Crowdfunding

This unnamed Highlander is a single malt, one of the first releases of the crowdfunded new Campbeltown Whisky Company, with Mark and Kate Watt at the helm. Everything that I have tried from Watt so far has been jolly good, so I presume this malt will also be very pleasant.

A very waxy nose on nougat and marzipan, a truckload of vanilla, Granny Smith, green banana, quice jelly and meringue. Sour gooseberries. Raw rhubarb. Grand? No. Interesting? Absolutely.

Immediately very sweet and piquant on the palate. It remains waxy on the palate as well. There is a lot going on here. Goes up and down like a yo-yo from sweet to salty and back, with a hint of peat smoke and cardboard, beeswax and citrus fruit.

The finish is very good. Long, feisty on cardamom, salt & pepper and even some green garden herbs, while the smoke – and this is very peaty indeed – fades gently. At the death it turns into liquid pineapple candy for a second.

How nice! To be honest, this reminds me a mostly of Clynelish. But nobody can or will confirm nor deny.

Reviewed by Serge on whiskyfun.com on 1/12/2020:
A Highland Distillery 10 yo 2010/2020 (58.4%, Watt Whisky, 280 bottles) Five stars
Naturally, no one will tell anyone about what’s actually in this bottle. These secret malt whiskies are really getting boring, but on the other hand, better secret and good than disclosed and bad, as James Bond would have said. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: whelks and seaweed smoke (beach) over paraffin, olive oil and the most acidic green pears that ever existed. Wonderful Sancerre-y tension. With water: the louder wax and paraffin really gives it away. Mouth (neat): when youth is an asset. Extremely tense once again, punchy, lemony and chalky, with some olive brine, those green pears and some green apples too, then an unexpected slightly Laphroaiggy development, leading us towards cough syrup and, perhaps, Jamaican high-ester rum. It’s a brilliant drop, just wondering if the cask hadn’t sheltered some other very characterful spirit before. We’ll never know, I suppose… With water: when citrons and grapefruits are chiming in while the waxiness got even bigger, doubts dissipate. Finish: long, tense and tight, really all on wax, seawater, lime juice and chalk. Some coastal smoke too. Unbeatable. Fat green olives in the aftertaste. Comments: totally on the Axis of Good that runs from HP to Springbank via Clynelish and Ben Nevis. No, that’s all very personal.
SGP:462 - 90 points.