Anon. Batch #2 – 17 yo, peated from Orkney – Abbey Whisky 10th Anniversary

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One more Anniversary whisky from the guys at Abbey Whisky, after yesterday’s lovely 10 year old Glenrothes Single cask. This time we’re off to the Isle of Orkney , where there are currently two operating distilleries (Scapa, and Highland Park), and this one’s certainly not Scapa… 😉 Not many details, but Abbey Whisky reveals a few:

The third release in our series of special 10th Anniversary drams shall remain ‘Anonymous’. What we can reveal, is that this stunner of a dram, released under our Rare Casks Anon. is a A peated malt, distilled in 1999 at a famous distillery on the Isle of Orkney and matured for 17 years in a refill sherry butt. Bottled a day before it’s 18th birthday, it’s certainly come of age, the perfect marriage of peat and sherry!

 

So a 17 year old Highland Park, refill sherry  can’t be bad, can it?

Anon. Batch #2,  17 yo , 53.8% abv , £89.50 (Abbey Whisky)

Nose: very light smoke, peat embers in the distance, with an added dimension of sea spray, and a wee hint of  sweet honeyed goodness.. A certain fruitiness as well, Apple and maybe Unripe cantaloupe with some overripe blood oranges. Very gentle and rather complex. 
Palate : the peat and smoke are strong now, not a hint but quite some ashy and sooty goodness. Earthy rather than medicinal… Salty sweet, with lovely wood notes, some bbqed meat on sweet marinade and a Salty edge. Oily and a tad spicy on the edges, with the fruit and honeyed sweetness working well with the sooty earthy coal notes.. Delicious. 
Finish : black pepper, salt warm wood spices, smoke and earthy peat, black tea,and  red apples in Salty caramel topping. 

This is not a heavily sherried HP, but rather a nice complex whisky, with quite a lot of smoke / soot / peat, and a nice interplay between sweet / salty / fruity notes. Very well made, and deserves your time. It takes patience to reveal all of its hidden and masked treasures, but it’s well worth it. Very Very good stuff, again. A good pick of cask.  Well worth the money in this case , methinks (under 90 quid).

 

Score: 90/100

 

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