate: Like biting into your grandma’s Christmas cake – glacé cherries, dried sultanas and raisins, rich and moist spongecake…delicious.

Finish: Sweet then a fade to a drying saltiness. The sherry tannins come through as the finish dries.

Comments: It’s a rich, robust and full mouthfeel, but without being too overpowering. It drinks a lot softer than you might expect for a 57.7%ABV cask strength whisky.

Drinking this is like having Christmas all year round. Fantastic balance for a cask strength whisky and a wall of flavour that sits perfectly on the palate. Outstanding.

Whisky #546: Glenfarclas Whisky & Wisdom Edition 2

January 12, 2019 by Whisky a Day 2 Comments

Glenfarclas Whisky & Wisdom Edition 2 (2008 Single Cask 10 Year Old). Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 59.8%. Tasted at Whisky a Day HQ (sample courtesy of Whisky & Wisdom).

Following on from Whisky & Wisdom’s first foray into bespoke bottling of a Glenfarclas in 2016, comes this second edition. Fellow Sydney-sider, self-described whisky tragic and the man behind one of my favourite whisky blogs (Whisky & Wisdom), Andrew Derbidge has hand selected this 10 year old single cask at the Glenfarclas distillery which yielded just 319 bottles at its natural cask strength of 59.8%. What a terrible way to spend an afternoon…sampling cask after cask of delicious whisky!

At the time, I rated the Glenfarclas Whisky & Wisdom 9 Year Old Single Cask as one of my top 10 whiskies I’ve ever had, hands down. Nothing has changed that opinion, it was a mesmerising whisky. Can the Glenfarclas Whisky & Wisdom Edition 2 live up to its elder sibling’s lofty standards? Let’s find out.

Colour: Deep honeycomb.

Nose: Juicy raisins, golden syrup, melting butter, and fresh leather. More time in the glass yields earthy almost musty notes with the rich undercurrent of dried sultanas.

Palate: A rich oily mouthfeel to start, with flavours and sensations like biting into orange and cherry chocolate liqueurs. Later sips seem to be like your tongue has wandered into a spice market – there’s a barrage of rich flavours competing for your attention. Orange toffee crisps, dried cranberries, cinnamon and dry cocoa powder.

Finish: Treacle, white pepper, cinnamon, cloves and a slightly prickly spice. A long gentle warmth with a drying mouthfeel and surprising slightly salty tang to finish.

Comments: It takes you on a journey this one, it simply demands your attention. It’s not your typical sherry bomb, there’s a lot more complexity and spice.

So how does it stack up to the first edition of Glenfarclas Whisky & Wisdom? They’re both quite different beasts, as you might expect for single cask whiskies despite sharing much of the same Glenfarclas DNA. Edition 1 was more akin to your typical Glenfarclas sherry bomb, whereas Edition 2 has an air of mystery and has a multi-layered personality. There’s just so many things to explore here – light and dark, sweetness and spice…your tastebuds are racing to keep up with the barrage of flavours popping around your mouth, as your mind gallops to keep up.

It’s not in my top 10 whiskies of all time like Edition 1, but geez it’s a tasty bit of juice and a very interesting expression of Glenfarclas. I’d be very interested to compare both editions of the Glenfarclas Whisky & Wisdom side by side (perhaps Andrew should organise a tasting!) but in the meantime I’ll be grabbing a couple of bottles of this before they are gone forever.

Whisky #525: Bowmore Straight From The Cask 2002 Signatory Vintage 12 Year Old Single Malt

April 3, 2018 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by Bowmore Straight From The Cask 2002 Signatory Vintage 12 Year Old Single Malt. Islay, Scotland. ABV: 57.4%. Tasted at Whisky a Day HQ, $225 (500mL bottle).

Straight from a single cask of Bowmore whisky distilled on 2nd October 2002 and bottled 12 years later on 25th August 2015. Matured in an ex Sherry cask, it yielded an outturn of only 342 bottles at a natural cask strength of 57.4% ABV.

Colour: Bright golden caramel.

Nose: Golden syrup and soft sultanas, soft oak and a gentle dustiness and light smoke. My trusted whisky tasting lieutenant Kiwi also picked up hazelnuts.

Palate: Rich flavours of sticky date pudding, smokey treacle, raisins and dried cranberries.

Finish: Smoky; salted liquorice and oak, with a long salty fade.

