Bottle Name: 36.191 Deli delights

ABV: 57.8%
Distillery: Benrinnes
Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Flavour Profile: Spicy & sweet
Region: Speyside Age: 12

Our opening gambit heads over to Benrinnes for a 12 year old that has spend 9 of those years inside and ex-bourbon hogshead before being interestingly transferred into a 1^st fill marsala barrique. Not a total uniqueness – Frequent Flyers bottled a 15 year old marsala finish last year – but nevertheless, not a common combination by any measure.

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Nose: A fruit-forward medley of redcurrants and blackberries served with pancakes and waffles. Then a typically Benrinnes savoury note coming from old bread and aged cheese that sits together with dark cherry yoghurt. The addition of water reveals some brighter notes with ginger jelly sweets, lime zest and crackerbread. It also amplifies the umami – oregano and doughy loaf.

Taste: Rich and sweet, but still offering a solid equilibrium between the 1^st fill marsala, original cask and distillate character. Rolled marzipan, red and dark berry compote, sour cherries and brandy snaps open before brown sugars, ginger spices and touches of roast meat develop. Reduction pushes the spices up – ginger in particular, alongside chopped almonds.

Finish: Medium in length with lighter red fruits and zesty lime.

There’s immediate tastiness here, but this is a Benrinnes which has been toyed with, and it’s pleasing that the manipulation has both been impactful and well-judged. Just enough cask to provide the influence required, not enough to smother the spirit. Likable.

Bottle Name: 95.34 A taste of sunshine

ABV: 55.6%
Distillery: Auchroisk
Flavour Profile: Juicy, oak & vanilla
Region: Speyside Age: 13

Off to Auchroisk for a down the line refill ex-bourbon hogshead that has been left alone for 13 years.

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Nose: Fresh, crisp and clean. Clean cotton and crème patisserie join sugared lime segments, balled melon and a hearty glug of ginger ale. A bunch of slapped mint gives way split vanilla pod, and baked tart cases. Dilution expresses Rich Tea biscuits, and light floral touches of camomile.

Taste: The arrival has some zing, but not unwanted bite. That zing comes primarily from stem ginger – piquant and mingled with saffron, green apple slices, honeydew melon and pressed cotton sheets. Water offers a real syrupy fruit salad, combining the aforementioned white fruits with tangerines and spoons of peach yoghurt.

Finish: Medium, with fading core fruits and residual sweet/sour zing and pressed flower floralness.

The purity of this Auchorisk is really rather pleasant indeed. Bright and fresh flavours throughout and a dram which really opens up on the palate when diluted. Me likey.

Bottle Name: 93.185 Grubby Sweetness and extreme funk

ABV: 58.6%
Distillery: Glen Scotia
Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Flavour Profile: Oily & coastal
Region: Campbeltown Age: 9

Phil made the bottle selection this month (first in divvies them all up) and instantly assigned me this Glen Scotia purely because of the name. Good man. Sounds like my sort of thing.

Nose: Ample greasiness here with butter and pan fats conjoined with buttered pastries, oven-baked rolls and crème patisserie that has picked up some sort of industrial dust whilst being factor processed. Leather and cloth open up to touches of orange peel, whilst shaved chocolate and fresh coffee beans sit with lemon posset. The addition of water offers creaminess from rice pudding, oiliness from engine oil and touches of industrially-baked apple.

Taste: Bolder now. Less weighty than the grease-packed nose implied, but still with plenty of cling. Machine oils and residual ashiness (not peat mind), sit with chocolate powder, olive brine and mentholated oak. The development heads back towards creaminess with custard tarts spinkled with iron filings and touches of distant haylofts. Reduction softens things up and reveals both fruitiness – lemon – together with dirty nuttiness and leather satchels.

Finish: Medium to long. Fattiness linger and is are joined by graphite powder and fading citric acid.

Not quite as grubby and extreme as I’d hoped for from the name – but nevertheless, there are plenty of mechanised motes here – from kitchen fats through to manufacturing lubricants. And in that regard this most certainly provides both a dip into some of the dirtier qualities of Scotia as well as a whisky that has plenty of nuance to untangle. Pick of the month.

Bottle Name: 66.231 Honey in the grill tray

ABV: 62.3%
Distillery: Ardmore
Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Flavour Profile: Peated
Region: Highlands Age: 9

Over to one of my favourite SMWS numbers – and to a cask that I’m increasingly seeing paired with Ardmore – rum. Whilst I’ve tried a couple of mad as two short planks Caroni maturations, I’m hoping that this SMWS is perhaps a little more…..’normal’. Seeing as it isn’t from Caroni (that always get a special mention to up the asking price), this’ll be from Angostura. Gone are the days when the island boasted more than 50 distilleries.

View on SMWS

Nose: Sweet, vegetal and quite field-led. I’ll unpack. Honied smoke cuts across smouldering heather, dried leaves and mustard seeds whilst a scattering of brown sugar joins musty earthiness, Frazzles and a demi-glace sauce. Reduction reveals touches of coastal minerality and medicinal wipes alongside hessian.

Taste: Sweet again. Unrefined sugars are scattered over flame bananas and a side plate of barbequed meats. Smoked apples join hay, whilst field flowers sit alongside vegetal smoke – burnt vegetation and smouldering leaf mulch. Water adds even more sweetness to the equation with baked apples and BBQ’s lemon slices served alongside overt ash and honey-drizzled roast potatoes.

Nope, not really wild, but certainly on the saccharine side. There’s still plenty of discernible Ardmore character here – all encased in a well-integrated, rum blanket that adds both a sense of summer BBQs and of the sweetness of processes molasses. Does what it says on the tin. 66 fans won’t be disappointed. 66 fans with a sweet tooth will likely rejoice.

Bottle Name: 53.434 Tarred and pickled

ABV: 58.3%
Distillery: Caol Ila
Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Flavour Profile: Heavily peated
Region: Islay Age: 13

This month’s obligatory Caol Ila offers something a little different to many SMWS 53’s – a rerack into oloroso – and at three years, that’s a decent length for a 1^st fill sherry hogshead to do some real transformative work.

Nose: Pickle. Big tick. Alongside overt vinegar there’s sweeter balsamic, mentholated oak, saline and salty minerality. Smoke is quite think and viscous throughout – near tarry and with touches of chilli pepper, smoked lime and limestone. Dilution expresses sweetness with lemon cured apple slices and nectarines alongside olive brine and smouldering log fires.

Taste: Not messing. Leading again with vinegar (not sure what I think about that in these volumes) before heading off into a wall of peat influence – tarry ropes, iodine, smoked ham, burnt toffee and charred nuts. Second sips will be required to assess deeper (such is the initial impact), but lurking beneath is saline, beach pebbles and lamp oil. Reduction is welcome here. Cured and smoked meats, dried earth and Sunday roast gravy….with far less added vinegar.

Finish: Long with more sherry influence now from hedgerow berries, coastal minerals….and lingering aceticness (from vinegar).

So, if you’re particularly vinegar adverse I’d suggest staying clear. Interestingly the secondary maturation here seems to have melded primarily with the natural acidity of the fortified wine, over and above its more expected fruit-driven notes. But at the same time, it has also amplified the sense of phenolic power throughout the whisky. I certainly like the slight oddity of it all….but I don’t know if I’d want a whole bottle to wade through. Probably would make a glorious onion or egg though 😊.