44.155 Well worth chasing down

Description

We’ve talked in the past about how the SMWS flavour profiles for each cask are determined by the flavour, and the flavour alone. Not the cask, the distillery, or the age. This is a textbook case of this in action: Cask 44.155 is from an absolutely A+ distillery with a chunky pineapple-led spirit character, but then the experts in the SMWS team have extra-matured this in a 1st-fill toasted hogshead, giving it the Deep, Rich & Dried Fruits flavour profile. Yet, not a sherry cask has been seen at all here, but it presents like a clean, richly sherried, silky and deep whisky. Amazing. It’s my pick for a reason, it’s a banger!

There was a lot going on nosing it neat. Leathery and slightly oily mechanical aromas joined the scent of warm banana bread, blackcurrant jam and plum wine. On the palate, we ate a venison haunch steak au poivre with sautéed potatoes and bit on a small pellet from a shotgun. Water added rum cherries and boozy cherry molasses while to taste, a dark sambuca liqueur with pungent flavours of aniseed, liquorice and black pepper emerged, with a spiced blackberry cordial in the finish. Following 17 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a 1st fill custom toasted American (70%) and European (30%) oak hogshead.