313 of these were specifically bottled for The W Club by the Campbeltown distillery. A first fill ruby port hogshead was used to age this expression for six years before it was bottled at cask strength or 55.8 per cent. It is devoid of chill filtering and synthetic colouring.
Appearance: Tropical sunset amber, almost orange. A thick viscous film forms on the glass. Both long and short legs, all of which are medium thickness. Everything coins to the glass like glue.
Nose: The ABV is immediately evident on the nose. Heaps of dried fruits and ashy BBQ’ing steak.
Orchard fruits: pears and red apple follow on from the initial aromas,v asking with brown sugar and toffee.
As the glass matures the dried fruit salad morph into dark and red berry jam.
There’s a single mocha note underpinning the more prominent aromas.
The Smokey BBQ aromas grow in prominence the longer the dram reacts with the air and is agitated.
I’m expecting a fair bit of spice on the palate, judging by the nose.
Palate: There’s a proper ABV heat and tingle. Lovely warming and buttery mouthfeel. There is white pepper spice, but it’s well balanced with a berry fruit bowl sweetness. There are still plenty of black and red berry notes, consistent with the nose.
A wood note starts to appear after the second or third sip, slightly tannic and bitter.
The wood spice grows as the dram progress, contrasting with the sweet elements.
Finish: Medium in length. Pepper dusted black and red berries. A trace of slight bitterness and those wood spices.
Overall: It’s a very pleasant dram. I really liked it, but I don’t love it. The bitterness is slightly offputting and is prefer more jamminess (I have a ‘thing’ about jammy whisky at the moment!).
