Holyrood Distillery "Made by Edinburgh" New Make Spirit

Holyrood Distillery new-make tasting tour, Edinburgh, 27 November 2022 Nose: Green apple skins, oily malt, dough, faint hints of thyme, cider vinegar and toasted white bread. Palate: A warm, sweet arrival with orchard fruits and mild vanilla. Roasted hazelnuts and cereal appear in the development with a little cocoa and mild supporting butterscotch. The texture is gently oily and slick. Finish: Short: cereal flavours are the lingering impression, together with a gently toasty-smoky flavour. Holyrood Distillery is taking its first baby steps. Founded in 2019, their initial whisky has matured but it will not be available to taste until next year and it was created using their initial spirit recipes. At the moment the distillery is giving tastings of four more evolved new-make spirit formulations that are respectively called Chocolate Malt, Brewers x Distillers Yeast, Crystal Malt and Made By Edinburgh, and all of which are being sold in miniatures and half-litre bottles. Made By Edinburgh is the only one I’m reviewing here as in my opinion it is their most complete and balanced new-make so far and best represents the distillery’s potential. The Chocolate Malt seemed to me oily and hot and Brewers x Distillers Yeast was just uninteresting. Mrs Cascode enjoyed Crystal Malt most and I agreed with her until we tasted this one. It had the most satisfying, complex and well-balanced profile and a crisp, fragrant lightness that was refreshing, but there is also supporting weight. The character is fruity and mild but there is a wisp of roasted cereal that is almost like smokiness. This is not made with peated malt, but if they had told us it was peated to 2 ppm I would have believed them. This character is coming from about 2% chocolate malt in the recipe (chocolate malt has nothing to do with cocoa, it is malted barley that has been roasted rather than dried in the malting process and consequently has a dark chocolate colour). The distillery has selected this particular new make for long-term maturation and it will be released as a single malt in 10 years. I can clearly imagine what it will be like then as the heart of the whisky is all there and now it just needs time in good casks to fulfill its destiny. The casking they have chosen is exclusively in a variety of sherry woods which I thought was a pity as I can imagine this spirit could really shine if given 100% refill bourbon maturation, but meh - what do I know. “Above Average” : 82/100 (3.25 stars)