Tastes

Dramfest `18. I got chatting to the distillery owner and managed to snaffle a taste of this. Really interesting, cabbage, vegetable, floral

Reminds me a fair bit of the Balcones Single Malt Rum finish although not as artificial. Needed a fair few drops of water to tone it down. Sweet slightly artificial cherry and sherry. Despite those descriptors not as bad as the BSMR. Better developed, integrated. Vaguely Aberlour Abunadhish but without the true sherry, rich cherry notes 3 star

Cask #12288. One of 281 bottles. That and the fact it was the first independent bottling of a Jura I've had was the only special thing about it. Solid 3

Cask #12276 out of which only 322 bottles were made. Not surprisingly given it was bottled in 2016 there are still some left as it's not great. Def not worth $180USD, in fact I wouldn't pay anything for it. A bucket load of water calmed it down but then just weak vanilla and ethanol followed. 2.75

Dramfest '18. One of 665 bottles. Rich sherried dram. Slightly unbalanced after the other Boutique-y whiskies we had. The Adelphi version of a similar age is much better. However this is cheaper at $120 USD. 3.5

Quick Fact: This distillery was opened in 1959 to provide employment after the Royal Navy left. One of 140 bottles I was lucky to get my mitts on a dram. Well not surprisingly Adelphi does it again. Takes a beautiful 43 year old spirit and treats it right. Rum, sherry richness. Beautiful dram. Interestingly the retailers notes say Ex-Bourban cask but there must be a solid finishing in Ex-Sherry. Was around the $400 USD when available but now all gone it seems. 4.25

Creating reviews is hard thirsty work so I'm taking a break from uploading historic ones to actually having one. I like this dram. Creamy vanilla, lemon, pepper and smoke. None of the signature barbecue flavour but that's ok. Its a mellow dram and doesn't blow me away but I like it. 3.75

This distillery opened and closed several times over its 100 year history finally closing for good in 1998 with its subsequent demolition in 2013. This release from Gordon & MacPhail comes from casks that were laid down in 1997. The dram itself is interesting. I tried this at Dramfest '18. The main taste profile I got out if it was 'rubbery'.

181 bottles made from a single cask 800265 for the 2016 Dramfest NZ whisky festival. Lovely bottling and 3.5 are the only notes I have :-)