Just Landed: Smögen Single Cask 56/2011 - Rum Finish

We have just received a small allocation from Smögen Single Cask 56/2011, their Single Cask Edition No.6.. Initially matured in a first fill Bourbon barrel, this whisky was then finished in Port Mourant (Guyana) Rum cask for four and a half months. Distiller/Proprietor Pär Caldenby describes this cask thus:

Nose: Despite the strength of 62.4%, it comes on as welcoming, through intense; very gristy malt notes, soft peaty tones and Demerara sugar. 

Palate: Intense but not biting; creamy chocolate, orange rinds, shortbread, all dipped in leathery, tarry peat oils. 

Finish: Going more vegetal and drier, but still on (now more husky) malty notes, fruity sugar and increasingly tarry peat notes, developing into salty liquorice. Very long! 

Comments: This dram really likes water, though it can be sipped neat (goes very well with dark chocolate). The rum cask makes its presences felt, but with a good balance, as the rum in the cask was as heavy as our whisky is, so a good match, for a dram with a big impact. 

Slightly confusingly whilst the Systembolaget have released Single Cask 57/2011 Single Cask Edition No.7 (which sadly did not yield enough bottles for the UK), they are going to wait until April to release Single Cask 56/2011, Single Cask Edition No.6, so for once we have a Smögen release on sale in the UK, before it appears in Sweden. Amongst others try Hedonism Wines and Shop4Whisky. Cheers!

Smögen Single Cask 56/2011 Edition No.6

Introducing our 2008 Angels' Nectar Single Cask for Germany

So far with Angels' Nectar we have focused on releasing Blended Malts in small batches. Blended Malt is an all too often overlooked and misunderstood category of Scotch whisky. The production process is the same as per Single Malt, until the casks arrive at the bottling hall. However Blended Malt is a young category (its only been legally defined since 2009) so its less traditional. There is more freedom to innovate, be that in the blender’s lab, or in the bar. 

We have however had requests to bottle Angels' Nectar Single Casks, and I am just back from launching our second Angels’ Nectar Single Cask bottling. In partnership with our German importer Haromex we have selected a 2008 cask of Tullibardine as an exclusive release for Germany, which we launched at the recent Inter Whisky festival in Frankfurt. After nine years maturation this bourbon cask has given 228 bottles at cask strength of 56.6%.  Like our other whiskies, this has been bottled at natural colour and without chill-filtration. It’s a lovely sweet intensely fruity no nonsense dram.

Tullibardine is one of the more southerly Highland distilleries, located on the A9 between Stirling and Perth near Gleneagles. When they opened a new visitor centre about fifteen years ago, a couple of colleagues from Glenfarclas and I thought we would go and do their new distillery tour.  On arriving the guide, recognising me, announced loudly  ‘I’m teaching your parents to ballroom dance.’ I was taken aback, until then I was not aware that my folks had taken up ballroom dancing! But sure enough the guide was right. Scotland is a small country.

Finally, I must confess that not all 228 bottles have gone to Germany. We were married in 2008, so we’ve had to keep some back for an annual toast!


PS -  Amongst others the Angels’ Nectar 2008 Single Cask is available from Whisky World and Drinkology. 

Angels' Nectar 2008 Single Cask for Germany

Angels' Nectar at Inter Whisky with Haromex