For the weekend I’m going to focus on two young whiskies bottled by The Exclusive Malts Company (founded by David Stirk), selected and bottled for the Whisky In Leiden 2017 festival back in April (The 2018 Festival will be held on April 14th 2018).

First one up is a young sherry bomb speysider from Glentauchers Distillery. It was distilled in March 2008, matured in an ex-Sherry Butt #900179 and 250 bottles at 53.5% were bottled for the occasion.

The Exclusive Malts Glentauchers 2008 8 Year Old (Whisky in Leiden 2017) (53.5%, €54,99)

Nose: Strong oakiness at first, sour red berries, malt with sharp spiciness of pine forest and eucalyptus herbs. Then the sherry butt wakes up with demerara sugar, red fruit turns sweeter, dates, strong sherry spices of nutmeg, cinnamon, all while keeping up with pine forest and eucalyptus sharpness. Added a few drops of water and it’s lighter with fresh red fruit and gentle sherry spices.

Palate: The sherry cask is loud here, sweet dried fruits, then sherry spices with big bitter coffee and dark chocolate notes that recedes and leave us with bold cinnamon and nutmeg notes. With water it’s a bit disappointing, weak red fruit, more malt and gentle sherry spices ending with chocolate and bitter coffee.

Finish: Medium length with lingering dark chocolate and bitter coffee grounds, dried dark red fruit, oak spices, malt and fruit sweetness in the background.

Thoughts: This is a pretty nice sherry bomb Speysider. The sherry butt is loud here with an extra dose of spices. It’s young but it’s well constructed and the herbal freshness adds another dimension. Good job by David Stirk and the Whisky In Leiden team for picking up and bottling this cask.

(Official sample provided by WhiskySite.nl)