Spice King 8 Years Old (40%, Wemyss Malts, 2015)

• Category: Blended malt scotch whisky
• Origin: Wemyss Malts
• Bottling: Official
• ABV: 40%
• Cost: £29.72

What they say:

For Spice King, the signature malt we use is from the Highlands and Islands, to produce a whisky with rich, full and spicy top notes.

Tasting Note by The Chaps at Master of Malt

What I say:

As part of a dedicated drive to sample more blended whisky, both blended scotch (malt & grain) and in this case blended malt. I picked up various miniatures on my travels including some of the wonderful offerings from Wemyss Malts. More commonly found amongst our samples with their single malt offerings, the Spice King is part of their standard range of flavour based blends. Wemyss Malts recently announced they were dropping the 8 year old age statement from this line (though retaining the 12 year olds) and released new batches with no age statement – also available to buy here.

Colour:

Copper amber (11/20), large tears with fine legs

Nose:

Fruity, sherry trifle, orange, toffee, caramel, crème brulee, peach, fig, raisin, prune, slightly grassy and cereal barley

Taste:

Light honeyed fruits, apricot, peach, touch of fig and sultana, caramel and toffee oak wood, hazelnut, spicy with cayenne pepper and freshly grated nutmeg, drying, polished oak wood and walnut wood

Finish:

Medium-long, sherried fruits, toffee, polish, beeswax, faint wisps of peat smoke

Overall:

A very enjoyable blended malt which could have easily passed as a single! I guess the only deceptive feature was the balance of the palate with an intense spiciness built upon a solid body with definite hints of sherry maturation in there and plenty of oak wood character too. I’d be interested to sample the NAS alternative to see if there is a difference – to be honest with a flavour-led blend like this then I wouldn’t expect any sacrifice in character anyway.

Score: 83/100

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