Comments: Sometimes you feel like lashing out on a special whisky to commemorate a special event or to reflect on something significant in your life. Today was Day 1 of a big promotion at work, an opportunity to take a step up to an exciting new role. This Bowmore Straight From The Cask was the bottle I chose to mark the occasion.

This is the whisky you reach for when you’re in a reflective mood. When you’re deep in thought about something important in your life and you just lean back to have a quiet moment to reflect. The celebration of a significant accomplishment; the anguish of disappointing someone you love – or anything on the spectrum in between.

And when reach to take another sip and your thoughts drift back to the whisky at hand, you realise there’s so much to appreciate in this drop. This is a real thinker’s whisky.

Whisky #479: GlenDronach 1990 Single Cask 24 Year Old Single Malt

May 29, 2017 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by GlenDronach 1990 Single Cask 24 Year Old Single Malt (Cask No.1020). Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 53.8%.

What kind of whisky do you have when you’re trying to have a self-imposed booze ban for the week? This kind of whisky.

Colour: Dark, rich treacle.

Nose: Caramelised pork hock. Buttery burnt sugar, musty bookshelves. I love that smell.

Palate: Oh it’s smooth…caramel sauce over vanilla ice cream. Warm pudding. It’s basically a dessert…sticky date pudding in a glass.

Finish: Blackberry jellies. More caramel oozing over the tastebuds as you sit back and let the sweet sugary notes fade as some soft woody notes emerge. Like sucking on the ice cream stick after you’ve devoured the ice-cream, you’re craving more and can’t believe it’s finished so quickly.

Comments: Matured in a Pedro Ximenez sherry puncheon, cask strength…this is phenomenal. I am trying to not have too much to drink this week as I’m competing in a powerlifting competition this Saturday for which I’ve been training the last 10 months. So if I was going to break the self-imposed pre-competition booze ban it had better be for a damn good whisky. This one fits the bill perfectly! Stunning.

Whisky #472: Tyrconnell Sherry Cask 10 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey

May 10, 2017 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by Tyrconnell Sherry Cask 10 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey. Riverstown, Dundalk, Ireland. ABV: 46%. Tasted at The Wild Rover, $21. Or in this case, $42 for a double!

Colour: Deep candlelit amber.

Nose: Buttery caramel notes. Blackberry jam.

Palate: Salted caramel and raspberry flavours swirl on your tongue. Caramelised rendered fat from a wagyu steak. Thin on the palate, but it takes the mind to more hearty places.

Finish: Dry and oaky, sweet red berries yet almost a bit salty and tannic.

Comments: It’s like a packet of fruit pastilles, but mainly the juicy red raspberry and blackberry ones. None of those dodgy lemon or orange ones, don’t waste my time with those fillers! You get a salty sweet hit, a few mixed berry notes and you’re left wanting to bite into some more.

In an ideal world, I would prefer to try this at cask strength – it’s very tasty, but I reckon it could have been so much more if it was bottled higher than 46%ABV. Though a 46%ABV whisky really seems to be a good balance in terms of appealing to as broad a segment of the market as possible. Excise considerations will always play a part in a distillery’s decision on what ABV a whisky will be bottled at. But putting that aside, for flavour reasons alone I believe it’s a very good whisky, but would have been amazing at a higher ABV.

Whisky #468: Adelphi Glenborrodale 8 Year Old Blended Malt Scotch Whisky

March 31, 2017 by Whisky a Day 1 Comment

by Adelphi Glenborrodale 8 Year Old Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (Batch 1). Scotland. ABV: 46%. Tasted at home, $152 (bottle).

A blended malt with an age statement…something a little different here.

Colour: It’s like licking a toffee with your eyeballs.

Nose: Rich blackcurrant jellies, freshly baked Anzac biscuits, liquorice, and an unexpected hint of earthy peat.

Palate: Blackcurrants again, but this time it’s blackcurrant jam on freshly toasted bread. Chocolate tart, the kind with the crumbly chocolate biscuit on the outside and then chocolate ganache on the inside. Maybe topped with some honeycomb and raspberries.

Finish: Caramel, chewy toffees, and a cool smokey finish…like some smoked biltong. Medium length.

Comments: For this batch of 1,226 bottles, Adelphi have put together a vatting in an ex sherry butt containing plenty of 8-year-old first-fill sherry from Glenrothes. The remaining single malts that make up this vatting are reportedly 14 years old, with their distilleries of origin being from all around Scotland.

