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From Elgin with love

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From Elgin with love

It opens with juicy fruits, aromatic herbs and pine cones with notes of fir liqueur, polished hardwood, old lathe shavings, vanilla pods and lemon drizzle icing. A background fragrance of wax emerges with time, alongside a whiff of old Sauternes. Water brings forth trodden ferns and bracken, red apple peelings, pear eau de vie, lemon oil, warm grist and dry vintage cider. The mouth begins with white chocolate, mint choc ice cream, blue raspberry lollies, menthol tobacco, hawthorne, rosehip tea, cough syrups and pistachio nuts. With reduction comes tea tree oil, pressed wildflowers, fruit salad sweeties, a light chalkiness and lime zest.

Exquisitely playful

The nose takes you to a Hebridean beach – dying bonfire, wisps of wood ember smoke and ash; the machair behind – then slowly, toffee, vanilla slice and almond croissant sweetness emerges. The smoke is sweet, spicy and exquisitely playful in the mouth – aniseed Liquorice Allsorts, sugar-coated fennel seeds and humbugs, with gentle clove, nutmeg and menthol numbing. With water, the nose discovers hospital corridors and first-aid kits, vapour rub, lemon zest, tarragon and thyme – very clean, subtle smoke. The palate becomes sweeter and softer – Fisherman’s Friends, blackcurrant Tunes, burnt twigs and grilled prawn shells, with an effervescent, sherbet lemon finish – fantastically moreish.

Peat Faerie

A harmonious marriage between first-fill Speyside casks and a collection of hand-selected Islay casks, Peat Faerie showcases a perfect balance of earthy peat smoke, farmyard muscle and coastal freshness. Spirits manager Euan Campbell produced separate regional recipes before combining them in different proportions and strengths and putting them all in front of the Society’s Tasting Panel. The Panel assessed the samples blind and we bottled the highest scoring recipe, reduced to 50% abv to achieve the perfect drinking strength.

Old Fashioned

The nose possesses a welcoming warmth that combines chocolate, coconut, blood oranges and herbal barley sugar travel sweets. In time, cherry lozenges, candied orange and dusty sweet marshmallows are added to the mix. The palate is outrageously coconutty, with orange Muscat syrup poured on luxurious vanilla ice cream. Beautifully mouth-coating. A touch of water lightens the experience and accentuates a hoppy grapefruit note, which is complimented by fruit salad with cream and over-ripe peaches. The palate is now fruity, thick and syrupy, with chocolate shavings, almonds, marzipan, stem ginger, buttered pancakes and scones.

Love it / hate it

A fantastically pure and vividly expressive example of this Islay legend, we felt this second fill barrel left the distillate character beautifully exposed, with many expressive and typical qualities such as pink ointment, wintergreen, seawater, pickling juices, gauze and liquid antiseptic. This was massive, punchy and yet also wonderfully developed and structured. With water we found sheep wool oils, gentian eau de vie, citrus juices with a touch of passion flower, all wrapped up in crisp, pin-sharp peat smoke. The neat palate was a morass of tar, seawater, lemon juice-drizzled kippers, camphor, herbal ointments and a thick carpet of pure, blue peat reek. Reduction lent a softness to that hug of peat but it was still a huge dram – riddled with coastal freshness, malt vinegar, salted liquorice, English mustard powder and raw iodine.

Tug boats, tarry ropes and sweet peat

A classic example – the nose evoked tug boat fumes and tarry ropes, raking out the morning-after fireplace, fresh bread from the oven and wakame seaweed salad with sesame seeds. The complex palate was a feast of langoustines, smoked mackerel and kippers, with lemon juice, samphire and marie rose sauce – also red fruit jams, heather honey, liquorice and wasabi. The reduced nose combined lobster and crab claws with wintergreen and pistachio shells mixed into fire ash. The palate, still amazingly complex, had marmalade on burnt toast, barbecued prawns with pineapple slaw, toasted cashews, dandelion and burdock, fisherman’s friends, peat smoke and carbolic.

1.9.8.3. Anniversary Case

Distilleries 1, 9, 8 and 3, of course, spell out the year that the Society was founded. In this collection we hark back to the Society’s first bottling, with Cask No. 1.283: Happy in a hippy shop from the Speyside distillery where it all began for us in 1983. Cask No. 9.274: Toffee apple orchard is a 19-year-old classic Sweet, Fruity & Mellow flavour profile bottling. Cask No. 8.43: Shaded by flowers is from one of our less commonly seen distilleries, renowned for its use of sherry cask maturation and Cask No. 3.348: Mellifluous quince is a Society favourite from an Islay distillery treasured for its perfumed smoke.

Cosy connotations

Plenty of cosy connotations came to mind such as malt loaf with banana and honey, puff pastry apple and raisin strudel, cinnamon hot chocolate and marshmallows. On the palate an almost perfect blend of sweet, floral and spicy flavours found in classic Moroccan ras el hanout with its principal ingredients of rose petals, cumin, cardamom and cinnamon. After reduction, the nose developed into golden syrup sponge pudding served with dark cherries and pickled, spiced apples both soaked in rum. To finish, a delicious chocolate and dark coffee liqueur parfait. Following 13 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a first fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead.

Spirit of gratitude and benevolence

A fragrant filigree fumée, as one can find in perfumes as a top note: the burning scent from the Bursera graveolens tree that grows in South America and nicknamed palo santo, the "holy wood". On the palate neat a beautiful, delicate, balanced intensity of seductive smokiness and sweetness whispering of comfort and contentment. A drop of water, if you wish, and it turned a little sweeter on the nose with smoked mango lassi and smoked barbequed pineapple rings. To taste, now chamomile, gorse and strawberries, all against a backdrop of balanced palo santo smoke.

Happiness is…

After 21 years in ex-bourbon wood, we transferred this into a refill Madeira hogshead. The nose discovers smoke, tar and nuttiness – roasted chestnuts and pistachio nougat, smouldering hay bales, maple-cured bacon sizzling in a cast-iron skillet, marmalade on burnt toast, liquorice allsorts and roofing a garden hut with torch-on felt. At natural strength, the palate is pretty full-on – black Dutch rolling tobacco, Cohiba cigars and burning sage leaves; dark toffee, salted caramel and ginger chocolate. It becomes brighter, sweeter and gentler with water – butterscotch, lemon, sweet fortified wine and Madeira molasses cake; still smoky, but more of a serene Hamlet cigar happiness.

Now let us take a kind farewell

A full on and spine-tingling dive into the heart of this distillery's legendary character. Mineral salts, bath bombs, salty pasta water, pure sea salt, ramen broth and dried seaweed all intermingle. Then soy sauce, metal polish, old steel wool and more herbal things like witch hazel and wintergreen. Reduction brings smouldering eucalyptus wood, muddy petrol, machinery oils, potatoes baked in hot wood embers and smoked sea salt. Wet kelp on the shore, lemons pickling in brine and salt baked white fish. The palate is an immediate tidal surge of creosote, natural tar, iodine, TCP soaked bandages and rags from an oily old toolbox. With water there's Germoline, smoked herbal teas, coal scuttles, hot kiln air full of drifting blue peat smoke, camphor, smoked game meats, herbal mouthwash and a bracing hit of black pepper and crystalline smoke.