Aultmore and sherry are tried and tested combination. Here’s we’ve got a version which is a little more stripped back – but no less appealing because of that. 10 years in a 1st fill barrel before being bottled at 57.8% ABV.
Nose: Plenty to unpick here. Golden syrup, wood lacquer and bees honey (almost mead-like) sit alongside sharp lemon, a hodgepodge of Skittles sweetness and some unexpected background minerality. After time in the glass this develops additional oak-led notes of polished bowls and shaved timber. Dilution reveals fabrics – cloth and hessian together with savoury spices – turmeric and earthy ginger.
Taste: Similarly far-reaching with a syrupy weight that delivers dried yellow fruits, apple juice and touches of lemon zest. The development is mainly cask-forward with cinnamon and ginger sitting atop of cashew nuts and crackerbread before hewn granite again provides an unanticipated minerality. Water sweetens things up – touches of mentholated oak, cough syrup and macadamia.
Finish: Quite long and favouring oak spices mingled with char and fading rather progressively (as opposed to dryly).
Bit fan of this distillate and the complexities its capable of. Here we do indeed have a curious wee sort which took me longer than most on this outturn – both to get familiar with and to notate. Overall though there’s some lovely combinations which are as thoughtful as they are rewarding. Not a quick dram, but I’d happily spend more time with it.