46°
Distillery Officially Unknown - Islands
Refill Butt
Independent Bottling
By Van Wees
Limited Edition
Single Cask
Bottled in 2022
Unchilliltered, Uncoloured
Peated around 20 ppm
Over the last 5 years, The Ultimate has included a small number of Unnamed Orkney in its range, all of which date from 2005 and 2006. They must have acquired a large number of casks from those years. They are sometimes Single Cask, sometimes not, and they are all reduced. This one is a Single Cask, aged for 16 years in a Refill Butt, probably Sherry. The number of bottles produced is unknown, but must be just over 500.
Let's Taste It :
Nose full of character, fresh iodine, gypsum cliffs, sea breeze, delicate peat, fairly intense heather blossom, banana, mirabelle, white plum, dash of vanilla. Coarse sea salt, sea spray, dry seaweed. Slight chalky hints. After a while, candied lemon softens the whole. On the palate, it's silky, mineral, lemony, green apple, slightly acidic, restrained spices, pepper and cumin, breadcrumbs, dry earth. The finish is quite long, subtly woody, tinder, dark bread, walnuts, pebble beach, a touch of salt, fig jam. A grape berry.
In Short,
It's a Highland Park, no question about it, and a fine one. There's a lovely minerality and a noticeable influence of heather. It's a bit dirty, but that's how I like my Highland Parks. There's not much fruit and the cask influence is very discreet, so you get all the purity of the distillate, and I love it. It's a real shame that it's reduced, as it would be a killer in Cask Strength. What's more, when it was released, the price was extremely low, which surprised everyone. Of course, it quickly sold out, but other casks of the same vintage from the same bottler are still available, at a slightly higher price. You know what you have to do.
Score : 87
To Be Listened While Sipping :
Seasick Steve - Backbone Slip
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