[Quick review] Deanston - 12 years old 46.3%

 

This is a bottle I should have reviewed a while back now but better late than never!

Distillery: Deanston

Bottler: Distillery

Age: 12 years old

Distilled: n/a

Bottled: n/a

Cask: ex-Bourbon

Abv: 46.3%

Unchillfiltered: Yes

Natural Colour: Yes

Nb of bottles: n/a

Price: Around £45

Extra: Bottle has been opened for a couple of years

My tasting notes:

Nose: Creamy malted barley, linseed oil, toffee, orange, nutty shortbread, lemon, freshly cut straw and slight honey. I remember being taken aback by the first pour and some turnip notes. Thankfully these have gone now!

Palate: Creamy, nutty and malty again. Vanilla, toffeed apples, creme caramel, red apples, hints of ginger, oak spice, black pepper, almond and some bitterness kicking around.

Finish: Nutty, woody, almonds and vanilla, warming oak spice, quite drying, hints of bitter orange. The finish is not incredibly long though... 

With water: Fresher nose with more citrus and fewer nutty/earthy notes. The palate also drops some of the nutty/malty elements in favour of more citrus and yellow fruits. The finish becomes spicier and even more drying.

All in all, this is a solid dram and a great example of whisky aged in ex-bourbon casks. Strangely though I don't tend to reach out for it that often as it doesn't really grab me like other drams do. I have however had samples of cask strength releases from Deanston -particularly red wine matured or brandy matured- which were fantastic. I need to finish this one and get hold of some cask strength release!

Slàinte all!