You know… we don’t like to linger lazily, enjoying our medals from various awards and great scores from tasters all around the world. We have been growing continuously in the last twenty years, and we plan to go on with the same frantic pace!
In the last months we have bottled some new whiskies that we had been closely following for the past years, and there are quite interesting NEWS !
First of all, it’s time to introduce our “Signature” series. Already in the last couple of years we had a few bottlings specially selected by Marina Del Puppo, at the time commercial director for our brand and now very busy with the equivalent role for our Italian distributor Beija Flor. We now took this concept to new levels: every year, whenever a cask has a very strong personality, a particular “signature”, and it catches the fancy of one of us… it will receive a special bottling at 48% instead of the usual 46%, with a dedicated label with the signature of who selected it. They aren’t meant to be whiskies that will appeal to all tastes, with a balanced flavour profile: they are exactly the opposite! They are meant to be whiskies with a really strong character, unruly bad boys with a lot of boldness that stands out from the crowd.
Ardmore 12yo Signature W&M521 (48,0%)
I have always loved “sherry bombs”, so this Highlands whisky is exactly the style that I enjoy best! Not peated at all, and graced by a full maturation in sherry wood: first in second fill, and then with a 24 months finish in a first fill Oloroso butt to enhance its winey character for a truly old-fashioned style. It’s very winey, nutty and astringent at the nose: a very dry style of sherry, with notes of old bookstore, cocoa and black coffee. No easy fruitiness, on the contrary quite austere. Only a slight hint of the usual piney and resiny notes of the distillery shines through. The same very tight and “old sherry” style is found at the palate: nutty, dry, fully dominated by the Oloroso. There is a hint of a pleasant bitterness like that of a very hoppy ale: malty, aromatic, and very fresh in spite of the sherry. The finale is long, lingering and very tight and tannic’ – Fabio Rossi
Glenturret 8yo Signature W&M522 (48,0%)
My personal taste for bold whiskies with a lot of personality is behind the choice of this bottling, enhanced with a finish for 20 months in first fill Pedro Ximenez to make it rounder and fruitier… but only up to a certain point. The colour is intense, the influence of the wine is huge, but this peated Highlands malt called “Ruadh Mhor” remains extremely unruly and muscular, turbulent and extreme! At the nose it’s very smoky, almost like a coastal malt, and rich with coffee, leather, damp earth. Very farmy, too, with notes of horse menagerie. The wine only enhances the very organic traits, rather than adding obvious fruitiness. At the palate it matches the olfactory impression: just as earthy and leathery, farmy and very smoky. But there is also a pronounced oakiness, and just a tiny hint of raisiny sweetness that makes the whole fatter and rounder. Very spicy, oaky and dark in the aftertaste too. – Fabio Rossi
But don’t forget our other bottlings too!
Glen Elgin 15yo Sherry Finish Oloroso W&M525 (54,2%) and Glenlossie 12yo Sherry Finish Oloroso W&M526 (54,5%) follow the tradition of our great “cask strength” releases: juicy sherry finishes, great body, fruity taste, and some of the best single casks that we have tasted in the last years. Only the best ones are selected for cask strength releases with the green bottle!
And, last but not least, a delicious Ben Nevis 25yo Fully matured in Sherry Wood W&M527 (52,4%)... a long awaited follow-up to a similar bottling that we had two years ago, and definitely worthy of standing in our Special Releases. Very rich and old, and with a marked sherry character: a very limited release of a rare malt from a very prestigious distillery.
