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Kitchen Chat and more…
Kitchen Chat and more…
Rosebank…the distillery that is resurrecting in the near future. Most of us who have tasted the exquisite liquid from this distillery are likely to remember it for a long time to come. That sweet, floral oaky taste stays for a long time and remains etched in our memories.
The bottle for review today is a 20-year-old expression from the Silver Seal Company. Part of the Sestante Collection, it is a single barrel with an outturn of 298 bottles. The distillery distilled the liquid in 1990 and Silver Seal bottled it in 2011.
Let’s check out the notes!
Colour: Honey Gold
ABV: 56.7%
Nose: Perfume, sweet, floral perfume wafts up the nose before sweet honey, musky oak and fresh tropical fruits rush in. A pleasant aroma of freshly cut flowers remains in the background even as warm spice creeps in. (18/20)
Palate: Hmm! Sweet raw honey, fresh fruits and flowers float the palate with the first sip. Warm spice appears with the second sip at the back of the throat, but the floral sweetness remains, bringing an enjoyable experience of a high abv whisky. (18/20)
Finish: It has only a medium finish, but the impact is impressive! The sweetness of the honey and fresh fruits lingers till the end while the spice completely disappears. (17/20)
Body: Oh boy! What a balanced dram! The floral sweetness follows through from nose to palate to finish, while the spice does a disappearing act in the finish! It is truly a pleasant dram to drink! (37/40)
Total Score: 90/100
Geek Flora: “When I first tried this, I thought to myself, “Wow, did I just drink some perfume?” It was an interesting experience with the floral sweetness that remained me of a DKNY perfume that I used to like! It is a beautiful and balanced dram indeed, but I do wish that the price can be a little less steep!”
Geek Choc: “Wow! Just wow! I love Rosebank! That perfumey sweetness is perfect for me! I love everything about this whisky, except the price that I had to pay for it! Hahaha!”
Littlemill is a lesser-known distillery found in between the Lowlands and the Highlands. Regarded as a Lowland distillery, Littlemill produced a single malt that is light and floral. It closed down in 1996 and burned to a crisp in 2004. The site is now a block of apartments.
We will speak more of Littlemill as a distillery soon, but for now, let’s look at the subject for this whisky review.
The Fighting Fish series is from Germany, independently bottled by Jack Wiebers. The expression is distilled in 1990 and bottled in 2014, making it a 24-year-old whisky. Matured in a bourbon cask, it is not chill-filtered and has no colouring added. The final outturn was 172 bottles.
Colour: Bright Amber
ABV: 52.3%
Nose: Sweet molasses, honeyed sweetness, red berries and hints of tropical fruits fills the nose before light vanilla comes into the picture. Spice lingers in the background and forms a pleasant expectation of this expression. It is different from other Littlemill expressions that I had tried before. It has an attractive nose! (17/20)
Palate: The oily mouthfeel gives robustness to the palate before sweet vanilla engulfs the palate. Molasses and tropical fruits rush in after the vanilla dissipates. Warm spice hangs in the background to remind me of the high abv in this dram. Again, it is different from other Littlemill expressions but certainly one of the interesting ones. (17/20)
Finish: The medium to long finish of this dram is pleasurable with light spice lingering at the back of the throat. Sweet molasses and creamy vanilla last all the way to the end, marking this dram as a superb balanced one! (18/20)
Body: There is a fantastic balance for this Littlemill. The nose, palate and finish are consistent, and while it does not exhibit the typical grassiness of Littlemill whisky too much, the sweetness of this dram puts it in the “interesting” category indeed. (36/40)
Total Score: 88/100
Geek Flora: “I love Littlemill ever since I had my first dram and I was never disappointed. While I do not like the sweetness of this Littlemill, I got to say that the superb balance did not disappoint. The nose, palate and finish were perfect, so there is nothing to complain about. The expression did not score more than 88 points mainly because I find it a little unlike a typical Littlemill, which I had grown to like. So perhaps, you can say that my scoring is just a little biased!”
Geek Choc: “I find Littlemill to be too light and floral for my liking, but this expression hits the spot very well. The sweetness of the whisky makes it more special than a typical Littlemill expression. I score it much higher than Geek Flora, hence, that 88 points!”
Lagg Distillery is the peated brother of Arran Distillery, located on the Isle of Arran. The new distillery will exclusively distil peated spirits that remind drinkers of Arran, but it is also different from what you will expect from Arran.
The new distillery sits near the village of Lagg, in the Parish of Kilmory. It is at the southern tip of the Isle of Arran, so it is right at the other end of the island from Arran distillery. This area was famous for both legal and illegal whisky distillation in the past so building a new distillery here seemed like a perfect plan.
Lagg Distillery is offering a once-in-a-lifetime cask ownership for all whisky lovers at the moment. The distillery commits 700 casks for sales from its first run of peated spirits when the distillery opens in late 2018. Each of these ex-bourbon casks is going at a price of £6,000 and will be filled with the new, heavily peated single malt spirit. The cost includes a maturation period of 10 years. After ten years, owners can choose to bottle their casks or continue the maturation period with additional fees. An expected outturn after ten years yields about 280 bottles (70cl) of 46% abv.
When you purchase a cask, you do not just own a barrel! Lagg distillery also offers the following benefits:
Lagg distillery also pledged not to sell additional casks (other than the 700 cask committed) for the next ten years, ensuring that you will be a part of the exclusive group of owners to own a cask.
If you are thinking to buy a cask or are in the market to source for a cask, why not consider Lagg Distillery? The peated expressions from Arran, Machie Moor, are fantastic and we believe that Lagg will continue the good works that Arran has done so far.
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