Tastes

A malty lemon nose. Flavors of Custard Cream biscuits that dissolve into honey throat lozenges. See cask #31 for more information on this series.

Functional, if it’s an open bar and the other options are bottom shelf bourbon.

The Unholy Triumvirate is a series of four different finishes of Compass Box’s Great King St Artist’s Blend created for a trio of stores in Massachusetts. Each version was produced by putting the regular blend into a cask that previously held another whisky and leaving it there for a year of secondary maturation. These single marrying casks, to use the Compass Box terminology, each produced between 240 and 318 bottles at a punchy ABV of 49%. That compares to 43% for the regular blend, so they should stand out for their extra kick of alcohol as well as their secondary maturation flavors. Despite their limited nature, these bottles hadn’t exactly flown off the shelves in the store I found them in, and they were marked down from $50 to $40 each. At that price, it was easy to make a case for buying a set, if only to save you fine people the trouble of doing so. I didn’t have a bottle of the regular blend on hand to do a level set when tasting these over a couple of nights, but it’s a lovely whisky that I rated four stars a couple of years ago for its easy-drinking qualities and light summery flavors. The marrying casks for the most part taste bolder and more suited to a different season or occasion. I enjoyed them all, but if there was one that I thought was worth buying instead of or in addition to the regular blend, it was cask #31. This was finished in a cask that previously held a Highland malt and the wood has added some delicious harmonies to the original spirit. There’s malt and ginger tea on the nose, while the bready flavors in the mouth bring to mind sourdough with a touch of salt. It feels full and robust on the tongue, feisty even. The aftertaste wraps up the malty theme with a round of buttered toast. I’ll post brief notes for the other three on their respective pages. I rate them three stars a piece and while they’re not as special as this cask they are all well worth sampling if you come across them.

I came across this at my local bottle store while looking for something uncommon and inexpensive and couldn’t have been more delighted: at less than $60 for a named Islay IB this looked a steal. It’s bottled at a higher ABV that the official 12-year-old — my sweet spot of 46% versus the distillery’s 43% — and drawn from first-fill bourbon barrels. My recollection of the 12 is that it’s a three-star whisky — I’m happy to drink it but wouldn’t buy a bottle — so the bar for an independent bottling to outperform is relatively low in my books. And outperform it does, though not as much on the second tasting as it did on the first. My initial impression of the nose on first pour was a musty, seductive mix of mulch and dried figs. But the dominant note was much different on a subsequent night, when I was struck most by the aromas of green apples. More consistently, it’s light and creamy on first sip, with pears emerging mid-palette followed by a bite of freshly sanded wood. The long finish recalled fizzy cola bottles (see Proust’s Reference Book of Olde British Sweets) on the first tasting, though the woody note was more dominant on the return visit. I’d have rated this four stars on the strength of the initial tasting, but docked it a half mark for the slightly sour bite of the finish in the repeat tasting. My guess is that a combination of a slightly overactive first-fill barrel and a hint of youthfulness on the spirit have thrown the finish a little off balance, but overall it’s a fine whisky for the price and a good combination of fruit and peat for a summer Islay. It's a buy at $60, so rounding up the rating to four stars.

This is bananas, or at least the nose is. That was the dominant note I got from a couple of samples at a tasting event last week. It tastes very much like the 2014 Amontillado bottling, with a thick mouthfeel and flavors of sweet smoke. The finish is creamy and medicinal. Probably the best in the series since 2015.

I've been sitting on this bottle for a year, cognizant of its scarcity value, but the combination of a wider release this year and a warm evening that called out for something lighter finally nudged me to pop its cork. I'm a fool for delaying. I was immediately rewarded with one of my favorite flavor profiles, a tropical fruit nose of pineapple, along with pine and lemongrass. And oh my lord the taste: this is beautiful and unique. There are apples and pears and malt, to be sure, but what stands out is the backdrop of aniseed. It’s subtle but distinct, not overpowering in a Pernod or absinthe way, but unmistakable nonetheless. I don’t think I’ve come across this flavor in a whisky before. You get so used to parsing the minor differences between the typical reference points that it’s incredibly exciting to encounter something so different. It’s the imprint of the plum liqueur cask finish, no doubt, and you can smell its provenance most significantly in the empty glass. As the aniseed tapers, there’s a long finish that fades to a zesty blast of cinnamon. I’m not sure how frequently I’ll return to this bottle, but the world seems a little better for its audacity. Amid a sea of expensive and indistinctive craft whisky, Baller has balls.

What a spectacular nose - super creamy vanilla, with a dash of peppercorn, the most delicious creme brûlée imaginable. With time, notes of black tea emerge. The experience doesn’t quite hold up in the mouth - a preponderance of peppery spices makes for a more simplistic profile, accented mainly by hints of dark marmalade. The finish is lovely though, sweet and sour, a mix of tamarind and ripe plums. Another fascinating slice of Kilkerran’s evolution and a further nod to the mastery that went into the balance of barrels that comprise the 12.

Magnificent. Polished wood, chestnuts, pears poached in caramel ... and that’s just the nose. There’s a peppery zing to the first sip, followed by walnuts, chocolate, coffee and toffee. The mouthfeel is beautiful and the finish incredibly long. Thanks as always @PBMichiganWolverine

Thick aromas of orange oil, walnut and burning candles. With water, a hint of pine emerges. A sip explodes into flavors of oranges, mole sauce and chocolate; indeed, it brings to mind nothing less than an orange liqueur or Amara, a Sicilian amaro made from blood oranges. The finish is syrupy, long and sweet, almost like a dessert wine. Neat, it’s on the brink of my comfort level for sweetness, but a drop of water fixes that, for a more tangy finish. Like last year’s Committee Edition, this is a marvelously unique twist on Ardbeg, distinctly different from its predecessors and yet still somehow Ardbegian. I’m hovering on the edge of five stars here, only pausing because I’m wondering if the sweetness will get tiring over time. Further tastings will tell, but in the meantime buy a bottle if you can.