Masthouse 2017/2018

Overall rating
82.00/100
ratings
6
Whiskybase ID
WB214944
Category
Single Malt
Distillery
Bottler
Distillery Bottling
Bottling series
Single Malt Whisky
Vintage
2017/2018
Bottled
11.2021
Cask Type
First fill ASB, Virgin ASB
Cask number
6,23,29,119,127-130
Strength
45.0 %
Size
500 ml
Label
Vintage 2018
Added on
24 jul 2022 8:30 pm by Likudi
UncoloredNon-chill Filtered
Overall rating
82.00/100
ratings
6

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Whisky reviews for Masthouse 2017/2018

3 users have left 3 reviews for this whisky. Average rating is 82.00 points.

Read the reviews
  1. markjedi1 scored this whisky 82 points Connoisseur

    New Old School

    This young, English whisky is old school, so to speak, because it is double distilled in classic pot stills and matured in a combination of first fill American barrels and American high-toast virgin oak. The barley comes from Chatham and is grown within a 50-mile radius of the distillery. The entire production process from milling the grain to maturing the whisky is all done on-site. Their slogan is 'From Farm to Glass'.

    This smells particularly young (of course it is) and even shows some new make features, which I think is fine. Perfumed wood, cider, vanilla and ginger beer. Blindly I might have doubted whether this was single malt whisky, but that says nothing about the quality, of course. It's just special. Anyway!

    Light body with floral notes such as violets, caramel, malt sugars and dark beer. A hint of agrums and white chocolate with a good drop of liquid floral honey on top, embellished with ginger and licorice. Young, powerful and fascinating.

    The aftertaste is surprisingly long on green banana, mocha, pepper and sweet chestnuts. Leaves the mouth dry.

    This is a new approach to old school you could say. Promising, although there is still a long way to go. I shouldn't have a bottle of it, but I'm happy to taste this and will keep an eye on Masthouse.

  2. The_Osprey scored this whisky 83 points Expert Senior

    Masthouse (Copper Rivet) Single Malt Whisky 45%. 30ml sample May 2023. 2018 vintage.

    Pale yellow, bit certainly a few shades darker than their 2018 'pot and column still' single malt.

    Aroma is very different to the first three drams I tried from them, which were all led by banana foam sweets. This one is mainly woody, pale wood chip. Hint of Wrigleys Juicy Fruit chewing gum that’s been pretty well chewed. Fairly airy. Musty varnished new wood. Okay if a bit muted.

    Body is lightly oily, smooth.

    Taste is interesting. Initial impression is akin to celery and fennel, but softer than that with vague impressions of pale biscuit or cracker. Very soft with no spikiness. So soft on the palate with light suggestions of spices and aromatic seeds. Woody and slightly bitter on the finish. Nicely balanced. Better on the palate than the aroma.

    Again I’m not having my socks blown off by their core releases but they’re decent enough ... and I know they are capable of blowing my socks off from their special release single cask for MoM. For a young whisky, this is pretty good. It doesn’t taste young at all, it could easily be a decent 10 year old refill American oak Speyside. 3.475/83

  3. SingleMaltRussell scored this whisky 79 points Expert Senior

    I'm not generally inclined to be a patriotic person, but I'm getting to be quite proud of English Whisky.

    The growing list of distilleries producing well made and interesting whisk(e)y within the national borders is very encouraging and I feel quite lucky to be able to get my hands on it.

    Masthouse Whisky from the Copper Rivet Distillery, is the newest of these to ping my radar.

    It's just over an hour away from where I am in London, on the Medway River that kind of runs parallel and then into the mouth of the Thames from the south.

    Its still pretty new. Distilling started in 2016 and they now have three whisky expressions on the market: This, the single malt, a mixed grain whisky, and a column malt (single malt grain put through a column still).

    In keeping with their contemporaries, they seem to be taking it all very seriously with slow mashing and 7 day fermentations, plus an early focus on ex bourbon and virgin oak to display as much of the spirit profile as possible.

    All sounds good, so how was the whisky?

    Good.

    Good and interesting to be more specific.

    There's quite a lot going on and things play out in unexpected ways.

    The nose doesn't have much vanilla, or malt, but does have a variety of sharp, but not too acidic fruits. It's pretty reserved. At first, the overriding impression was of dry ginger ale, with some floral and botanical tones. Not very single malt, but not bad by any means.

    The palate immediately goes hard into dessert with something that's halfway between cheesecake and tiramisu. There's malt here and just a little dusted cocoa but it changes suddenly and drastically to citric syrup. Somehow it maintains the sweetness and richness but gains a honeyed bitter edge.

    This bitterness is reconfigured into coffee and chocolate at the start of the tail with a kind of banana creaminess.

    At this point the spice emerges as fairly intense pepper and chilies that dance a delicate balance of shepherding the wood tannins without ovedrying the experience.

    Quite a ride. Almost disjointed at points but each new twist is handled well and leads to another tasty development.

    I think I'll try the column still next.
    • Nose
      78 78
      Ginger ale, delicate wood and vanilla, lightly floral in a botanically kind of way, refreshers, dry cider, star fruit
    • Taste
      80 80
      Major White chocolate and minor dark malt approach, sweet, thick, lime and grapefruit, pale honey
    • Finish
      79 79
      Mild mocha, just ripe banana, birdseye, white pepper, bittersweet wood tannins

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