Secret Orkneys Part Three


December 12, 2023

Secret Orkneys Part Three

Please be patient, we'll have disclosed Highland Parks tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

Magazine advert, 1986. It is well documented that some copywriters could have had a tendency to consume excessively large quantities of the products they were supposed to promote.

Secret Orkney 17 yo 2005/2023 (51.9%, Signatory Vintage, Kirsch Import, Seasons Winter 2022, 1st fill oloroso sherry butt, cask # DRU 17/A63 #6, 658 bottles)

Colour: deep gold. Nose: nuts and grasses, cigarette tobacco, leather polish, candlewax, wood and grass smoke, dried fruits and tighter honeys… Not a deviant HP for sure. With water: awesome walnut wine, pecans, pistachios, cashew… And leather polish. Mouth (neat): excellent sherry that really fits and matches HP's style, even if the whole would get a little brutal and rough. But this is Orkney, this is not Buckingham. With water: perfect tango, salty and nutty. Very dry, very 'amontillado'. Finish: long and saltier yet. Liquorice, walnuts, grapefruits, mustard. Comment: whatever happened here, it worked a treat. But only if you enjoy bone-dry sherry as much as I do.
SGP:462 - 90 points.

Whitlaw 8 yo 2014/2022 (65.2%, Fadandel, red wine barrique, 123 bottles)

Goodness me, more red wine, it reminds me of when everyone started using electronic drum kits in the 1980s. Or the vocoders like Cher or Madonna used. We really must stop with that! And yes, Whitlaw is HP. Colour: gold. Nose: pastries with raspberries and strawberries, Kriek beer, touch of gunpowder… With water: herbs and pepper. Not my stuff. Mouth (neat): goodish. Oranges, ginger, pepper, capsicum. With water: nope. This red wine stuff was unnecessary. Notes of celebrity tequila or mezcal. Finish: okayish. Comment: I know, everyone's doing red wine these days, but seriously, folks, as the great Joe Walsh would have said.… … … Nota bene: Fadandel are usually having the greatest whiskies.
SGP:552 - 76 points.

We're about to launch the NRWIMWA, are you in? That's the No Red Wine In My Whisky Association. Some work to do…

The Holy Illicit 13 yo 2009/2022 (56%, The Whisky Cask Company, oloroso sherry, 339 bottles)

No proof of nothing here. Besides, this is a blended malt, but it says 'Isle of Orkney', so… . Colour: gold. Nose: aged apples and shoe polish, plus a few pine needles and menthol cigarettes. Intriguing cask from our Swiss friends'. Nice combo. With water: leaves, buds, walnuts, touch of curry, compost… Mouth (neat): excellent, on old walnuts, oranges, polishes, ginger and gentian, brine, menthol and ginseng. It's really very salty. With water: very good, even if we don't quite know about what's 'illicit' here. Many drops of many eaux-de-vie, gravenstein apple, raspberries, cherries, small plums… Finish: rather long, perhaps a notch mess precise and definite. Comment: seriously great drop, even if we aren't sure of anything here. We need to learn to navigate in a more vague and uncertain environment, I believe; don't you agree? But as a true Frenchman, I do like anything illicit, one cannot change one's nature I suppose.
SGP:462 - 87 points.

From Orkney Islands 2005/2022 (59.3%, Berry Bros. & Rudd, for Kirsch Import, hogshead, cask #2, 317 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: fine, simple, grassy, mildly waxy. Apple and lemon liqueurs. The bone is near and close. With water: barley… Mouth (neat): good syrups, good fruits, good liqueurs, but it's not deep. A very fruity HP, you'd have believed we're in Dufftown, seriously. With water: pretty good but eau-de-vie-ish, simplistic, elementary. Tiny smoky touch, around bacon. Finish: some earthiness. Great peaches too, they save this one. Comment: little smoke and minerality in this very good one that I shall probably not remember forever.
SGP:551 - 83 points.

An Orkney Distillery 12 yo 2009/2022 (56.4%, The Single Malts of Scotland, US release, butt, cask #5, 615 bottles)

Colour: office coffee. Ha. Nose: varnish, cigars and walnuts, that's all and it is much. Plums and raisins and chocolate and coffee too but those are far behind at this point. Water may change the balance… With water: super sherry, meaty, smoky, with even more walnuts inside, flints, smoked meat, bresaola, and then indeed some chocolate and prunes kept in eau-de-vie. Slivovitz, armagnac, vieille prune, schlehenbrand… Mouth (neat): rich, heavy, punchy, with a lot of pepper, glue and varnish, walnut wine, black mushrooms, coffee beans, brine… With water: awesomely dry and even pretty medicinal. These cough syrups that'll cure anything, especially in wintertime. Right, that's now. Finish: long, dry. Nocino, walnuts, Jäger, cigars… Salt in the aftertaste. Right, a feeling of salt. Say some salinity. Comment: extremely good dry maritime sherry.
SGP:462 - 89 points.

An Orkney Distillery 14 yo 2008/2022 (64.8%, Whiskynavi, cask #139, 302 bottles)

The picture on the label, especially the two kilns, is leaving little doubt, is it not… But watch the strength… Colour: white wine. Nose: apples and pears, distilled, running from the still. That's all I'm getting at full strength, could be me… With water: ah, phew, seawater, crushed chalk and slate, kelp, beach bonfire, rubbed mint leaves… Mouth (neat): murderous. The assault of lemons and green apples is so intense, one could almost make a horror film out of this story. With water: the whisky gets really warmer once you've added H2O, which says a lot. Other than that and thanks to our reducing skills (but of course), it's become a perfect, bladey, ultra-tight, salty and lemony HP that, between us, feels younger than 14. Some dry porridge. Finish: long, grassier, with a little mint, chalk, roots… and a smokier aftertaste. Comment: in truth it's really not that easy to reduce such a beast, It can snap suddenly, one must be careful. They should add guidelines to the labels. Perhaps. Such as 'two drops of water per 2cl spirit' or something.
SGP:463 - 87 points.

Distilled at an Orkney Distillery 22 yo 1999/2022 (52.6%, The Peninsula Collection, Nanyang Whisky & Rejo Beverages, Singapore, hogshead #8, 280 bottles)

I'm really glad we're having so many HPs for Asia. Colour: gold. Nose: this feeling of creamy, liqueury lightly-smoked citrus, lemon tarte, rhubarb tarte (as always, preferably with meringue), plus small herbs, from woodruff to lime tea. This time it is not a very coastal/briney one this far. With water: tighter and grassier. Charcoal, hay, fruit peels, seaweed, touch of camphor and ointments… Mouth (neat): much spicier, much more powerful on the palate, with bitter leaves, zests, menthol and liquorice, green tobacco, then much lemon and lime, plus a welcome small flat oyster. Little flesh, amazing taste - but this is not oysterfun.com, right. With water: the whisky spreads across your tongue, with herbal and coastal notes. Touch of juniper and capsicum. Finish: long. Bitter beer, seawater, bitter oranges, smoky leaves… Comment: full class slightly more austere style. Lovely bitter on the palate.
SGP:462 - 89 points.