A friend gave me a sample of a whisky that turned out to be a bottling from the independent bottler van Wees. This is what they say about their The Ultimate range:
The Ultimate range consists of about 25 different bottlings, from all regions of Scotland and on a rare occacion even from outside of Scotland. Each bottle is numbered and all cask details are mentioned on the label. In addition to the 46% non-chill-filtered and cask strength versions there are also some “Rare Reserve” bottlings which feature only the most special malt whiskies.
Since 1994 over 1001 Malts have been released under The Ultimate label and there are many more to come.
I did not manage to guess this was a whisky from Caol Ila Distillery on Islay in Scotland, but I did guess it was a whisky from one of the distilleries on Islay! This whisky was distilled 28 September 2009 and bottled 30 January 2019, which makes it 8 YO. It was matured in Refill Butt #317895. The outturn was 686 bottles at 59.7 ABV. By the way: I guessed around 57 ABV – which is not a bad guess considering my palate! I am usually not very good at estimating ABV.
I get peat on the nose at first. Then citrus and eucalyptus. This one is fresh and “green”. After a while I get sea and beach on the nose – with campfire smoke. The nose is really complex. Smooth and sweet on the palate. I get smoke here as well. It is rich and fresh with some fruity notes. Crispy pears, definitely. The finish is rich and smooth. It becomes more spicy. It leaves the palate with an oily layer.
My score: nose 22 / taste 23 / finish 22/ balance 22 = 89
Thanks, Svein Erik!
Image from Whiskybase.com.
-Tone
Leave a Reply