We'll see if melons, bananas and mangos are making the rendezvous. Colour: white wine. Nose: not quite, it's an unusual Balblair that would rather start on linseed oil, metal polish and paraffin, but it's citrus that's rather jumping forward after two seconds, grapefruits, plus a tight white-wine-ness and then some butterscotch and black nougat. Roasted peanuts. Extremely positive, I am. With water: pastry doughs, many of them. It was a very smart sherry hogshead, and certainly not an inactive one. A little Swiss cheese, baker's yeast, bicarbonate of soda, also Werther's Original (which we just adore)… Mouth (neat): very good and very Balblair. Perfect jammy and yet fresh fruitiness, plus literally tons of sultanas. It is a sultana-bomb, if you will, but we're talking juicy golden ones. With water: butterscotch and triple-sec, touches of leaves and ginger tonic in the background. Finish: impeccable. Creamy stout, butterscotch, aquavit and pepper liqueur. Pepper liqueur is an obtained taste, I need to add. Comments: a lot of fun to be had with this one. Some cleverness was in action (not talking about this lousy taster).
Words of Whisky (83)
:
The influence of the refill sherry hogshead is apparent, but the Balblair 2012 8 Years from Kintra is not the most complex whisky.
Nose
Faint notes of rubber and gunpowder, but nothing to get too worked up about. Next up is dark chocolate, some orange zest, burnt caramel, molasses and dried apricots, with just a whiff of shortbread and vanilla.
Taste
Somewhat yeasty with a tinge of bitter hops, but also plenty of dark caramel, a bit of tobacco, cloves and nutmeg. Finally some nougat, toffee and meringues.
Finish
Lingering spices and dark vanilla notes, with finally some burnt toast.
BOW (86)
Maltfacination.com:
Sniff:
Oloroso sherry and a lot of strong alcohol. More oak thsn I’d expect for an eight year old dram. Very sweet with notes of pound cake, soaked in orange liqueur.
Sip:
Again, a lot of alcohol, with the heat tgat cones with it. It does show what we would call ‘dirty sherry’. A bit of clowing sweetness, pencils, orange syrup, slightly funky sherry notes.
Swallow:
Lots of funky sherry again, lots of moldy hessian and old, wet oak.
It’s not really a typical Balblair, since the cask influence is quite strong and trumps the spirit. However, it’s a very nice whisky. Not overly complex, but with a bit more funkiness than normal. And I like that funkiness.
