Soctch Malt Whisky Society 29.110
$107.09
WILD WEST COWBOY DRESSED IN LEATHER: Panel's Tasting Note: "We identified various typical aromas - sea breezes, shell sand, burnt sticks, embers, smoke, and crispy duck on the barbeque – but also vanilla, liquorice, lime, tobacco and fresh laundry flapping on the clothes-line. Mineral notes increased with water – quarries, flint, crushed rock, lobster shells and distant tarmac lorries – also nettles, sorrel and thyme. The palate, at natural strength, was big and busty – a tobacco-chewing, cigar-smoking, Wild West cowgirl dressed in leather. In reduction, sweet malt flavours came through, along with tar, ash, liquorice, dark chocolate, rhubarb and German Salbei throat sweets (sage). From the 'love it or hate it' distillery." Drinking tip: "For reflective moments, preferably by the seashore."
Glen Garioch 1994
$71.99
Amrut Portonova
$129.99
This port matured Amrut was a big hit at the Victoria Whisky Festival in 2011 and one of my favourite whiskies at the show. This limited edition expression has been bottled at a cask strength of 62.1%.
Distiller's Tasting Note
Nose: A Thick pudding of a nose; fruit and caramel have merged into one slightly over-oaked soup; burnt apple pie
Taste: This is essentially a port pipe sandwich.... and it shows. The spicy, jammy fruit is interwoven through any amount of caramel while the oaky saltiness gets the taste buds both salivating and puckering until you run dry
Finish: Long, massive oak with quite evident traces of the virgin barrels now detectable. And more of a cocoa hue as it progresses. At last some muscovado sugars arrive to supplant the berry fruits
Arran Malt Cask Strength 12 Year
$69.29
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 5.33
$101.69
SOLD OUT! - Not expected to return to KWM!
A CHARMING EVOCATION OF SUMMER
10 years old and 60.4% after maturing in a refill hogshead cask.
Panel's Tasting Note: "The nose was a fresh and charming evocation of summer – apple pie, cinnamon, rhubarb and custard, pineapple juice, lime, papaya, pear and banana. To taste, we found it a sweet and citric mix – lemon curd on digestive biscuits, sherbet lemons, grape skins, flying saucers, etc. – but along with that, some varnished pine and green beans. The reduced nose was very pleasant, with light vegetable oil, cider or perry, cranberry juice, icing sugar and a forest glade with boulders, after the rain. The reduced palate found Empire biscuits and pleasant creamy textures – exceedingly drinkable. From a distillery just west of Glasgow."
Drinking Tip: "To relax - maybe after a bath."
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 23.70
$98.09
SOLD OUT! - Not expected to return to KWM!
CAMPFIRE BY SEA CLIFFS
Only 9 years old from a refill hogshead this whisky is a massive 66%...
Panel's Tasting Note: "The nose had herbal notes (witch hazel, eucalyptus, bog myrtle) intimations of sea cliffs and then walnuts, peppered olive oil, biltong, toffee and ladies' handbags (leather, nail varnish, parma violets, maybe cigarette packets). The taste was huge – peat smoke, engine oil, smoked ham, dark chocolate, toffee bonbons and somehow both salty and chalky. The reduced nose found syrup, mango skins, tarred ropes and a pine forest by the sea. The reduced palate was still minerally (licking a limestone cave), with star anise, red peppercorns and a campfire among the ferns – very curious indeed! From the biggest distillery on the Rinns."
Drinking Tip: "A dram for going camping."
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 105.15
$179.99
SOLD OUT! - Not expected to return to KWM!
TONIC TO LIFT THE SPIRITS
After 28 years in a first fill sherry hogshead this whisky has retained its strength nicely at 55.4%.
Panel's Tasting Note: "Clean, fresh and simple on the nose, with saddle soap and leather polish tostart, then dentists' mouthwash, pine needles and tonic water, with 'Daim Bar' (praline covered with chocolate) after a while. Not as sweet a taste as expected; cooling mint and liquorice; slightly salty, but with chocolate in the aftertaste. The cooling effect becomes more pronounced with water – minty and mentholated ('Hoola-Hoola Ice Powder', for those who have been to Thailand); caramel, tobacco and nasturtiums. Now much sweeter to taste, though still lightly mouth-cooling, with dark chocolate in the finish. The distillery, built in the 1950s, was designed by a Past resident of the Royal Academy."
Drinking Tip: "A chill-out dram after dangerous sports."
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 53.158
$124.19
SOLD OUT! - Not expected to return to KWM!
COAL TAR MEETS PORK SAUSAGE
This Ieach is 58.6% after 15 years in a Refill Hogshead cask.
Panel's Tasting Note: "Mild and clean, with Coal Tar soap and Calamine Lotion; pine cones and needles; crepe bandage, Elastoplast, plaster cast; a suggestion of pork and rosemary sausages. The taste at this stage is very sweet, salty and smoky, with peppermint and Lapsang Suchong tea. Water reduces the aroma and makes it more floral, less clean, more medicinal (antiseptic cream), less meaty, and now with a pickled ginger note. A soft mouth-feel; not quite as sweet as formerly, and slightly less smoky. Some noted a trace of pickled herring. A polite and subtle expression of the make from Islay's largest distillery, at Port Askaig.
Drinking Tip: "Preparing the barbeque."
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 44.51
$146.69
SOLD OUT! - Not expected to return to KWM!
MAKING CANDELS IN THE ART ROOM
This 22 year old has been bottled at 53.7% after maturing in a refill hoggy.
Panel's Tasting Note: "Warm, dripping candlewax, maybe making candles by dipping wicks. Then the aroma quickly passes through leather cream, floor polish and furniture polish to crayons - a school art room - before revealing a scented dimension (bog myrtle?). We were all reminded of (happy) schooldays. At natural strength it tastes like it smells, with the addition of toasted tea-cake. A splash of water freshens and raises more fragrance – bog myrtle, sage, lemon grass and lemon peel – but the waxiness remains. Now the taste is sweet, smooth and waxy, with some spicy/herbal notes, light eucalyptus and scented sandalwood or cedar wood. Sir Peter Mackie once owned this distillery."
Drinking Tip: "A school reunion - with good friends."