Day 16 in the Boutique-y Advent calendar offers us a slightly mysterious 6 year old blended malt. The label indicates that once again we’re into teaspoon territory (so a blend only in technicality), and the scene of Time Square in New York offers us sights of many other Boutique-y labels both past and present. I wonder if this cask has been ‘spooned’ with a tiny selection from across many different Boutique-y bottlings? Part of the fun of these bottlings is working out the visual label codes! Our blended malt is a 6 year old and is bottled at 53.6% ABV.
Nose: Steely, new make and little else. Copper and minerality are immediate. There’s some sweaty sour distillate notes and perhaps a touch of apple pastries and cinnamon, but very little else.
Taste: Youth….and grappa. Copper and new make spirit immediately, but with some tutti-frutti fruits along the way. Quite malty and with some cask influence coming through – cinnamon. All in all rather grappa like in development and in character. The addition of water does smooth some of the more aggressive edges, but it still tastes underdeveloped to my palate.
Finish: Short in length and feeling very grappa-like now.
Young whisky can be a fine thing – full of life and character. But, unfortunately I’m just not finding much of that here. I’m intrigued to see if someone can explain this whisky to me, as I’m not detecting youth, but rather underdevelopment. Sorry Boutique-y not this time for me I’m afraid.