[Experiment] Malt Blend Experiment - the Coal Dronach 43%

I wanted to try something different today. I realised that I now have quite a few whisk(e)y bottles opened (28 currently) and I have been getting familiar with the different flavours that they all have to offer, so I thought about looking at what would happen if I started mixing some together to create my very own malt blend. I must say I have no definite idea of what I want to create and what proportions it would take to reach any particular flavour. All I am using is my own knowledge and judgment of what could potentially work together. I also know that in order to blend different malts successfully, I would need to give the spirits time to properly marry together but 20/30 minutes is probably all I am going to give them before I give it a nose and a taste. 
For the first one, I decided to use the GlenDronach I reviewed yesterday and add some Caol Ila 12 to it, to try to mix sweet sherry and salty peat. So only two single malts to begin with. These are the proportions I went for:

- 70% GlenDronach 12
- 30% Caol Ila 12

Both single malts were bottled at 43% so my creation will also be 43% ABV.


My tasting notes for this Coal Dronach:

Nose: On the nose, the sweetness of the sherry dominates. It is definitely GlenDronach with dried fruit, chocolate, vanilla, plums. The Coal Ila is rather subdued with only hints of salt running in the background.

Palate: Things get a bit more exciting on the palate where the Caol Ila saltiness comes out more, cutting through the sherry notes of the GlenDronach. It is a sweet, savoury and spicy mix. I do not really get any peat though...

Finish: If the nose is dominated by the Dronach, the palate a mix of both, the finish is, in my mind, more Coal Ila. The sweetness is still present but I feel the salt and most of all the ashy smoke takes over the finish and lingers for a while. It is quite a dry finish actually.

With water: The nose becomes much fresher with notes of fresh fruit, apples, grapefruit. The sweetness of the sherry is still around but it has been toned down massively. The palate is rather sweet first but the salty peat arrives much faster. The finish is still quite dry but this time it is a mix of fruit sweetness and warm salty peat. I do not get as much ash with the addition of the water.

Overall, quite an interesting experiment to conduct. I am sure I should give the blending process more time but in 30 minutes I think I had a good glimpse of what would happen if left it longer. It made for a pretty enjoyable dram, particularly if you enjoy the strong flavours of sherry and peat. I must admit the peat wasn't extremely obvious and I would be curious to try it again with some peatier malts, Laphroaig maybe...
As I am finishing the post, I still have the sweet sherried ash lingering in my mouth. Dry but very enjoyable!

Slàinte!

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