January 24, 2014

Two 1997 Deanston for fun

I find that very cool that some indies manage to bottle Deanston. It's usually a rather, arr, err, unusual malt in my experience...

Deanston 16 yo 1997/2013 (46%, Signatory for Waldhaus am See, cask #1344, 769 bottles)

Colour: gold. Nose: ah well, why don't we go straight to a second nosing and forget about a first one? Because at first nosing, what I'm getting lies around cooked cabbage, truffles, hard-boiled eggs and 'an old gun'. You see what I mean, don't you. What's funny, though, is that all that tends to vanish and to leave room for an even funnier combination of metal polish, old tools, chocolate and dried porcinis. Rather unorthodox but pretty, well, funny. Mouth: more fun. Would you imagine a blend of Chinese plums sauce (Peking duck, anyone?) with Nutella and Bailey's? That's more or less what's happening here. Fun stuff indeed. Finish: long and, for once, the best part. No, not because this is the finish, because we're now finding some menthol and some marmalade. That's petty English, isn't it. Comments: whacky and wobbly, but also very funny, and in that sense anything but flawed. It deserves a good score. Try it if you can. SGP:462 - 80 points.

Deanston 15 yo 1997/2013 (55.8%, Archives, hogshead, cask #1959, 327 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: it's got a sulphury side, but much less so this time, while it's rather oranges and gooseberries that are playing first fiddles here, whilst a lot of cut grass is beating the drums. BTW, that would be actual sulphur, not burnt sulphur, candles and such. With water: grass forward, no sulphur left. Lamp oil and moss, cinchona and fir honey. Mouth (neat): there are some parts that remind me of the Signatory, frankly, this is no clean distillate, there's some cod oil (well, around cod oil), a kind of plasticine, certainly a lot of grass, herbs (rosemary? Oregano?), bitter oranges, this strange thing called myrtle that I rarely find in whisky, some cumin... In short, it's very herbal, in an odd way. All that on quite some barley water, mind you. With water: I love water, water does miracles. Like turning cod oil into grapefruit juice. Finish: once again it's the best part. Waxy citrons and a little salt, more pepper in the aftertaste. Comments: an herbal adventure rather than whisky. Really worth trying! SGP:361 - 81 points.

Check the index of all Deanston I've tasted so far

Pete McPeat and Jack Washback