Glenfarclas Family Collection 1966 Fino

$1,699.99

Scotch Malt Whisky Society 35.74

$156.59

SOPHISTICATED, HEAVENLY AND DECADENT

A 20 year old Speysider at 58.4% from a 2nd fill dump hogshead

Flavour profile:  Old & dignified

Outturn:  264 bottles

Panel's tasting note:  "On the nose oodles of sweet fruitiness – sangria, peach schnapps, fruits in syrup, orange Creamola Foam, limes, plums, pomegranates – also scented candles and leather-bound books on polished oak shelves. With water, we   imagined old-fashioned ice-cream parlours – coffee, vanilla, hot fudge sauce, milk shakes, chocolate and cherries – the works.  The palate is weighty, deep, long, sophisticated, fabulous – orange oil, chocolate, toffee, coffee, pomegranates and lychees. In reduction – gooey sponge cake, rum baba, grapefruit and cocoa – heavenly, even decadent; the panel purred. One panellist commented – coffee for gentlemen, sangria for ladies, chocolate and ice-cream for youngsters – something for everyone.  The distillery was converted from a brewery by Thorne’s in 1897."

Drinking tip:  "When deserving a reward or feeling hedonistic"

Scotch Malt Whisky Society 7.94

$201.59

SILK SARONG SEDUCTION

A 27 year old Speysider at 55.6% from a refill hogshead

Flavour profile:  Old & dignified

Outturn:  164 bottles

Panel's tasting note:  "Caramels swimming in the foam of a chocolate porter; apricot liqueur spilled on a ballroom floor; a leather purse, tanned with Burgundy and sultriness, left on a barstool. The mouth is a silk sarong of smuggled rum and toasted acorns held in the arms of a woman with perfume dabbed on her wrists. A little water gives us her mouth, shaped like a fresh fig, after she’s washed down almond macaroons and orange fudge with cola gone flat on the site of an old chapel in Elgin. Finishing with betel nuts wrapped in honeyed firefly wings for sweetness and light."

Drinking tip:  "Anniversary dinner; after the cake, before the kiss"

Scotch Malt Whisky Society 24.126

$211.49

THE ARTIST'S LOUNGE

A 23 year old Speysider at 56.1% from a refill sherry hogshead

Flavour profile:  Old & dignified

Outturn:  191 bottles

Panel's tasting note:  "The panel were transported to a lounge of the Dutch masters. A still life of dried fruits, orange pomanders and spiced plums set in a wooden panelled room with piles of leather books. An artist's palette of drying paint, linseed rags and turpentine littered the scene. Blackcurrant pastille, and prune juice held chunky caramelized pork crackling and egg nog characters in check. With dilution, pomegranate, orange and cinnamon juggled with dark chocolate and waves of waxy varnish. Glazed and smoked duck with a sticky orange and roasted onion chutney completed the rich molten experience from this much loved distillery."

Drinking tip:  "When intensity and riches are required"

Scotch Malt Whisky Society 48.46

$125.99

EXPLODING FLOWER

A 12 year old Speysider from a 1st fill barrel at 57.4%

Flavour profile:  Sweet, fruity & mellow

Outturn:  216 bottles

Panel's tasting note:  "The nose started with linoleum and green leaf, but slowly opened like a flower – vanilla sponge, Danish pastries, toffee, some fruit (strawberry, banana) and floral notes (gentian, rosewater, gorse). The neat palate was assertive, but complex and unusually bitter-sweet – ‘biting an orange’, tutti-frutti, jelly beans – one panellist found a honey, vodka and gunpowder mixture, but he self-combusted and didn’t trouble us anymore. With water, the nose became freshly intriguing, with tinned fruit salad, old-fashioned lemonade, tree-bark, liquorice and menthol. The palate was now really rather pleasant – juicy, sweet and refreshing, with peach and pear balancing clove and aniseed spice."

Drinking tip:  "Improves with water - would be a suitable conversational dram - or maybe with dessert"

Glenfarclas 1966 Family Cask

$1,749.99

Scotch Malt Whisky Society 53.206

$155.69

OOH MATRON!

This 18 year old from Islay is from a refill hogshead at 56.6%

Flavour profile:  Peated

Outturn:  284 bottles

Panel's tasting note:  "Occasionally the panel takes on a confessional tone, hence anonymity. Freshly laundered Matron's uniform and wishful thinking of kissing her lavender-balmed lips. First Aid boxes and carbolic soap.  Coal sacks, sweet peat and sea shells reminded the panel where this beauty hailed from. With water, one fantasist imagined downing an oyster before a coal fire. Newly opened gauze and Arm and Hammer mouthwash. They found the mineral character was replaced by a sweetness of honey glazed lamb and blueberry. With their temperatures suitably raised the panel departed to dream all the way home."

Drinking tip:  "Sweet dreams guaranteed" 

Scotch Malt Whisky Society R3.5

$112.49

MARMITE XO

This 11 year old rum from Barbados came from a refill butt and packs a punch at 74.8%

Flavour profile:  Oily & coastal

Outturn:  427 bottles

Panel's tasting note:  "After the initial dishwashing liquid start we get various fishy aromas of grilled mackerel, salmon sushi, tuna sashimi and dolphin (‘not a dolphin‘). Carrying on in the oriental theme, spring roll, sweet potato tempura but also spring onions, chives, Vegemite and Marmite XO. Ouch!!! Only for the brave to taste neat. Adding water, Chai spiced milk tea, rye bread with butter, spicy caraway seeds but also sweet, vinegary and salty like Rollmops. Much more approachable now on the palate, sweet dumplings and a thick crusted slightly burned blue cheese and onion chutney pizza covered with olives and anchovies. This most peculiar rum comes from the Caribbean island believed to be the home of the oldest rum distillery from 1703."

Drinking tip:  "With Japanese or Italian food"  

Nikka Taketsuru 25 Year

$1,043.99

This is a bloody rare whisky, only 120 bottles have been exported from Japan to the west and KWM has been able to put our hands on a dozen of them, with just 2 left for sale! The whisky is bottled at 43% and is exceptionally floral and tropical! Made from malt whiskies aged at least 25 years, this new flagship offers floral aromas with soft sherry notes and a touch of sweetness from its long oak maturation. A hint of peat comes through on the complex finish.

First introduced in Japan on May 29th 2012, the limited release Nikka Taketsuru 25 Year, like the rest of the Taketsuru range, is a Pure of Blended Malt. The range also includes 12, 17 and 21 year olds which are increasingly rare and hard to find. The whisky hails from the two Nikka distilleries in the north of Japan: Yoichi and Miyagikyo. Created as a tribute to their founder Masataka Taketsuru, the Taketsuru whisky range is subtle, elegant and refined. 

Distiller's Tasting Note (Suspect this is translated from Japanese, something may have been lost a little in translation!)

Nose: Refined aroma. A flamboyant and floral fragrance is tempered by a moderate sherry scent and sweet barrel-aged aroma. Add to this an accent of peat, with further delicate notes of citrus, raisins, and cookies.

Palate: Graceful taste. A rich, all-prevailing mellow barrel sweeteness is balanced by a touch of bitter acridity of peat. Sit back and savour the haunting bitter after taste that follows the initial elegant sweetness.