Author: Steve Adams
Come celebrate Ardbeg Day @WildAboutWhisky 1st June SAVE THE DATE @ardbeg_com
“Ealanta” Gaelic for “Skilled and Ingenious” is a fitting description for its creator, Dr. Bill Lumsden…..
Glenmorangie Ealanta 46% Distilled in 1993 Bottled 2012 Matured in heavily charred virgin American white oak.
A vanilla pod, crushed, powdered and shaken over a toffee apple. Fried bananas in demerara sugar, coated with vanilla custard and cinnamon with lemon creme brulee on the side. The barley is there, underneath the weight of sweet desserts but even this cereal is drenched in liquid fudge, with freesia floral notes appearing later.
Oily, honey unctous, velvet coating on the palate, the pepper ‘n spice is lively on the tongue, the barley emerging, then fading quickly as the long, lingering, charred oak chardonnay finish takes over.94 (Thank you Martine, so much, for the sample and there are not enough superlatives to explain the pairing with the Calissons, incroyable! But I will leave that up to you!!)
Have a HIGHLAND PARK party @WildAboutWhisky with standard and new expressions for tasting and retail……
Bollywood has nothing on Bangalore, when it comes to creating astonishing, exotic and extravagant single malts…..
Amrut “Nectar of Life”
Amrut Intermediate Sherry Matured Single Malt 57.1%Batch No.7 Bottled June 2012 (New make into Virgin/Ex-Bourbon casks, then transferred into ex-Oloroso sherry butts for a further year before a finishing off in ex-Bourbon casks)
Cranberry and mulberry syrup ladled over raspberry and caramel vanilla ice cream. Rich, robust and red berried with barrel loads of sweet Bourbon spiced fruit cake, coated in vanilla icing. A more exquisite nose you will be hard pressed to find.
On the palate, this redolent sweetly berried stew coats the tongue, then mid palate releases a hot, sweet spicy chilli, leaving a gorgeously lingering Oloroso oaky glow. 95. Along with Fusion(see https://wildaboutwhisky.blogspot.com/2011/03/hindu-trinity-known-as-amrut.html), Amrut have set the bar somewhere in the Himalayas…….
Body, soul and spirit: a trifecta of Nouet, Neubert and Gunns….
“Body & Soul” Blended Scotch Whisky
Floral with top notes of jasmine, fresia and vanilla talc, sweet as honey with a drizzle of Lyle’s golden syrup stirred in, sandalwood, toffee custard and a hint of fresh lemon zest, with some musty peated barley lining the bottom of this dram.
The gorgeously sweet character is evident as this whisky soaks the tongue, oily and mouth coating, the mid palate bold sweet spice, ground ginger and warm pepper, the finish an intriguing blend of noble rot and peat reek.
A touch of water will boost the vanilla and honey intensely but tends to bitter the big spicy mid palate so best to drink this one neat. 92
Dave Gunns and Martine Nouet tasting “Body&Soul” on a shared Skype tasting. See Martine’s comments on this very special dram below…