It's good and there's depth and complexity, but it is also dark note upon dark note.
Nose
Lots of dark sherry notes accompanied by damp oak, bung cloth, whiffs of coffee beans and cherry syrup. Also raisins, a pinch of cinnamon and stewed apples with a caramel glaze.
Taste
Intense arrival with lots of dark notes again. Espresso, dark chocolate and plenty of cloves, as well some cigar tobacco. There's even a sliver of sulphur here, but it's almost not noticeable. Water smooths things over and brings out some rye bread, fennel and almond paste.
Finish
Lingering coffee notes, cocoa powder and a touch of aniseed. Long.
BOW (87)
Maltfascination.com:
Sniff:
Lots of sherry, but not completely overpowering the spirit. There are still quite some notes of barley. Dried apple and apricot, almond paste. Some cinnamon sticks too.
Sip:
Quite dry with some coarseness and a pretty fiery character. Oak and barley, with dried yellow fruits. Peaches, apricot, apple.
Swallow:
The finish is still rather fierce, and quite long. A rather lovely flavor remains of oak, dried apricots, almond paste.
When I think of Strathisla I think of two things. These insanely high rated bottlings I wrote about in the intro to this blog post, and everything that came after them. This newer style of whisky is a very solid Speyside whisky, which works very well with sherry (or shery) casks. In this case, it does that very well too, but on the other hand, it is just exactly that. A good Speysider with sherry maturation.
I’m glad there’s still some notes throughout, because I think this was on the brink of being ‘just cask’. A very good whisky, but not exceptional. It just lacks that ‘one thing’ that makes you remember this for a while.
