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. Continue reading
Nose: At first it has some unsavory notes with must, artificial sweet and rotten wood (turning into damp wood) but thankfully it disappeared for good after a few minutes. revealing a real nice and rich floral whisky. There’s cut grass and flowers petals, floral herbs perfume and eventually a growing wave of dryness, white pepper and hot spice. 
Nose: Restrained, tons of sweet honey and the Springbank funk is there right behind the sweetness with dirt, oils, green vines and exhaust fumes. Very dominant cask influence. 
Nose: Smoky. sweet oak, tons of burnt wood smoke, ashes in the background, some special cask or maybe a heavily recharred/toasted cask? reminds me a single cask virgin oak Octomore. 
Nose: Rich and oily, lots of sweet malt and vanilla along with fairy big earthy peat note. And after a while there’s also a distinctive smoky note, honey, salt, some tropical fruits. 
Nose: Sweet, some caramel and somewhat artificial sweetener sweetness at first that died with time, dried fruit and berries tends to sour, weak sour oak spices, smoke and peat after a while, red berries and cherries filled milk chocolate.
Nose: Pears, very minerally (assuming it’s partially due to high ABV), honey, hints of greenery, green fruit and ginger. With water: more honey and pears and less minerals and slowly developing nuttiness. 
Nose: Young and malty. Then sweet peat with gentle smoke, honey, some Ardbeg fruitiness, pears. Getting smokier after a while with newly developed ashes note. 
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. 
Whisky Gospel 