A Speyside Distillery 2001 18 YO Cadenhead

I got a sample from a friend with only the Whiskybase number of the whisky on the label. I chose to taste it without checking the details first.

I got Coca Cola and dates on the nose at first. Dust, apricots and orange peel. Orange marmelade. Complex. Rich and smooth on the palate. Still Coca Cola and apricot. Figs and ripe mango. Sweet. The finish is sweet and smooth. Black pepper and nutmeg. Still some fruity sweetness.

My score: nose 22 / taste 22 / finish 21 / balance 21 = 86

I had no idea which distillery this could be. I guessed the ABV to be 43.

Then I typed 167086 on Whiskybase.com to find this information: A Speyside Distillery 2001 18 YO from Cadenhead from their bottling serie Virtual Open Day 2020. The whisky was distilled October 2001 and bottled 15 September 2020 which makes it 18 YO. It has been matured in both bourbon and sherry casks. The outturn was 552 bottles at 52,3 ABV.

So, I was completely wrong about the ABV. Claus Rasmussen at The Malt Desk makes a guess on the distillery in his review:

It’s only named ‘A Speyside Distillery’ which, with Cadenhead, usually means the family-owned distillery in the Valley of the Green Grass – and I’ll go out on a limb here and go along with that.

= Glenfarclas, according to the label on his article.

Thanks, Svein Erik!

Image from whiskyshop.com.

-Tone