Whisky Works Quartermaster 11 Years Old Blended Scotch Whisky (46.4%, OB, 2134 Bottles, 2020)

• ABV: 46.4%
• Age: 11 Years Old
• Bottling: OB, 2134 Bottles
• Category: Blended scotch whisky
• Cost: £75
• Origin: n/a
• Vintage: undeclared

What they say

A MODERN WHISKY EXPERIMENT BY THE WHISKY WORKS

Four transatlantic elements come together in a unique flavour odyssey.

Highland Grain and Speyside Malts come together in a Blended Scotch with influences from Caribbean rum casks, Spanish Sherry butts and American White Oak barrels.

The Highland grain whisky was matured in ex-rum barrels, lending it a sweet spice, before a portion received a further finish in Pedro-Ximénez sherry casks, adding more rich flavours.

Two Speyside malts were married with the grain – one matured in America white oak, the other in sherry butts. The twin malts complement each other and the fruity grain perfectly – a masterful blend by our Whisky Maker, Gregg Glass.

The resulting whisky has a fresh, vibrant character, with notes of almonds, rum-steeped peaches, ginger, coffee, and dried fruit. Just 2,134 individually numbered bottles of this 11 year old blend exist, each of which is non-chill filtered and has natural in colour.

Official tasting notes:

• Colour: Golden.
• Nose: Fruity, ripe, rum-steeped peaches with notes of ground ginger and coffee.
• Taste: Nutty and earthy almonds balanced with notes of sweet dried dates, raisins and orange peel.

What I say

Sampled as part of Whyte & Mackay’s Sherried Winter Warmers. This blend from the Whisky Works takes a combination of malts and grain with four different cask maturations (hence the Quartermaster name).

This post was sponsored by Whyte & Mackay by provision of a sample of this product.

My tasting notes:

• Appearance: Dark orange gold (13/20), medium tears, slightly finer legs.
• Nose: Fruity raisins, toffee and chocolate, orange oil, Terry’s Chocolate Orange, malty barley and heather honey.
• Taste: Medium bodied and slightly polished/thin on the palate perhaps revealing the grain content, rum & raisin and chocolate fudge, raisin fruit, nutty almond and macadamia nut, toffee, stikcy toffee pudding with dates, mocha coffee and milk chocolate.
• Finish: Medium-long, orange and ginger marmalade, spiced latte and chocolate coated coffee beans.

Overall

Richly flavoured, a touch thin and slightly over-spiced on the palate though I couldn’t really decide if this was oak tannins or too much grain whisky presence – perhaps an indication of all that cask maturation going on in here.

Score 82/100

Don’t take my word for it:

Bloggers submit link to your review