The cluster clusters on today with the whisky that sparred with Wednesday's mediocre 12 year old. This 13 year old started out in an ex-bourbon hogshead, but was then finished in a second-fill red wine barrique by the SMWS folks. It'd be nice to know what that "red wine" was, but since it's a second fill, and the color is barely a light gold, perhaps the cask was a proper refill. In any case, it's nice to jostle the cluster with something different.
Distillery: Teaninich
Ownership: Diageo
Region: Northern-ish Highlands
Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 13 years old (26 Feb 2008 - 2021)
Maturation: first a refill hogshead for 11 years, then a 2nd fill red wine barrique for two years
Cask number: 59.69, "Exotic tantalisation"
Outturn: 268 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 54.5%
(thank you to the Doctors Springbank for the sample!)
Region: Northern-ish Highlands
Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 13 years old (26 Feb 2008 - 2021)
Maturation: first a refill hogshead for 11 years, then a 2nd fill red wine barrique for two years
Cask number: 59.69, "Exotic tantalisation"
Outturn: 268 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 54.5%
(thank you to the Doctors Springbank for the sample!)
NEAT
The nose arrives very sugary, with grape gummy bears, apricot jam, and cherry pie filling. It evolves into milk chocolate, caramel, and a hint of seaweed. A little bit of yesterday's potpourri shows up too. The palate is loaded with fruit, but is dry and tart, never sweet. Plums and blackberries mix with black grapes and blood oranges. It finishes with tangy grapes and bitter orange pith.
DILUTED to ~46%abv, or >1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
The nose calms down and ditches the potpourri. Some more peaches and orange peels arrive. Some salt gets into that caramel. Maybe some toffee too. Toasty oak spices drift through the background. The palate sweetens up, but also holds onto the tartness. Tart limes and tart cherries meet sweet oranges. Cinnamon and malt rumble beneath. The tart and sweet fruits stay through the finish, and a hint of winey tannin peeks through.
WORDS WORDS WORDS
Yes, the wine cask finished Teaninich is my favorite of the first four. The cask did have a presence but dilution really straightened things out. They pulled it at the right time because the wine cask was on the verge of causing some real trouble. I still don't see it as a whisky I'd want to drink regularly, so the bottle would either remain open for a half decade, or I split it up amongst buddies. But this was a nice surprise.
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