Cardhu Amber Rock
Dashed Against The Rocks
0 473
Review by @talexander
- Nose21
- Taste18
- Finish18
- Balance16
- Overall73
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Amber Rock is a fairly new expression of Cardhu (the spiritual home of Johnny Walker). Historically, only the 12 Year Old (which I am not a fan of) was available in Ontario. I visited the distillery a few years ago (which is quite charming and surrounded by a quaint village and gorgeous Speyside farmland) where I was able to also taste one of their Special Cask Reserve releases (which I quite liked). And older cask strength Cardhus can be amazing. This one is NAS; the notes tell us it is "double matured in toasted oak casks, seasoned with sweet bourbon."
The colour is....um, amber. On the nose, quite malty with barley sugar, lemon pie and cinnamon. Banana bread, and a fair bit of vanilla and a hint of milk chocolate. Fairly straightforward but quite nice. Avoid water, which just dilutes the nose and palate.
On the palate there's a little more chocolate, with very light caramel and vanilla. A hint of banana but some indeterminate spice. Generally, I find it rather flat, with an astringent (almost winey) note in the background.
The oak comes out in the shortish finish, with more astringency. A nice nose is rendered irrelevant by an imbalance with the flavour. For me, it edges out the 12 Year Old only slightly - so makes a nice gift for someone who is a fan of Cardhu. Otherwise there's not much to recommend it.
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Interesting. Do you think Cardhu Amber Rock would taste better at 50% abv, or would it still just be flat? Sounds like you are finding BOTH the quality of the flavours and their concentration to be coming up short.
And what does "...seasoned with sweet bourbon" mean? Are they still just talking about the casks? Outright addition of bourbon to a malt whisky sounds like a scary proposition to me. They can't really be doing THAT, can they?