Say what?!

Time for something a little different. Blame the kids…and no they didn’t buy it, my eldest is only 6!

In short, this was a fathers day present. This is a day in June where (if you’re lucky and have kids) you get a nice present. I drink booze. I used to drink whisky and I now drink rum. What did I get? A whisky that was finished in rum casks. Splendid, thanks kids. So here’s a review of it (yes I know it’s not rum, but it was matured partly in rum casks so that’s good enough).

What is it? Single malt Scotch whisky (100% malted barley, distilled at 1 Scottish distillery in a pot still and aged for 3 years and 1 day in Scotland). It’s from the Highlands region, aged in ex-bourbon casks and finished for a period in Caribbean rum casks. There is no detail on age, but it has to be at least 3 years old to be Scotch. There are no detail on how long the finishing period is and the distillery this is from has not been disclosed either. This was on sale in Aldi, to anyone not in the UK – that’s a budget supermarket, and going for £20 a bottle.

Filtered, coloured and bottled at 40%.

Nose: Cider. Straight away it’s fresh and bubbly cider, then cut green apples, pears, digestive biscuits, thinned out caramel; it’s a young whisky, clearly and pretty spirit’y. There is a hint of liquorice, barley sugar candy, cut grass and then some more apples and cider. It’s not very complex, but it is very fruity, light and refreshing.

Palate: Quite thin to medium (just about). Fairly sweet entry, builds more body and then the taste mirrors the nose. Again very refreshing apple but maybe a bit deeper with some pastry too, so perhaps even cold apple pie. Drier as it finishes, oh so slightly even a cane’y note (or is my mind playing tricks on me?).

Finish: Short, dry. Gets a little spicy and then quite a bit of liquorice allsort sweets going on and yes, still those cane’y notes. Pretty average, no worse, no better.

Thoughts: It’s £20. This is around the same price as some blends and cheaper than stuff like Jack Daniels, so you’ve got to put that in context. I’m trying hard to think of the last dark spirit I bought that was £20 or less (full price) and was any better than this – I can’t, so based on that it’s actually pretty damn good. You know, it’s really light, refreshing and bursting with fruit – as such it’s an almost perfect summer whisky. This is the kind of thing you could drink neat in the sun, or put ice in, or mix, or whatever and you wouldn’t feel guilty about it. You could give it out at a BBQ and not worry you’re giving out shite (but also no blowing your best stuff). It’s also got some notes in it that mirror a young rum. I’m not saying to rush out and try this as your first whisky (you’ll be disappointed) but if you like to dabble in other areas then it’s a fair punt.