Last night we had a very interesting whisky at the BTC 2017 event. For the 8th day we had an 8 year old whisky matured in wine cask from Deanston distillery.

This young handfill (bottled on 23.09.2017) whisky was quite whacky, delivering a leathery profile I’d usually associate with old mature whiskies and this is how I tried to guess. I also whiffed on the ABV as it carried a far higher ABV statement then what I felt. Thankfully I did get the region correctly, phew!

Deanston 8 Year Old Handfill (57.8%)

Nose: Sweet red fruit, sour wood spices, honey and vanilla lurking behind. Slowly some funk is showing up with diesel oils, black olives, and stronger sweet sticky red fruit and chocolate but it still retains that fruit sourness. After a while it’s getting very leathery and chocolaty mingled with some fresh sour yellow plums.

Palate: Funk at first taste with dirt and some peat but this disappeared quickly. Dried red fruit, bittersweet spices, chocolate, coffee, nutmeg and cinnamon and lots of leather.

Finish: Lingering fizzy spices , diesel oils on first sip (reminds me some good rum), then gentle bitterness of chocolate, coffee and cooking spices.

Thoughts:  Wow, this is an awesome bottle with tons of lovely notes. Especially when it’s so rare nowadays to encounter such a leathery profile outside of old matured sherried whiskies costing hundreds of $$$. It’s a whisky bottle I’d be happy to buy and enjoy.