Tasting 3 new Wemyss malts single casks (latest batch)

A couple of month ago Wemyss released 5 new single casks to their Single cask collection, and continuing their recent trend, they do disclose which distillery is behind the lovely name and descriptions. I really like how they name their expressions, with descriptive names, although not as fancy and posh, and some might say over posh names given to some single casks by SMWS. One caveat in those releases (and I keep on nagging about this every single time I review Wemyss’s excellent collection, and I know Wemyss know how I and probably more feel about it) is the low ABV in which their single casks are bottled. Always at 46% MAX and not above. It’ is really a pity since they do not release BAD casks, and although pricing would be higher if they would bottle them at over 50%, I am quite sure they will be even better. So, Wemyss, I am pleading here, give us a bit more.  eh?

Now, the first single cask is a Lowlands Auchentoshan, which is usually a summery light sort of dram, and excellent for this time of year in scorching

Wemyss Malts “Lemon sorbet” 1998 , 46% ABV , Lowland(Auchentoshan)

Nose: Lemon pie , sweet thick malty background. Sponge cake, like my mom used to make when I was little (and continues to make today).Vanilla, spice, herbal icing as in grassy ice cream. Green tea and lemon juice cake. very airy, and fluffy.
Palate: Lemon cake mixed with vanilla ice cream. Peppery sort of with a spicy dimension added. Thick malt n’ honey drops.
Gets fruity after a few minutes. Peach and wee pear become more and more evident, if you let this rest a few minutes in your glass. Finish : Fruit , grass and wood.

A lovely summery treat, and a good example of single cask ‘Toshan. Although it comes in 46% this is a few points better than the last SMWS single cask Toshan I sampled a few weeks ago. ABV is not everything, although it can help if a cask Is chosen wisely.

Score: 85/100

Wemyss Malts “Fresh fruit sorbet” Highland(Clynelish) , 46% ABV

Nose: Very fruity and summery as in exotic fruit. Ripe melon, pear, fig, lemony outline too. Honey liquor and grassy and flower petals. waxy ? a bit. One can expect that from a Clynelish, right?

Palate: The exotic melon and fruit are evident here, and in tandem with the  nose. Pear and ripe fig too. Sugar. Great mouth feel all over.

Finish: Sweet fruit, sugar and wee wood spice and vanilla. And a bit of mango coming from nowhere.

A good summer after meal treat, very likeable, and would go well with a desert, let’s say mango sorbet?

Score:86/100

Continuing with the last dram, a Glen Scotia (Campbeltown ), which is always a treat. I’ve had my share of amazing Glen Scotias and some funky and with a lot of off tones, so it’s purely gambling. This one, is g a good one. Sherry matured surely by the color of the liquid and a whiff tells us it’s different than those mild summery drams.

Wemyss Malts “Strawberry Ganache” , 1991 , 46% ABV ,Campbeltown (Glen Scotia)

Nose: mmm. We’re not in Kansas anymore! Brine, and some dirty peat and wine cask effect here. Getting fruity with cocoa powder in abundance as well as strawberry and cherries . A real Bon Bon candy with sea spray and peppermint.
Palate: Wow. An explosion of fruity with smoke peat. Cherries. Kirsch. Berries. Getting salty and briny too. Pepper and that cocoa chocolate combo still in the background. A salty briny fruit candy bar. Yumm
Finish : ripe berries. Smoke. Chocolate sprinkled with salt.

A wonderful combination of peaty, smoky, briny sweet, fruity sort of dram. I dig this one very much! This is the best of the bunch by far.

Score: 90/100

Wemyss might not be well know to most of you (I know they are not well known in Israel, as they are not sold here), but they do deliver great well priced drams time after time. You can see I really liked the Glen Scotia, and just to think how good it would have been at 52% ABV…

Official samples provided by Wemyss Malts.