Tastes

With no reviews available and only previous tastings of Edradour 12 Caledonia, I took the leap and bought this one on a flyer. Boy am I ecstatic that I took the risk! Honey, caramel, and smoke on the nose. And very, very, rich. You can tell this is going to be special. On the palate, a big hit of sweetness up front. Honey, barley sugars, turbinado sugar, vanilla icing. Caramel apple. Some flowery heather that reminds me of a cask strength Highland Park. Then the smoky earthiness hits and lingers for minutes. It’s complemented on the finish with a subtle mintiness and drying oakiness that adds the perfect touch. If you can find it, buy it and love it. Or please don’t so I can possibly find another bottle.

Neck pour, so will revisit after a few more drams. Tasted very raw and aggressive. Big sherry bomb obviously, with lots of dirty earth. Funky and bitter. Looking for the sherry sweetness but not finding a lot so far. Finish has some tough to handle sourness. Hoping it rounds out a bit, since it was significantly out of balance. Will update! Update: wow. Second taste, and it’s straight up maple date walnut syrup. It’s so dark, so dense. Increasing by 1/2 point and will revisit, but I can’t imagine even with some time and acclimation that it gets to a 4. It’s impressive, but just too much. It makes other sherry bombs like Aberlour A’bunadh seem tame.

Nice creamy dram with enough richness to be interesting. Dark fruit sherry along with orange citrus remind me of a blend of macallan sherry oak and glenmorangie 18. Worth the price.

Extremely rich, yet light and refreshing. Vanilla and lemon cream. Barley sugars and hay. Sweet and salty. Super complex, interesting, and worth the price and more.

Nice earthy smoke, with loads of creamy honey sweetness. Not overly complex, but is delicious in its simplicity. If you love peat, but sometimes don’t want your peat to be particularly challenging, this is for you.

Lots of earthy peat on the nose, with some hints of red fruit and berries. Loads of smoke and sweetness on the palate. Wet dirt, raspberries, strawberry jam. Sweet and sour sauce. The longer it sits in the glass - and especially with a little water - the more I’m finding. Really exceptional stuff.

Rich. Chocolate covered peanuts. Bitter oak. Cherry losange.

Old leather. Dusty. Brown sugar and walnuts. A little saltiness, and some of that Springbank funk (for me, a light petrol). Neck pour was a 3.75, but after a month opening up raising the score.

A nice honeyed, salty, smoky dram. Somewhat medicinal on the finish. Good, but I would pick several other peated drams over it for the price. Especially as it’s running almost $100 now.