Single Oloroso sherry cask #301264.
I do whisky sample swaps with whisky folks on Twitter, and quite often i find it difficult to decide on which sample i should enjoy and review next. So i posted a poll on Twitter of 4 whiskies i had taken from my samples draw, i’d numbered them from 1-4 and asked Twitter folk to pick one for me.
This was the result of the 24hr poll, a dram very kindly sent to me by Chris, a Twitter whisky friend (a button to follow Chris on Twitter can be found at the bottom of this review).
And the winner from the start and by some way is (drum roll plz 🥁🥁🥁🥁) ⬇️
— Dram it Mick! (@StillSurreal) September 5, 2021
Thank you Chris-@chris_f74 for the generous sample mate, I shall be enjoying it later and will be writing some notes too 🥃 pic.twitter.com/QRXnyZmuTZ
So here we go, a single cask whisky from Caol Ila, a distillery on Islay, fully matured for 13yrs in a 1st fill Oloroso Hogshead barrel
Appearance
Colour wise we have an amazing mahogany brown with a reddish hue. It has a super syrupy thick swirl line, very slowly dropping medium thick legs and teardrops.
Nose
It’s big, it’s bold, it’s an absolute sherry bomb of a dram. Initially there is a royal icing sweetness that soon moves on, then lots of bbq cooked bacon, lovely brown sugar, a slight menthol note, another sweet note with cola cubes, lots of stewed dark fruits and a light and sweet fragrant perfume
More time brings hardwood sawdust, spicy fisherman’s friends throat lozenges, an old style cough syrup and juniper. Now the nose is becoming spicier with black pepper coated ham, cinnamon and cardamom, and a dustiness comes through also.
Palate
Medium thick mouthfeel initially, and then a massive Peated Sherry blast, with loads of baking spices/5 spices, Sherry soaked mince pie filling/Christmas pudding. Black liquorice forces it’s way through, fisherman’s friends throat lozenges come through from the nose also, it’s soooo spicy.
More time brings black treacle almost molasses, nutmeg, vanilla pastries, cloves and figs, flat Dr Pepper, bonfire ash and hazelnuts. Right at the end of the palate i found mocha coffee, with some grapefruit bitterness.
Finish
Once my mouth acclimatised to the onslaught of gorgeous sherry sumptuousness the finish settles down to become chest warmingly spicy, and that grapefruit/pomelo bitterness increases slightly. Toasted cask, light tannins, with blood oranges/dark chocolate orange with chilli’s, bring the final flourish to a long side of medium in length finish.
Going back to the drying glass it’s all about cigar leaves and toasted cask.
My thoughts
Well, what a belter of a dram, soooo much flavour, and a very good cask too. I’d venture to say this is a proper sherry/peat bomb, it has been an absolute pleasure to drink it to be honest. I’m sure i saw this online for around £80, it’s not cheap, but you get so much for your money, you might not look at other whiskies the same way afterwards. Gorgeous stuff 🥰.
Notes – This whisky is natural in colour and is non chill filtered.
Image credit – Royal Mile whiskies.
Thanks to Chris for the sample, follow him on Twitter here ⬇
Follow @chris_f74
