Wolfburn 2014 3 YO for Viking Line

Wolfburn Distillery is located in the very North of Scotland, in the region Highland. It is the most northerly distillery on the Scottish mainland. A few words from the distillery’s website:

In 1821 William Smith founded a distillery on the outskirts of Thurso and named it Wolfburn after the watercourse it drew from, “burn” being the Scots word for stream or small river.

In 1872 the first Ordnance Survey map of the region was published and this showed the distillery to be in ruin.

In 2012 a new distillery was built close to the old one, and production started again in 2013.

I have tasted cask samples from Wolfburn at a couple of whisky festivals since 2015 and have been impressed. When I saw they brought whisky to Cinderella Whisky Fair 2018 (read about it here), I had to try it! I tasted a few of them, and immediately loved the one bottled for Viking Line.

Well, about todays whisky. This is a single cask bottled for Viking Line, as I said. It is a first-fill bourbon cask #225/2014, bottled at cask strength 56,6 ABV. It was distilled 18 April 2014 and bottled December 2017 which makes it 3 YO.

Malty on the nose at first. I get the typical notes from a young whisky; banana, actually the Norwegian candy “Skumbanan” – soft filling with banana taste and a chocolate cover. And then: Milk chocolate – lots of it! After 20-30 minutes the young notes disappear, while the milk chocolate stays. Sweet and spicy on the palate. Lots of vanilla and fudge. Then the spiciness takes over. Mostly white pepper and nutmeg. Oaky on the finish. A bit short.

My score: nose 21 / taste 22 / finish 20 / balance 21 = 84

– Tone

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