our tasting notes
here are our impressions...
the tasting notes from the 7th Speyburn Tasting
Gordon & MacPhail 28y two cask vatting 46%
Nose: OBF and mint, lemon and green grapes, some caramel and slightly malty, some pine resin.
Still a bit thin, for 28 years. Vanilla and mineral.
Mouth: bitter oak, could also be orange peel, peppery on the way down, mint again, with water it keeps its pepper but gets sweeter, mint.
Conclusion: Quite dry and too short for 28 years, unripe, sour fruit...SO great it is not, for 28 years. It was definitely too long in the cask.
SMWS 88.9 "Salmon incognito" 8y 54.4%
Nose: ffresh, cake batter. Another vanilla particle with wood. Speyburn can do that. Pudding particles, fruit, active bourbon barrel. Salmon in puff pastry with black caraway, oriental spices. A very soft, creamy body. Short of oily.
Mouth: In the taste, clearly pear brandy and chocolate, salty. Pear. Liquorice. Almonds. White chocolate. And salt again, quite pronounced here. 88.9 deserves to be called Speyburn!
Conclusion: long on the breath, warming, beautiful! Approved by Speyburn Clan Germany!
SMWS 88.10 "Complete Sweet Treat" 8y 54.1%
Nose: lots of caramel, honey. There is a Highland whisky blossom freshness to it, roasted almonds from the fair, yeast dough, a little reminiscent of the shell of green walnuts when freshly picked.
Mouth: The 88.10 lacks a bit of depth; compared to the 88.9, it is clearly more tart in taste and the fruit somewhat unripe and slightly metallic. Apples, very clearly. Green and unripe. Metallic, which pleases some and not others.
Conclusion: 88.9 and 88.10 were both distilled on 05.03.2009 but matured in different casks, and the 88.9 is clearly ahead of this one!
In the aftertaste wood and pear Helene - because...sweet.
SMWS 88.11 „A day at the beach“ 8y 54.8%
Nose: but it is very reserved, light fruits, grass in the sense of lawn, something like forest air. Vanilla, wood, caraway, mineral, but deeply inhaled then sourdough and pear. Callaman adds very correctly: restrained can also be replaced here with distinguished.
Mouth: vanilla bean, some speak of foamy bananas (Haribo), 88.11 seems very set, at peace. Delicious vanilla, pear, sweet, a bit restrained.
Conclusion: Overall a quite representative of Speyburn, but Speyburn!!!
Cadenhead 9y 55.6%
Nose: Sauerkraut juice, somehow rubbery, hints of sulphur, sauerkraut. A little Maggi. Yeast dough and sour plum - and hm... ok...a bit like whisky vomit, but that can be horny too.
Mouth: Mouth: this one totally falls downwards. One-dimensional, flat mouthfeel in the morning after vomiting at night, with some pear flavour. It should have been at the beginning; it's the weakest of the evening.
Conclusion: Ok, we collectively wave it down and drink another delicious 88.11, even if Xaver protests.