A hand-picked Single Sherry Cask Octave. It’s from a Secret Highland Distillery. Distilled: 2011 & bottled: 2021, limited to 92 bottles.
Whiskey chap
Appearance
Mid gold in colour, the medium thick swirl line beads up straight away into large teardrops which become very thick legs. #thewhiskeychaps
Nose
No when I poured these his reminded me of the wood and bubblegum in the Ardmore, but it’s moved on from that now. Definitely getting plenty of wood with this one, foresty again, and the aromas are coming across quite dense, may need a drop of water to open. #thewhiskeychaps
Yes sherry cask dark fruits are here, they are quite compact atm, raw linseed comes with dates, dandelion and burdock, chocolate coated raisins, wood varnish, and a hazelnut chocolate spread thing going on. #thewhiskeychaps
Juice from a jar of cocktail cherries, there’s a lot to open up here, I’ll see what the palate offers, and it may need a drop of water too I think. #thewhiskeychaps
Palate
Again nice and thick, and there’s an almost lime cordial thing going on, perhaps even pickle juice, which always brings me to a touch of menthol. The wood isn’t over the top either, perfect timing I’d say, and there’s a lovely sweetness running with it. #thewhiskeychaps
Darker heavier sherry fruits and red berries come through, cigar leaves and some dunnage, coffee grounds. The lime cordial flavour is still around but is diminished some now, and there’s faint drying. I will be tasting this with water at some point too. #thewhiskeychaps
Finish
Quite long, and thick, plenty of sherry notes, more than I can describe here tbh, but a very nice dram indeed. #thewhiskeychaps
My thoughts
From the start i found this whisky quite closed on the nose and palate, it’s one that needs lots of time to open up, and possibly a drop of water too. That being said, once it does open up there’s so much in this whisky. There is so much richness and depth to be explored, i could easily sit with a pour for an hour or more, enjoying it develop.
Some consider octaves a kind of cheating way to gain extra maturation, fast forwarding the maturation as such. Personally i just want to know what the whisky tastes like, and i can report that i really enjoyed this bottling. The only thing i will add as an extra is that if someone just poured and slugged back a dram of this they’d miss out on the main show, patience is required in my opinion, the reward is impressive.
A big thank you goes out to Andrew from Little Brown Dog spirits who joined us on the tasting that this whisky was a part of.
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