The Adelphi Glenborrodale has a lot more character than your typical blend, which is not surprising given it’s a blended malt (a blend of single malts) rather than your typical blended whisky containing a blend of both single malt and single grain whisky (which tend to be slightly more mild in both flavour and mouthfeel). Sweeping generalisations, but worth mentioning for those readers who haven’t come across a blended malt before.

It’s an interesting drop, one that makes you really sit up and try to work out what the hell those familiar flavours are that you’re tasting and smelling. Enjoyable and a little different to many typical run of the mill whiskies. Certainly an interesting addition to the bar at Whisky a Day HQ.

Whisky #465: Glenfarclas Whisky & Wisdom 9 Year Old Single Cask

March 8, 2017 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by Glenfarclas Whisky & Wisdom 9 Year Old Single Cask. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 60.5%. Tasted at home, $229 (bottle).

Now this is a special drop. Fellow Sydneysider, Andrew Derbidge – Director & Cellarmaster of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Australia, and also the man behind one of my favourite whisky blogs, “Whisky & Wisdom” – personally selected this cask for a special Whisky & Wisdom bottling. The man has some damn fine tastebuds, this one is a cracker!

Colour: Boiling caramel.

Nose: Dried cranberries, sultanas and a freshly opened block of dark chocolate. Leather-bound books and rich mahogany…must resist the urge to quote Ron Burgundy…

Palate: The intensity of the flavours is amazing; it’s rich without being overpowering. Strawberries and raspberries – rich and syrupy with a bit of tartness. Rich, creamy toffee with chocolate biscuits. The alcohol isn’t too much either, more a gentle wave of heat that builds along with the berry and some toasted oak notes.

Finish: A gentle warmth that slowly fades, drying woody notes too. Front of the tongue gets most of the joy.

Comments: This really is the kind of whisky you pour yourself when you get home after a tough day, slump into a comfy leather chair and put on some music to drown out the world. Don’t even think of talking to me, this whisky is taking me places. It’s so well balanced, smoother than it’s 60.7% ABV would suggest, and eminently drinkable. Bucketloads of flavour and subtle power, it really is one of those whiskies that has the ability to make the mind drift off and unwind. Which also made it a challenge to review, as I was enjoying it so much and just wanted to drift away with each sip.

I won’t hesitate to say this is one of my top 10 whiskies I’ve ever had, hands down.

Andrew selected this cask at the Glenfarclas Distillery. It must have been a tough job to taste all those contenders, but he eventually settled upon a 1st-fill European oak sherry butt that was distilled in 2007 and bottled as a 9 year old cask strength single malt in January 2016. If you want to hear more about how Andrew decided on this particular cask, check out the Whisky & Wisdom page.

Whisky #463: GlenDronach 2003 Single Cask (Oak Barrel Exclusive) 12 Year Old Single Malt

February 28, 2017 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by GlenDronach 2003 Single Cask (Oak Barrel Exclusive) 12 Year Old Single Malt (Cask No. 3492). Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 53.8%. Tasted at home, $179 (bottle).

What. A. Day. Is it just me or does anybody else like to reward themselves by splurging on a good bottle of whisky when you’ve gotten something over the line? For me, today was one of those days.

When I’m not reviewing copious amounts of whisky for Whisky a Day, in my day job I lead a team of human factors consultants. Today was the delivery of a huge report for a client, the culmination of the last 7 months’ work. Suffice to say, putting the feet up and celebrating with a full-flavoured cask strength dram was definitely the best way to unwind!

Colour: Molten copper.

Nose: Like shoving your nose into a big handful of sultanas or muscatels. Big juicy dried fruit aromas with some dusty dark chocolate cocoa notes too. The 53.8% ABV gives you a slight tug of the old nostril hairs to give you a nudge to prepare your tastebuds for what’s to come.

Palate: That sugary/salty tang of blackcurrant pastilles. Salted caramel and vanilla – it really takes me back to my childhood. No, I wasn’t smashing whisky when I was in primary school, it just instantly reminded me of chewing on some jersey caramel lollies at my grandparents’ place.

Finish: Slightly salty, oaky tang with some gentle heat that lingers at the front of the mouth.

