The Malt Cask

Time to delve into some of the samples I have collected so far as the number of open bottles I have in stock and not reviewed yet is rapidly decreasing... I have got quite a few extra bottles lined up ready to be opened, but I came up with a bit of a rule for opening new bottles: they need to fit in my cabinet and as it is currently full, I need to empty one before opening another one (well, I could potentially fit a couple more on top of it I suppose!) So today I am looking at a sample of Benriach 17 Pedro Ximénez finish. Pedro Ximénez or PX is a type of sherry which is made with grapes picked very matured or dried in the sun which makes for a very sweet sherry. Maturing or finishing whisky is ex-PX casks is not rare but not as common as the use of ex-Oloroso casks to mature/finish whisky (not quite as sweet and dryer than PX) Benriach is a Speyside distillery and they have quite a wide range of peated and unpeated bottles. What I particularly like about them is that they ten...

A bit of a different post today as I am not going to review one bottle with the standard depth of information and notes but instead, two bottles that I got to sample a few days ago thanks to a friend of mine. These two bottles are discontinued and pretty rare so I am just going to stick with my overall impression of both. The first one I tried was the Aberlour 25 years old, distilled in May 1988 and bottled in November 2013 by Hunter Laing to commemorate the 15th anniversary of their Old Malt Cask series. This Aberlour was aged cask 13604, a refill hogshead. On the nose, nothing too crazy, some citrus fruit and freshly cut laurel. The palate became much fruitier and tangier with orange and lemon notes as well as fruity starburst sweets. At 52.3% abv, the alcohol is there with a little heat but nothing over the top. A very good whisky that you won't probably find around any time soon... Hunter Laing released 6 Anniversary Old Malt Cask bottles. As well as this Aberlour, t...