Independent bottlers delight us into 2025!
One of the great things about the WhatsApp group we setup for attendees is that we get instant feedback plus a couple of “Are you ready to let us in?” so it was lovely to be pinged remarks like:
“Thanks for a great tasting, as usual. It was great to be back 🥃🥃”
Jumping straight in, here was the line-up:
- Thomson Bros Sutherland 5yr Blend 2024 Edition (48.5%) – £79.95 – £90
- Auchroisk 13 (Bordeaux cask) Mossburn #30 (46%) – £70
- Deanston 26 (LIMITED) (49.7%) – £185–£229
- Murray McDavid Fiddichside 35 Year Old Chateau Lafite And Sherry Finish (46.7%) – £198 (Dram of the night)
- Bruichladdich Chapter7 Rivesaltes (63.7%) – £160 (not on sale)
- Woodrow’s Cream Sherry Caol Ila (57%) – £85
A year ago, when prepping for our blends tasting (No Bells, Just Whistles), we found the Sutherland 5yr old blend from the Thomas Bros we thought we had … was actually a Dornoch 2018 5yr Single Cash. That went into Dream Drams II, but never to be defeated and thanks to a great small whisky shop in Dunkeld (Dunkeld Whisky Box), we finally found it. It almost missed a train, but it didn’t and the cork finally got removed to start the night.
A positive reception – as a starter – but not overwhelming love and with comment about a dominant Clynelish character (75% of blend), we had a small debate about the blend versus a bottle of Clynelish. Dornoch are growing the amount of their spirit year-on-year – Sutherland (named after the region) has been released annually for the last 3 years and their spirit has increased from 17% to 24.9% so this is perhaps one to try again in the future as the taste may continue to evolve.
Challenging amateur Gaelic speakers everywhere, ‘OH-thrusk’ (Auchroisk) was up next, this time from Mossburn Distillers Ltd., a Scottish bottler and blender, not far from the English border. Neil Macleod Mathieson bottled their first Scotch in 1992, and he was instrumental in setting up the company and its two distilleries, Torabhaig and Reivers. This 14 year old single malt was distilled in 2007, and finished in Bordeaux wine barrels before being bottled in 2021. A great example of a wine finish and a lot of votes at the end of the night for a well-deserved 2nd place.
You can’t do an independent bottler tasting without a single cask offer, and this 26yr old Deanston had one careful owner from being filled in this bourbon hogshead, before the bottler LIMITED acquired it. A bottle run of 249, this smooth highland dram was enjoyed but not as much as the 21yr old Deanston Organic that took dram of the night at Love Whisky? Love Cheese? our tasting for the 2023 York Food Festival. Kindly donated by Master of Malt for Dream Drams I in 2023, it was disturbing how much the retail has jumped in just over a year.
However, such sadness was blown away by our next dram. Proving that your suggestible hosts will be taken advantage of in later years by PVC windows salesmen, club regular Robert suggested a 35yr old, £200 tea-spooned Glenfiddich for Dream Drams II. It turned out he wanted to use us to save him from opening one in his collection and as we didn’t run in Dream Drams, we thought we’d bring sparkle to this dark and dank part of the year. And so we did, MAXIMUM SPARKLE ✨ 💖🥃.
What an amazing dram that instantly prompted a few “could I just check that again, maybe just a little pour” comments of which your hosts were not immune. Named after the Fiddichside Inn in Speyside, and distilled in 1989, this Murray McDavid highlighted the skill of the independent bottler with a cycle through Oloroso, PX Sherry and Chateau Lafite red wine casks. Their Westie dog Rebel on the label is surrounded by the words ‘Clachan a choin’ which apparently refers to some dangling parts of a dog – in this case, we have to agree, they are right.
We love supporting people doing great things with whisky, and last year we headed to the Whisky Indy Love Festival. A fantastic festival started by Karl of NEWAS fame, we not only left with great dram memories – including of a 1965 Carsebridge Octave courtesy of Claxton’s – but also a festival bottling from Chapter7, a 15yr Bruichladdich held 16 months in a Rivesaltes cask. Only 30 bottles were taken from the cask, which is still maturing and may never be released for the UK market. Like many indies, founder Selim had an interesting back story, leaving behind 9yrs of import/export of frozen Shrimps to chase the dream of rediscovering the whisky world he shared with his grandfather as they explored Scotland together 25yrs ago. A sublime dram and an interesting insight into chasing a dream and the challenges that follow.
We tapped out the tasting with a Woodrow’s Cream Sherry Caol Ila. Distilled on the 9th of December 2015, this release was initially matured in a Refill Bourbon Hogshead before being transferred to a 1st American Oak Cream Sherry Quarter Cask for just under a year. Cream Sherry, as we know it, is a relatively modern creation. It was developed in the 19th century, primarily for the British market, where sweeter wines were in demand. The term “cream” was purportedly coined by the Sherry house Harvey’s in 1882 when they blended their Bristol Milk Sherry to a richer consistency and dubbed the result “Harvey’s Bristol Cream,” a brand still popular today.
A smooth end to our first tasting of 2025 but we just had time to further bust the winter blues with a giveaway, this time The Fisherman’s Retreat Edition 14 – Arran Lochranza spirit bottled at 50% abv maturing patiently for over 10 years in a former Yalumba Fortified Wine cask from the heart of the Barossa Valley in South Australia.
We wanted to brighten up the winter gloom and with a few social drams afterwards, feedback was we nailed it.
We’ll leave the last word to one of our members …
“Yep, many thanks to Jasper & Jim. Excellently curated. All the whiskies were high quality with a couple of standouts👍”
