Black Friday descends upon us and while it started as a pure brick and mortar retail event in USA, thanks to international commerce and online shops taking a hike on this day (in addition to Cyber Monday), we’re flooded with all kind of deals, including deals on whisky from reputable web shops around the world, including Scotland and England.

The Whisky Exchange shop took this one step forward and also released a special whisky to celebrate this day. A 16 year old whisky from single sherry butt hailing from a family owned distillery in the Speyside region which doesn’t allow independent bottlers to use its name (Glen *cough* *cough* as).

A total of 582 bottles were produced from this sherry butt, bottled at cask strength of 54.6% and on sale exclusively on TWE website.

A Speyside Distillery 16 Year Old (TWE Black Friday Whisky, 54.6%, 582 bottles, £59.95)

Nose: At first it smells young relatively to its age with strong malt, barley and vanilla notes. Then we some sherry notes joins the party in the form of a sweet dried fruit topping . After a few minutes the dried fruit gets stronger and are joined by mellow cinnamon, nutmeg, red currants and milk chocolate. With water: more vanilla and malt, milk chocolate, some ‘straight’ fruitiness with almost no dried fruit.

Palate: Sour sweet dried fruit, lots of dried berries, milk and dark chocolate, demerara sugar, pepper and gentle oak spices. Then big flavors of cereals and vanilla, with cinnamon and nutmeg spices on top. With water: brighter, more vanilla extract, extremely mild dried fruit note, pepper.

Finish: Medium length finish, lingering sweet dried fruit and vanilla, chocolate as well. Spices are also showing here, nutmeg, cinnamon and a tiny amount of pepper heat. With water: much more spicier and less fruit sweetness.

Thoughts: Despite the age, cask type and provenance it’s not a true sherry bomb and I’m truly disappointed. Instead. it’s a member of the mildly sherried whiskies family that boasts a strong vanilla flavor and I don’t like this combo that much (reminds me a particular LMDW exclusive sherried Aberlour which was better sherried but still carried that extra vanilla touch).

I’ll not be buying a bottle but let me tell you that if you like that kind of flavors profile that in the current market status, this whisky delivers a great value for money. After all it’s a cask strength sherried whisky for a very good price. Happy Black Friday shopping!