Cadenhead Tomintoul-Glenlivet 12 Yr 50ml
$10.99
This is the mini bottle from Day 5 of the 2018 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar.
This Cadenhead 50mL mini bottle was distilled at Tomintoul in Speyside. It is a 12-year-old bottling, distilled in 2006 and matured in Bourbon Barrels. The whisky was bottled by independent bottler WM Cadenhead for their French importer Dugas, at 55.5%. Dugas didn’t take the entirety of the bottling, so the stock was made available for our Advent Calendar.
Andrew’s Tasting Note
Nose: very decadent, strawberry puff candies and caramel; French crepes with powdered sugar and lemon juice; chunky barley and Old English Butterscotch.
Palate: strawberry puzz candies and red shoelace candy; waxy, creamy and honeyed; lusher than expected; buttery French crepes, light on the powdered sugar but drowning in lemon juice; sliced apples and more chewy malt; late decadent spice.
Finish: light with tingling spices and coating oak; decadent and creamy with more strawberry, apple and lemon.
Comment: I had low expectations based on the nose, but was pleasantly surprised by the palate!
Springbank 10 Year Visitor Center 50mL
$12.99
Featured on Day 17 of the Kensington Wine Market 2018 Whisky Advent Calendar! Distilled 2008, bottled 2018 at 10 years of age from a First-Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel. 46%. Only available in full-sized bottled from the distillery, and 50mls at KWM!
Andrew’s Tasting Note
Nose: I am immediately drawn to the fruitiness of the whisky, like opening assorted pots of jam near a peat fire; loads of decadent ripe berry fruits, honey and tarry peat oils; freshly peeled oranges and lemons too.
Palate: round, malty and fruity with more round, doughy peat oils; salty-ashy smoke and more bright berry fruits; honey, marmalade and jam on the palate with white chocolate and shortbread; the body is thick and coating.
Finish: long, honeyed and creamy; gently smoky and ashy with more berry and citrus fruits tones.
Comment: this is old school Springbank, worthy of a pilgrimage to the most traditional distillery in Scotland!
Kilkerran 10 Year Visitor Center 50ml
$11.69
This is the visitor center bottling from Glengyle Distillery, aka Kilkerran, in Campbeltown. The good folks at J. & A. Mitchell & Co, aka Springbank, Glengyle and Cadenhead, in Campbeltown, were keen to take part in our 2018 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar, and this is what they came up with.
We didn’t get full-sized bottles, you have to go to the distillery for those, but we do have a surplus of 50mls, and we couldn’t be more pleased. The whisky is only available at the distillery, and KWM!
46% - Matured in First Fill Ex-Bourbon –
Andrew’s Tasting Note
Nose: vanilla custard and tapioca pudding; dried lemon and honeydew melons; white chocolate marzipan and fresh cut flowers; gentle malt with a hint of clean smoke and sea breeze.
Palate: creamy, malty and floral; building clean peat smoke and more sea breeze; more marzipan and building tarry smoke; a touch of lemon and melons.
Finish: creamy, malty and floral; the finish is medium in length, oily and coating.
Comment: there is a lot more smoke here than I expected, but that is far from disappointing; a love the batch variation found in both Springbank and Kilkerran whiskies; this one is not mind-blowingly complex, but it is very drinkable!”
First Editions Aberlour 1995 KWM 50ml
$11.89
This is our 2nd single cask of Aberlour, and our first ever exclusive single cask under the First Editions label. Only 151 bottles were filled from a Refill Hogshead cask, Ref: HL14881, bottled at 58.8% after 23 years. The whisky was featured on Day 23 of our 2018 KWM Whisky Calendar.
Shelter Point Single Malt KWM Cask 50mL
$11.69
Available in limited quantities in MINI / 50mL form! Our first ever KWM exclusive single cask of Canadian single malt whisky is from our friends at Shelter Point Distillery on Vancouver Island. Distilled in May 2012, Cask No. 206 was selected by the KWM team and bottled in October of this year at 6 years of age. Only 162 total bottles. 59%.
This KWM Cask Single Malt from Shelter Point was featured on Day 6 of our 2018 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar. Full-sized bottles can be found here.
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: honeyed and fruity with juicy malt; a soft earthy minerality makes way for Jujubes and warm apple-cinnamon pie; fall grasses and faint sea breeze; orange and subtle cloves.
