Water Of Life Society Tasting 15/3

The Blenders Malts 29/01/2014

This week’s tasting will be in celebration of those lesser known distilleries whose output almost exclusively goes into blended scotch whisky. Occasionally a little of their spirit escapes and is bottled as single malt and this is what we will be sampling this week.

During which we presented the following drams:

1. Dailuaine 16 Years Old 1997 ~ 46% (Wm Cadenhead)

From Diageo’s Dailuaine distillery in Speyside – output usually made into Johnnie Walker blends – this one was bottled as small batch Single malt by Wm Cadenheads at 16 years old

2. Auchroisk 13 Years Old 2001 ~ 46% (Wm Cadenhead)

From Diageo’s Auchroisk distillery in Speyside – output usually made into Johnnie Walker blends – this one was bottled as small batch Single malt by Wm Cadenheads at 13 years old

3. Benrinnes 25 Years Old 1988 ~ 53% (Wm Cadenhead)

From Diageo’s Benrinnes distillery in Speyside – output usually made into Johnnie Walker blends – this one was bottled as a single cask, Single malt by Wm Cadenheads at 25 years old

4. 46.27 Italian chestnut cake ~ 60.5% (SMWS)

From Diageo’s Glenlossie distillery in Speyside – output usually made into Johnnie Walker blends – this one was bottled as a single cask, Single malt by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society at 12 Years Old

5. Caol Ila 10 Years Old 2003 – Cask Strength ~ 59.6% (Gordon & MacPhail)

Finally From Diageo’s Caol Ila distillery on Islay – output usually made into Johnnie Walker blends – this one was bottled as a ‘cask’ strength small batch by Gordon & MacPhail at 10 Years Old

Many thanks to the WOLS committee and particularly this week the good folks at Wm Cadenheads, Royal Mile Whiskies and the Scotch Malt Whisky Society for helping us source these lesser-known distillery bottlings.