Abhainn Dearg Single Malt

Friday, yahoo. Worked late, there the Dodgers/Brewers game on. Now to try this inaugural release. My SDT mate @PBMichiganWolverine proudly provided this sample. Is it Gin? That is the initial impression I get. Botanical with a alcohol nose. It does settle down and becomes a bit sweeter and fruitier. Dried pineapples, honeysuckle, barley sugar. Damp, earthen woods/forest and ginger tea. Harsh and course on initial draw. Cheap gin quality. Mineral and bitter. There’s a similar flavor of the glue that’s used on envelopes and stamps. Wood and alcohol. This is all within a medium light body. What remains is bitterness of lemons and charred wood. This by far is the worst thing I have tasted in quite some time. There are no redeeming qualities. I tried to loot past and get through; it was tough. I would be surprised if anyone, besides @PBMichiganWolverine would want to purchase. [40/100][Tasted: 10/12/18]

The theme to this dram was the easiest to decide. “Punch Up at a Wedding”, also known as “No No No No No No No No” by Radiohead really says what I feel about the whole experience. The song is great, but the words fit. Sorry, @PBMichiganWolverine but at least you saved me money from trying this offering later down the road. The nose and palate had this ultra-funk. Not the good funk like from a Springbank, Ben Nevis, Pittyvaich, or Bowmore 15 Darkest even. I am talking like a three month old sweaty gym shorts kinda funk. Not cool. This might give Girvan competition with being my least favorite distillery. Well, I hope they scrap the inaugural, and completely start over. Go back to the drawing board. Not for me. For the finish, to make the taste stop, I took a HUGE swig of Laphroaig Cairdeas Fino 2018 from the bottle.

Here we go again, with another obscure Scottish distillery that our group needed to complete a tour of Scotland: Abhainn Dearg (pronounced AV-un JUH-ruk). This small distillery is located off the western coast of Scotland on the Isle of Lewis. It was founded in 2008 by Marco Tayburn and its name means Red River. It’s a very small place that only produces around 10k liters of whisky per year. This is their Inaugural Release, which I believe is a 3 year old that’s bottled at 46%. It’s pale straw in color and makes some big, heavy droplets around your glass. The nose starts out rather interesting and non-offensive: butterscotch, boxed raisins, toffee and cereal. There’s some warm, mineral oil notes wafting out of the glass given some time, but I don’t get any barrel or alcohol notes at all. The palate is borderline gag inducing at the start. I got some ethanol and school glue type of flavors initially and almost spit the stuff out, but being a bit brave I swirled it around a bit and let some air mingle in and I was rewarded with a bit of butterscotch and caramel. The problem was that nothing mingled well- it either the harsh stuff or a quick bit of sweetness. The finish was short and pretty harsh with mostly alcohol heat and dry wood notes. It felt too thin and abrasive to let anything get past the heat. It really drove home a rough sensation. At least it’s over. I can’t really say I enjoyed this one much. Thanks to my buddy, @PBMichiganWolverine I got to try this one. I see no reason to revisit this one even if they eventually get some 10-15 stuff to market. There just wasn’t enough of anything redeeming for me to invest more time or money to find out. Let’s just rate this one 2 stars and tick the distillery off the list. Cheers.

Stop number 96 on the SDT Abhainn Dearg. A newer distillery located on the Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and it is the westernmost in Scotland. The stills were based on designs used by early illicit distillers. Look them up, they are funky looking. This bottle is a 3 year old single cask limited release. Quite an expensive bottle at $250 (glad I wasn’t the one that bought it). Bottled at 46% ABV and is non chill filtered and natural color of pale white wine. The nose begins with a brief hit of sweetness, followed by intense floral notes. Jasmine, orange blossom, honeysuckle and maybe some lavender. Strong, slightly sour oak, vanilla and something like marshmallows or whipped cream. It’s different, but not bad. Those odd stills really make a difference. Vegetal like bamboo shoots or water chestnuts and a little earthy. Honey and barley malt. Damp peat comes through but it’s rather light. Salty, damp wood and a hint of coconut. Barrel char, anise, perfume and a long forgotten memory of bourbon. Water brings out unsweetened raspberry green tea and more honey. The palate is fairly light overall. Earthy, somewhat sour and peaty, but more earthy peat than smoky. Almost no smoke at all. The peat is more like a Highland peat than an Islay peat, but still different than either one. Pears and cinnamon, sour oak and vegetal. Water brings vanilla cream, faint coconut, light fruits, oranges mostly and colada. A hint of pepper and it becomes less sour. A light bodied mouthfeel that is thin and dry. The finish is medium long with light earthy peat, green tea, vegetal and slightly sour. I used the term sour a lot here, but it’s not an unpleasant sensation, just another layer of complexity. Much better than I was expecting. A wealth of flavors for a 3 year old. I would compare this to Hedonism, not so much in flavor profile (although there are some similarities), but in the way it breaks stereotypes. Who would have thought a blended grain whisky could produce the wonder that is Hedonism? The same goes with this 3 year old. How can something so young have so much depth to it? While it’s not even close to spectacular, this is a good whisky. It shows it’s youth, yet also has maturity beyond its years. Looking forward to trying it as a 10 year old. It’s not worth the huge price tag, not even close. Thanks to @PBMichiganWolverine for the sample. A solid 3 Cheers

There’s this one cook off in West Virginia called Road Kill Cook Off ( yes...only in our glorious state of WVa can that be considered normal). I’m sure it’s a lot of back country hootin’ fun with our wives/sisters/cousins (can use interchangeably there). I can save you a lot of time by simulating some of the delicacies there by sending over a sample of this abomination. Lord have mercy, bless his heart, but what the hell was the master distiller for Abhainn thinking when he said “yep, she’s ready to be released”. This is a single most nastiest whiskey I ever had. It’s smells like a raccoon that got stuck in your car engine, and then got cooked, and then was left there in the car while it was parked in a hot desert parking lot. It taste just as bad. Actually, I’ll have the cooked car grill raccoon over this bottle of turpentine. Lordy, this is bad. @Scott_E @LeeEvolved @Telex @Generously_Paul ...Girvan is finally unseated. Have a sip, then use the rest to kill Japanese beetles in the garden.