Comments: Hand selected for The Oak Barrel, my go-to independent bottle shop in Sydney. 12 years in an Oloroso sherry puncheon. What a dram it’s got everything. And do I feel relaxed? It’s so good I’ve now had three drams and I’m feeling very unwound! Highly recommended.

Whisky #445: Hyde No.1 President’s Cask 10 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey

December 18, 2016 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by Hyde No.1 President’s Cask 10 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey. County Cork, Ireland. ABV: 46%. Tasted at home, $140 (bottle).

Colour: Shiny amber.

Nose: Quite a light nose. Dried figs, a bit floral.

Palate: Bam – the flavours intensify and hit you all at once. Salty creme brûlée. Dried pear. Toasted malt. Fresh oak. A bit of a surprise after the soft nose lulled you into a false sense of security.

Finish: Dried apricots, caramelised figs, burnt toffee. Medium length, dryish mouthfeel as the flavours fade away.

Comments: An outstanding drop, so easy to drink but still with bucketloads of flavour. Hyde are another relatively new kid on the block in terms of Irish whiskey (think Glenglassaugh, Teeling). This first release has an initial 10 years’ maturation in charred first-fill bourbon barrels, followed by a 10 month finishing period in first-fill Oloroso Sherry casks.

“A 100% Irish whiskey from one single distillery” according to their website (http://hydewhiskey.ie/our-whiskey/), but word on the street is that the whisky was sourced from Cooley Distillery…an entirely legitimate way of a young distillery still establishing themselves to have a marketable product whilst the spirit distilled in their own new facility is busy maturing. Hyde expect to release their own whiskey in about 5 years, and if this release is an insight to the flavour profile that they’re aiming for, I can’t wait to try some of their first releases in a few years’ time.

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

December 5, 2016 by Whisky a Day 1 Comment

by Cadenhead 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 #441: New World Projects Starward Limited Release Pedro Ximinez Sherry Cask #3

November 26, 2016 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by New World Projects Starward Limited Release Pedro Ximinez Sherry Cask #3 (Batch No. 160920-A). Victoria, Australia. ABV: 48.0%. Tasted at home, $120 (bottle).

Colour: Molten copper. Stunning.

Nose: Like opening a roll of blackcurrant pastilles. Toffee and some soft fresh pine timber notes too.

Palate: Crème caramel with the barest hint of smoke. Definitely not peaty. Fresh, tart raspberries and crème brûlée. It’s creamy and caramelly. Lots of flavour, a dryish mouthfeel but with some creaminess too. Like a sponge cake with cream.

Finish: Butter Menthols, chocolate and cocoa; some coffee notes too. It’s basically a tiramisu.

Comments: This is like a liquid dessert, yet is not overly sweet. It’s refreshing to try a whisky matured in an ex Sherry cask that doesn’t taste like the stereotypical Christmas cake in a glass. Another outstanding whisky from the folks at New World Whisky Distillery, makers of Starward. Highly recommended.

Whisky #409: GlenDronach Batch 3 Cask Strength Single Malt

May 22, 2016 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by Glendronach Batch 3 Cask Strength Single Malt. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 54.90%. Tasted at home, $162 (bottle).

Seeing as Saturday was World Whisky Day, I decided that was a good a reason as any to lash out on a new whisky. I got home and cracked it open with intentions of doing my review, but I was enjoying it so much I dared not ruin the moment by over-analysing it. So I sat back, poured a second dram (ok…and a third), and here I am two days later, doing a belated World Whisky Day review.

Colour: Brilliant bronze.

Nose: Buttery toffee, strawberries & cream, raspberry sticks of rock. A tangy raspberry note too; it’s not all sweetness.

Palate: Creamy orange liqueur, sweet oak and hints of chocolate. It’s not the syrupy sherry bomb that one might expect from Glendronach (especially a cask strength release), it’s far more nuanced yet still recognisable.

Finish: A gentle long, warm finish with hints of muscatels, dark chocolate and dried raspberries.

Comments: This really is a whisky you can pour, sit back in a comfy chair, put on some background music and let the cask strength flavours ease your troubles and take your mind off all life’s worries. It’s effortlessly drinkable; full flavoured yet smooth. It’s not a dram for those taking their first steps into the wonderful world of whisky as it’s possibly a little intense. But for those who love the house style of Glendronach or who appreciate a cask strength dram that gradually reveals layers of flavour and aroma with each sip, this is a ripper. Recommended.