Wemyss Malts, one of my favourite affordable Indie bottlers, always bottling fine casks, at reasonable prices. I’ve reviewed most of their range in recent years , and was delighted to participate in another one of Steve’s excellent twitter tasting events. This time we were to taste 4 expressions from Wemyss : One blended malt (the hive 12) , one blended whisky (Lord Elcho 15) and two single casks from the new range just released a few weeks ago. Bliss.
The evening was led by Steve (the whisky wire) and the lovely Karen of Wemyss malts , who I been in contact in the past, and is really as nice and whisky loving lady. can it be better?
a few new and old twitter buddies gathered around last night at 1900 UK time (2100 my time), for a sip, a chat, and to try some new lovely stuff, the tasters were:
@TheWhiskyWire @WemyssMalts @WhiskyRepublic @EdinburghWhisky @KirstyChant @champdenwhite @Whisky_Demon @rickfurzer @WhiskyDiscovery @LRWhisky @dvdbloke @TIA568B @DramStats @mohler @AWReviews @julie_gwc @rodbodtoo @PMaitlando @the_josephellis @galg @steveprentice
I guess most were UK, and I represented the rest of the free world, as I usually do on those events.
We started with the lovely Hive 12 (which I have tasted before) see my notes , and is a lovely blended malt, offering a good quality for price, and very enjoyable with it’s waxy,honeyed, spicy profile.
Lord Elcho 15 was the 2nd one, which I like even more, and is Wemyss’s fisrt foray into the Blended whisky market, this 15 year old contains 40% malt, and is very rich, thick and with a lot of butterscotch notes, very soothing. read my notes here .
after those two bottles I had before, I was upon terra incognita with the two new single casks. intriguing:
White Chocolate Torte, 24 yo Tormore 1988 , Speyside , £83.95
Nose: Sponge cake, white yoghurt, white chocolate, white magnum popsicle, 
Some fresh wood, a lemony citrusy edge, wood shavings, rather fresh. really on the spot naming! some peaches dipped into this lovely white chocolate melted goodness.yummm
Palate: Lovely stuff, with a thick mix of cream, white chocolate, with bits of white chocolate, and exotic fruit . with time getting even more sweet and chocolate, with lovely touches of wood, to give it even a more enticing profile. guava. yes, guava on top.
Finish: sweet, white and dark chocolate mix with the guava and exotic fruit going a long long way. this is a cracker.
Score: 90/100
if you like whisky, and white magnum, you will adore this. surprisingly good. Tormore, who would have guessed? one of the better Wemyss malts I have had in recent years. lovely stuff.
Beach Bonfires , 14 yo Laphroaig 1998 , Islay , £74.59
Nose: seaweed. smoke, earthy peat, soot. really coastal. really smoky. a Laphroaig. yes sir this is Islay. we’re here. camping by the beach, BBQ. Iodine. leather.
Palate: Yummy, chilly, sweet, peat and smoke, salty , with sweet marinated ribs, on a beach BBQ, with all those amazing aromas of sweet smoke and spice. lovely.not very peaty and not very violent as some Laphroaigs go. i think the sherry influence trained this one, it’s very quaffable. very nice all over. a wee little sweet Laphroaig.
Finish : Bitter soot, sweet sugars, bubblegum.
The clear winner of the evening for me was the White Chocolate Tormore, a wonderful nose, palate, with the white chocolate turning into dark chocolate. go get this one if you are into a Xmas treat, very limited only a few shops still have it online…
Thanks very much to Karen and Steve, for the opportunity of tasting those, and for a lovely evening. and thank you all my twitter buddies for your company. See you soon again on one of those Twitter events.
Slainte!