Over the
last few years there's been an ever increasing surge of dramspanking independent bottling’s on the market. Infact I think it’s fair
to say that the days of playing dramming
roulette with an indie, where you could end up with something sadistically
shocking are over, well we hope so anyway.One of the many great reasons to dip your toes into the world of the indie bottling’s, if you haven’t done so already, is to experience the whisky wares from distilleries that are no more. The ones that for whatever reason have been mothballed and shut down.
Infact it
has to be said that if you go down this route you can well and truly come across
some real dramming gems and do so without breaking the bank, as I discovered
recently after sampling a pretty darn delicious Speysider, in the form of a Caperdonich
17 Year Old from Abbey Whisky.
The nose
kicks off with gutsy glorious waves of vanilla infused poached pears, pineapple
upside down cake, wood spice and a multitude of herbs and spices from a Thai restaurant
kitchen.
A field of
freshly cut grass at the height of summer and a glass of elderflower cordial
make for the next set of sensations, along with a kick of citrus, some eventual
emerging foam bananas and something distinctly anise-esque.
Once left in
the glass for around ten minutes, if you can be that patient, dry vinous notes
start to come through, along with some subtle hints of salted caramel.
The palate
kicks off with a phenomenally punchy plethora of pepperiness, in the form of
freshly ground white, coarsely pestled black and freshly chopped red chili.
Followed sharply by freshly picked strawberries, homemade quince jam and a sip
from a flat can of ginger beer.
Gooseberry
crumble covered in a rich vanilla custard makes for the next set of palatable
pleasures, as does yet more of that pineapple upside down cake, which on this
occasion has had both its golden syrup and fruit content somewhat beefed up.
A balancing blast
of pink grapefruit juice, lemon grass and a bout of anise infused wood spice then
adds a further dimension and depth, ahead of a finish which may not linger around for as long as the nose and palate may teasingly suggest, but it's still pretty darn satisfying!
