posted 2 Jul. 2012

Schmidtchen gave this whisky 87 points

Nose:
At first (after 3 sec in glas) also a bit sharp and clear.
Some minutes after loads of baked jam and rich fruit (some kind of tangerine and raisin) quite oily though.

Taste:
Great balance at all (haven`t seen so many malts which were that balanced), quite smooth, too.
On the tongue it starts with caramel and a bit of scandinavian fruitcake (association ), after that loads of caramel, toffee and oak. For a second or two the oak is a bit of a shock but comes along with a gentle vanilla and grilled bread.
In the end (while the glas was almost empty) there were some flavours of flowers and fir forest whilst the tangerines came back.

Comment:
Definitely worth buying. For a 3-4 y.o. malt this result is a very good one if not superb. You cannot compare it to a 40 y.o. Bowmore or a huge Lagavulin from the late 70s but I think that this is not thetarget of the distillery in the Harz mountains. In my opinion it`s one of the few malts on the European mainland which is enjoyable - I was delighted. Here in Germany we have more than a hundred distillers which all are trying to distill a Whisky but this one was the first which was really good!

posted 10 Feb. 2012

alectron gave this whisky 78 points

Nose:
first of: a bit sharp, ethanol, some yeastyness coming through as cookie- as well as bread-dough, some mixed winey notes but also with a slightly sharp/sweet-sour edge to it. (72)
a bit later: looses the sharp notes quickly, much more gentle now, woody sweetness coming through with it some caramel & vanilla, but feeling rather young/bright wood-y & dominating pretty quickly, underneath some wet towels & some wet paper, menthol, vanilla cookie dough, a hint of port & sherry with some dried fruits & pepper, (81)
Palate:
licorice, vanilla, wood (young oak staves as well as some sawdust). (79)
Later: young and loud wood moves a bit into the back, sweeter & more of the wine influence comes through. (83)
Finish:
more woodyness (not bitter, not dry, but very noticable), behind that some plum-drops, gummybears, barley sugar and some desert wine echos. (80)
Later: less dominant youngg wood here as well, sweeter even syrup-y now, but quite nice. (84)
Much later: quite a few bitter notes now, less sweet, more like wood syrup & the flavours seemed to have separated in a strange way (68)
Comment:
there`s something young/artificially sweet, woody and slightly bitter about it that I`m not a fan of - it feels to me like the wood was quite fresh still and was much louder than the previous casks` contents, despite the heavy & dominate natures of most of these.

Remember - whisky scores and impressions are highly subjective and situational by nature - so don't go and buy whisky according to someone else's taste...

posted 13 Jan. 2012

alectron gave this whisky 78 points

The packaging mentions the following 6 first fill casks:
2 Port casks
1 Sherry cask
1 Madeira cask
1 Marsala cask
1 Grand Cru cask

Remember - whisky scores and impressions are highly subjective and situational by nature - so don't go and buy whisky according to someone else's taste...

alectron

altstadtkneipe

emkay

Garin

Klappspaten

marcutter

maverick6462

mpainswick

Schmidtchen