Tag: Highland
Signatory Ben Nevis 1992 16-Year Cask-Strength Collection
Signatory is a whisky bottler that I’ve been tasting a number of very interesting malts from recently. They have two lines that I’ve been tasting whiskies from, their cask-strength and single-barrel offerings.
The single-barrel offerings have been interesting, and have included both sherry and bourbon casks. Each bottling is reduced to ~43%. Interestingly, many of these feature a very similar quality, a sort of soft luster, similar to old Hollywood films where they would use soft-focus when shooting close-ups of star actresses. These Signatory whiskies all tend to have this overtly pleasant, approachable element to them. They’re quite tasty and enjoyable, but not necessarily thought-provoking.
The cask-strength (often also single-barrel) whiskies are another beast entirely. Each is a pretty unique expression of the distillery in question, and the flavor spectrum tends to be rather dynamic and interesting. The whiskies bottled in their teens have been fairly exciting, and the older whiskies a bit more austere and difficult to approach. But all in all, a pretty good series of whiskies, highly recommended.
This bottle of Ben Nevis is from the latter series. The distillery is owned by the Nikka Whisky Distilling Company of Japan, who are themselves well-known for the whiskies they produce in their home country. Founded in 1820, Ben Nevis went on to become the first distillery to produce both malt and grain whisky when a Coffey still was installed in 1955. Today, Ben Nevis produces only malt whisky, to the tune of approximately 2 million liters per year. Bourbon, sherry, and French wine casks are used for aging.
This bottling is from a sherry butt, and is bottle 54 of 550. It was distilled on 7/3/1992 and bottled 16 years later on 8/15/2008. As I said, it’s cask-strength, weighing in at 54.6%.
Tasting Notes
The whisky is coppery gold in the glass, with some very nice, compelling beading along the edge. The nose is sweet and fruity, with rich, woody, sherried notes, maple syrup, and an undercurrent of citrus. The palate has a beguiling, mouth-coating texture, and is powerful and a bit overwhelming at full strength. The flavors are rich and sweet, with brown sugar, candied apples, rum-soaked fruit, a whiff of smoke, and a hint of citrus. The finish is long-lasting and spellbinding, with incredible notes of oak, creme brulee, caramelized turbinado sugar, and brown sugar syrup.
All in all, a great whisky. It took a fair amount of water to tame, but afterwards was both gentle and rich in the glass. Like I said, Signatory’s been bottling some very nice whiskies as part of this cask-strength line, and I’d highly recommend giving them a roll next time you’re on the hunt for a tasty malt to add to your collection.
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Signatory Deanston 9 Year
Much like Linkwood, which I wrote about a few days ago, Deanston is one of those malts that you don’t often encounter, and probably less often think about. It is rarely encountered as a single malt, and even the blends that it contributes to are probably little to known to folks in the U.S. (“Black Prince”, “Scottish Leader”, and “Burberry”). The distillery itself is very young (relative to most of the scottish distilleries), only having begun distilling in 1966, and with the first single malt having been released in 1971.
So I guess that it is no surprise that Deanston is a malt that you rarely find from independent bottlers. And yet, the distillery itself, situated in the very southern area of the Highlands region, produces 3 million liters of whisky each year, of which about 15% goes to single malt bottlings. The only consistent distillery bottling is a 12-year old that you can find both here in the states and abroad.
And this bottling from Signatory is the only independent bottler offering that I’ve seen of late. The SMWS has bottled Deanston off and on in the past, but it has been a while. And so, much as with the Linkwood, I was quite flushed at the opportunity to taste a sample from this bottling.
As I mentioned, Deanston is a Highland distillery, located in the south very close to the Highland-Lowland divide. The distillery was founded in 1966, and since then has passed through the hands of a couple of owners, finally ending up with Burn Stewart Distillers, owners of Tobermory and Bunnahabhain. The whisky produced here is entirely unpeated and designed to be a lightly-styled Highland malt. In other words, flavorful and with body, but not smoky or overpowering.
This particular bottling comes from refill sherry butt #05/617. It was distilled on March 7, 1996, and bottled on July 9, 2005, making this 9 years of age. This bottle is number 234 of 421, and weighs in at 43%.
The color is light gold with a dull, burnished luster. The nose has caramel candies and a slightly sweet astringency, with hints of raspberries and cherries, and scents reminiscent of hot-toddies. The palate is soft and warming, a bit hot with youth and alcohol. Buttered rum and brown sugar cookies are predominant, underscored by a backbone of maltiness. The whisky certainly shows its age in the fiery edge that kicks in at the back of the palate. The finish is somewhat limited in scope, but very pleasant all the same, the hot alcohol which kicks in at the end of the palate carries over into the finish, accompanied by flavors of melted butter and brown sugar, simple sugars, and a hint of red wine that floats around to keep everything company.
This is a nice whisky, very warming and welcome for a winter evening. It is uncomplicated, and this is definitively a good thing, in that you can drink this whisky without having to overthink it, and without feeling guilty about just downright enjoying it. I can’t say that it makes me want to go out and find more bottles of Deanston in the way that the recent Linkwood bottling did, but this is definitely an enjoyable whisky.
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