Dramboree 2017: Ready, steady, GO!

Everyone assembles in the dining room for instructions & introductions. Hosted by the brilliant Billy Abbott, our late afternoon ‘welcome to Dramboree’ flight consists of Time Series and TWE exclusive releases. We start however with the show dram. Go!

 

Fettercairn 2009/2016 7yo Whisky Shop Dufftown for Dramboree #5 cask #1117 [90 bts] 46% [WB]85.67[3] WU

• N: Starting with an inspired note from Zander, ”margarine-ice cream” – a note i’ve searched for in the past and will use in good measure in future. Also, i have sweet citrus, custard and lime tutti-fruity. I assumed this would be from a sherry cask but the nose would suggest not.
• T: Dry & sweet fruity bourbon number.
• F: Chalky sweet.
• C: Of course, it’s good. One of only a few young [non-Paterson-ized] bourbon-matured Fettercairn around at the moment. From a shared cask? – WB.

Scores 85 points

 

Glenfarclas 2007/2016 15yo TWE ‘103 proof’ [456 bts] 58.5% TWE

• N: Exotic fruity-sherry sweet with a hessian=brown paper bag, a white bread bloomer<porridge base, sweet-liqueur, fungal candy & a larder fustiness.
• T: Lovely (sherried) fruits straight off the bat and very Macallan-esque [only because that style is fresh in the memory from my visit to the distillery yesterday}, but it could be a number of sherried Speysiders. The palate needs a little water even if the nose doesn’t.
• F: Beautiful finish.
• C: Wonderful not-so-obvious Glenfarclas, though the sherry is still rather blatant. This can really outshine the standard 15yo [batch dependant], but then they are very different beasts. I’m positive i had this before and found it to be very good. I did, 89 points good in fact! Today a few less.

Scores 87 points

 

Benrinnes 20yo [2016] TWE Time Series II [280 bts] 50% WB88[1]

• N: Cream soda, lime, cumin seeds and a malty fustiness. Delicate throughout [refill action]. Light fruits with water. Spot on.
• T: Barley spirit wrapped in a gentle oily/oaky bourbon blanket. Quite the BFG.
• F: This grows rather than diminishes, as if the BFG just stood up. More porridgy/oaky fruits to the last with a little chalky cream to conclude.
• C: Grab a couple of cases so you never run out of this style. At 20 years, this is just right.

Scores 88 points

 

Glen Moray 8yo TWE Time Series III [251 bts] 57.8% WB87[6] WF86

• N: Fleeting notes. It’s a sweet shop-bourbon-porridge job with custard fruits, the abv helping enormously. Some mushroom develops.
• T:  Big one, compact dense & intense with strong oily barley and a little citrus.
• F: Easy finish, oily/fatty.
• C: Really good young one. Most likely from a first fill [200ltr] bourbon barrel.

Scores 86 points

 

[Tobermory] Ledaig 11yo TWE Time Series IV [319 bts] 48% WB85[2]

Back in the day [1798], Tobermory was originally called Ledaig. After bankruptcy in 1975, Kirkleavington Property purchased Ledaig and established Tobermory distillers, re-opening the distillery as Tobermory in 1979. From then on the Ledaig name was only used to indicate peated whisky from the now renamed Tobermory. distillery.

• N: Salty vegetal potato crisps, veg stock, pickled onions and onion boot polish – all with a soft yeastiness & oiliness.
• T:  Dryer than expected though also oily-vegetal with a lovely easy barley chew.
• F: Smoked potato crisps with nougat.
• C: Spot on. Very SMWS Bowmore of late.

Scores 88 points

 

[Glenfarclas] Family-owned distillery 15yo [2016] TWE Time Series I [271 bts] 51.3% WB86.22[11] WF86

• N: Ooh yes. Silky sherry, a quirky nuttiness, fusty porridge, Bakewell tart,… Lots here, everything integrated.
• T:  More oily sherry-sweet joy and again, lots here.
• F: Sticky-ish, lip-smacking sherry finish, intense till the last.
• C: Smells and tastes older than the 15yo. Really good, spot on again.

Scores 87 points

 

Balblair 1999/2016 Ob. Bottled for TWE cask #1712 51.9% WB86.17[20]

• N: Similar lineage to the Glenfarclas but showing a touch more maturity on tobacco with sweet/dry picked onions.
• T:  A soft yet thick-ish sherry bomb.
• F: Bit of a sherry shit at the end.
• C: The first-fill sherry trumps the distillate which is never good for balance. I found this to the case on my first visit, but I was far less tolerant to the sherry today.

Scores 84 points

 

 

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