I'm sad to say that I got one of the last bottles from The Party Source (and I am so, so glad I took a risk on this one), so you're probably out of luck unless you can get it from Mission Liquors.
Nose: gentle but insistent vegetal/smoky peat, herbal/floral notes, underlying malt, creamy vanilla, light wine cask influence, raisins, a dry savoriness that is slightly meaty. After adding a few drops of water, the peat loses some of its edge - shifting more towards an herbal/vegetal mode, the malt becomes sweeter and more assertive with less wine influence
Taste: malty sweetness up front, wine/vanilla flavors gain traction across the tongue - bringing some jammy fruit (strawberry?) along, peat and pepper hit mid-palate with with a hefty dose of fudge and coffee beans, some floral notes emerge near the back. After dilution, the peat really settles down, letting the wine cask influence shine with a wine/chocolate/malt trio running throughout, pepper and oak are subdued at the back
Finish: very long - bittersweet peat, coffee beans, pepper, vanilla, and umami/savory notes
This is, in my opinion, a simply magnificent whisky. ACEing gets derided as too often being used to gussy up lousy casks or overwhelming the underlying malt whisky, but this one works out perfectly. The sweet wine cask flavors are a great compliment to the strong peat flavors, which are also mellowed by the ex-bourbon cask vanilla. The quality of the peat is particularly interesting, as it's ashier than, say, Caol Ila or Lagavulin, reminding me much more of Kilchoman Machir Bay. If this is what Kilchoman's whisky is going to taste like after more than a decade under its belt, then I foresee great things for the distillery. In the meantime, I'm going to try to track down more bottlings of 1997 peated Bunnahabhain, because this is easily one of my favorite whiskies right now.
Interesting to hear you say this, Jordan. I am typically one to turn my nose up at a wine-finished whisky, but I am starting to look down from my high-horse a bit. After all, it's better to have a bottle of something that's delicious than something that's "pure," right? I've never given any Murray McD's a look because of all the ACEing, but I may have to look now. I have also been eyeing a Hazelburn Sauternes finish which just sounds delicious and is available in my neck of the woods now.
ReplyDeleteAt least in this case, I think it's helped by the fact that they're using a peated whisky that had a significant amount of time in ex-bourbon casks and the ACEing was relatively short. There's clearly a lot of structure to the malt, so the wine adds to, but doesn't overwhelm it. The wine cask influence is much lighter than you usually get from sherried or port-finished whiskies. Can't say that I've tried anything else from Murray McDavid, so I can't speak to their other expressions, but this one was top-notch.
DeleteBold Bold purchase, Jordan! I've had a few bizzaro stinkers from Murray McDavid (samples only luckily), but also had one really good one. What inspired you to get this bottle?
ReplyDeleteThere's a '97 Bunnahabhain bottling by Signatory that I've seen around. It's a 12 year, 46%, matured in a refill hogshead, and says "Heavily Peated" on the label.
Whoever writes product descriptions for The Party Source did a good job. They had that free shipping deal back in December and I snapped up everything that looked interesting. I had been looking for some off the beaten path peat and it sounded really good. So I just got lucky.
DeleteGah! Somehow I missed that free shipping deal (two years in a row). Probably for the best. I had a list of 15 whiskies I'd been eyeing there. They would not fit in my home.
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