Palate: round, juicy, fruity and warming; chewy malt, barley sugars and loads of candied citrus; the warm apple-cinnamon pie fresh from the oven is still there as are the Jujubes and honey tones; the body is smooth and creamy with soft spices; a touch of savoury maritime notes.
Finish: warm, coating, decadent and fruity; the finish is long and smooth.
Comment: this 6-year-old Canadian single malt is lovely; it is fruity and round with some lovely layers and oils; it is a sure sign of the even greater things still to come from Shelter Point!
GlenAllachie 12 Year 50mL
$11.49
Part of the Distillery's new core range, the 12 year is bottled unchill-filtered without added colouring after maturing in a mix of virgin oak as well as PX and Oloroso sherry casks.
The GlenAllachie 12 Year is one of the newly independent distillery’s first core releases, alongside a cask strength 10 Year, 18 Year and 25 Year. As with the BenRiach Distillery Co.’s whiskies, Billy Walker has opted to bottle at 46% without colouring or chill-filtering. That tugs at our heartstrings!
The GlenAllachie 12 year was featured on Day 12 of our own 2018 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar.
The full-sized bottle of the GlenAllachie 12-year-old can be found here.
Andrew’s Tasting Note
Nose: Old English Butterscotch ice cream, plum pudding, silky soft leather gloves and tangy Manuka honey; dark chocolate shavings and white chocolate Hershey’s Kisses.
Palate: rich, fruity and layered; a beautifully balanced melange of both sherry and bourbon notes; more Old English Butterscotch, Manuka honey and plum pudding; Fruit by the Foot, with cooked raisins and dried prunes; salty licorice and dark bakers chocolate towards the back.
Finish: medium in length and intensity; still very balanced and smooth.
Comment: if this is a sign of things to come we are all in store for some great bottlings from the next it Speyside distillery.
Distiller's Tasting Note
Nose: Butterscotch and honey playing the lead, with raisins and mocha in the background.
Taste: Honey, marzipan and bananas, with lashings of butterscotch, raisins and a delicate hint of mocha.
Distiller's Description
"In this era of mergers and consolidations we go against the grain; an independent, Scottish owned and managed whisky company. We chose to step away from the corporate treadmill and short-term targets. Instead, we focus on the important things; making great whisky and enjoying life.
"It is in this tradition that we would like to introduce the most important release in the history of The GlenAllachie Distillers Company; GlenAllachie 12 year old, the heart of our range, a landmark bottling. Our best casks selected and bottled under the careful eye of our Master Distiller Billy Walker."
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 134.3
$379.99
Compass Box The Spice Tree 50ml
$9.89
Featured on Day 12 of KWM Whisky Advent 2019, this is a 50ml of the legendary Compass Box Spice Tree Blended Malt Scotch Whisky. The original version of this whisky was so clever and innovative that the SWA (Read: Scotch Whisky Association [Read: Lords of Mediocrity]) banned it. So John Glaser of Compass Box came back to the table with a whisky that seems to dance through the hoops the SWA has placed before him. Whisky from 1st and 2nd fill bourbon casks have a secondary maturation in custom casks with heavily toasted new French oak heads. 46% NCF.
Evan’s Tasting Note
Nose: Fruit and woody spice notes. Like you are dipping assorted fruits (pineapple and honeydew cubes, apple slices, grapes, and more) into a chocolate fountain. Mocha and Chocolate mousse, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and espresso beans.
Palate: Oily and creamy fruit, but the wood spices shows up quite a bit as well. Peaches & cream, fruit & nut bars, french press coffee, candied ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, fruit cup syrup and grapefruit slices.
Finish: The fruit and spice mingle and linger before a dry nuttiness takes over at the end. Think toasted almonds with a light dusting of cinnamon powder.
Comment: Quite rich and round – the spice is there but it is so well integrated with the sweet fruit notes that it is never an attack. A very well put-together dram in the core range of Compass Box.
From the Producer
"A long time ago, we created a rich, bold Scotch whisky called The Spice Tree. Unfortunately, due to its avant garde method of oak-aging, we were compelled by the powers that be to discontinue production. Undeterred, we worked with our cooper friends in both France and Scotland to develop a new, hybrid oak cask that would allow us to achieve similar results, but in a way that would be acceptable to even the most conservative of observers. Et voila, THE SPICE TREE was resurrected – matured using a custom-made cask with French oak for the heads and American oak for the bodies. THE SPICE TREE is a rich, intense malt whisky redolent of baking spices and layered with toasty oak accents that complement the underlying distillery character."
Whisky Advent 2019 MLR12
$8.39