The Lakes The One Orange Wine Cask

As I continue to work my through single distillery tasting sets I am now excitedly stepping into my first English whiskies. The Lakes have been in the spotlight lately with a World Whisky Awards Win for their Makers Reserve No. 4, and the fervour around that seems to have made accessing them hard in Australia. Fortunately I have picked up some tastings of three of ‘The One’ offerings and three of the Makers series. Quite exciting also, that in June I will be visiting the distillery and get to learn more about this interesting new comer. For now though, having no clue where to start with this lot the orange cask seemed as good a place as any to dive in. This release of The One is touted as “a singular blend of select grain and malt Scotch whiskies from Speyside and Islay with The Lakes Single Malt at its heart”. The orange cask is referring to First-fill American oak casks seasoned with said Orange wine. The wine itself; 'Vino de Naranja' from Huelva in Andalucía made from white wine macerated with orange peel. Frankly, I think this sounds a little ghastly, so starting here seemed like the best way to get anything nasty out the way first. Let’s see… N: very light and crisp. marmalade acidity (if you really search for it), a generic light white wine, slightest tannic oak and something a little like a leathery brandy snap. P: Ooh this is interesting… a slightly zesty and peppery open swirls around with gentle smoky peat, musty tobacco or leather and a definite orange juice thinly through the middle of everything. The peppery heat does build at the back of the mouth but its just about restraint enough to be ok. Perhaps some generic vanilla and syrup sweetness from what I suspect is the grain component of the mix. F: short-medium. A little sweetness, juicy fruits, lingering iodine-smoke and chilli. The nose is lacklustre. I was expecting something really sticky and laden with orange, but there is only the slightest winey and bitter orange marmalade hint to find. I like a delicate nose, but this is on the side of insipid. The palate is varied and interesting, it strikes a nice balance but I think the slight burn is distracting. The orange flavours are not as pronounced as I thought they would be, in fact they are almost an afterthought, but they do work; still, would be nice to have a greater presence. Overall I’m not fussed. It’s clearly experimental, and its not bad, its just ok. The biggest disappointment is that between the Islay and grain contributions, and the odd cask choice I am not sure what the ‘Lakes Single Malt heart’ is. I guess I’ll need to look for it in the next five… [Pictured here with a garish looking rock for a garish looking whisky. This whisky on the rocks is bought to you by Pyromorphite, a lead chloro-phosphate mineral. This green snot looking mess is from the Carboniferous Period (~360-300 million years ago) of Caldbeck Falls, just a stones throw (if you can throw a stone 10 miles) from the Lakes Distillery] Distiller whisky taste #125

Fruitig en fris

Nose: Oak, cigar smoke, citrus, orange Palate: Light peat, tropical fruit - pineapple, wood/pine Finish: Short finish. Citrus peel, wood, pine resin 1 of 2,994 bottles Very easy drinking. Young and woody, orange and light peat. A decent young dram.

Nose salt water and fruit. Taste chocolate and vanilla

Orange peel, orange sherbert, light on the tongue, tropical fruits Would make for a great cocktail, but I prefer the port cask for general drinking. Reminiscent of a fizzy tropical fruit drink like Fanta.