whiskynotes.be

Brine and seaweed, a light irony touch, then overripe apples and oranges, with hints of fresh herbs. Some very nutty notes alongside butter toffee – the sherry cask influence is a little musty. Mouth: still some briney punch, now going hand in hand with blackcurrant jam and a woody note that’s fragrant and bitter at the same time. I already picked up more wood a couple of years ago, but the clove and bitterness feels a little out of check here.

It is a vintage 1987 distillation, fully matured in refill ex-bourbon barrels, showing hints of peaty aniseed and creamy liquorice. The first release Warehouse 2 batch #001 is bottled at a higher strength of 49.7% ABV (3600 bottles in total) and is a combination of unseasoned casks (virgin oak?), sherry seasoned butts from Vasyma, sherry barrels (?) from Tevasa, ex-bourbon barrels and port pipes. There are two new globally available expressions: There’s also a series of five national exclusives, allocated to European countries on an exclusive basis (UK, France, Germany, Belgium and Netherlands). We already mentioned the Springbank Local Barley 2020 – 10 Years before, but it’s now clear that it has a glorious Oloroso colour and that it will be available in the UK from 26th of March.

Each year on the 14th of February, Elixir Distillers release a new Rosebank expression in their 7-part series The Roses. It is a 21 year-old single malt, a combination of 1990 and 1991 triple-distilled spirit matured in ex-Madeira casks and American oak barrels. Nose: a lot of rubbed lemon skin, mixed with subtle grassy notes and white peaches. Mouth: all the more citrusy, now slightly candied with added hints of stewed apples, green banana and whiffs of bergamot.

We’ve had a look at the second non-US batch, which included some interesting names like Imperial, Clynelish, Invergordon… Nose: quite a warm fruitiness at first, on overripe peaches and pears on syrup. Mouth: you get a sense of old Speyside fruitiness, slightly thin but showing a pretty unique combination of wet chalk, citrus peels again, wee notes of cardboard and hints of green tea. Mouth: here as well the classic citrusy fruitiness is noticeable but overtaken a little by mint, nutmeg and allspice, as well as some herbs (rosemary, aniseed). At this point I started asking myself: is it a deliberate strategy to pick uncommon, slightly deviant casks, or is it simply the casks that brokers couldn’t get rid of?