English Whisky Co Chapter 14 UnPeated
Almost New Make
0 186
Review by @MaltActivist
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall86
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Distribution of ratings for this:
- Brand: English Whisky Co
- ABV: 46%
Here's a taste of my first ever English single malt. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't even know if there was a house style or a certain character that I should be looking out for.
Nothing.
Which is a good thing because I like being pleasantly surprised. Those who know me know that I go for big bold flavors, unusual flavor profiles and insanely high strength whiskies.
This one is just the opposite so it's quite unusual that I thought it was quite decent.
The English Whisky Co is housed in St Georges Distillery in Roudham, Norfolk (Why Roudham? Clean water and barley they say. Fine.) and they've been producing some fine young 'uns of late. So I've read, to be honest.
My sample is from a brand new bottle distilled in February 2009 and bottled in September 2014 (do the math) and is a blend of casks 206, 207, 208 and 209. It is matured in an ASB which stands for American Standard Barrel (derived from the hogshead with the capapcity rounded down to 200 liters).
I am going to use this review to modify my scoring technique. I will rate this whisky on it's Nose, Palate & Finish and then rate it on it's Strength, Quality & Variety of flavors.
This scoring system has been inspired by @VIctor and is aimed at arriving at a more accurate scoring system which takes into account not just the pure aesthetics of a whisky but it's overall constitution and impact.
Finally I will give one final mark on overall balance and Harmony
All marks will be given out of 25 and the averages adjusted accordingly.
Nose: Delicate. Vanilla. Freshly baked biscuits. Quite fruity. Demerera sugar. Marzipan. Almonds. Spun sugar. Lychees. Hard boiled sweets. Heather. This is a very very delicate nose. Takes a while to open up. But then opens up nicely. Very sweet. It just manages to stay on the pleasant side of sweet by a hair and I think that's quite a commendable balancing act. 22/25
Palate: Delicate still. Also sweet. Banana. Hint of lemon. Mild spices. Sugars. Vanilla. Touch of coffee. Oak. Has an almost gristy mouth feel. The liquid feels super young. Almost like new make. In not entirely a bad way. 22/25
Finish: Long. Dry. Touch of oak. Coffee. The finish is the best part. Lingers for a while. 23/25
Strength: Even at 46% it felt quite underpowered. 20/25
Quality: This is quite a decent quality of spirit and oak. You can tell by the absence of any rough edges on the delivery and lack of off-notes on the nose. 22/25
Variety: I feel the spirit is very young and needs a fair amount of time in a more influential oak cask to release even more. The flavors are just about making themselves felt. 20/25
Balance / Harmony: Overall quite balanced and the flavors work with each other. 22/25
Final Score: 86
Very interesting. Thanks for quite an informative review, @MaltActivist! We still haven't seen any English Whisky Company products here in the US Mid-Atlantic area. I would certainly like to sample some of them.
You seem to be getting quickly comfortable with the SQVH non-sequential review style. Bravo.
One comment in advocacy of the use of the word "harmony": I chose to use the word Harmony in preference to Balance (though they do symbolise approximately the same thing) because I think of Harmony as conceptualising an active dynamic situation, whereas Balance seems a bit too static as a concept to me to describe the dynamic experience of tasting whisky over time. Harmony tells you how the flavours cooperate OVER TIME, which is to say, a MULTITUDE of sequential points of static BALANCE. There is, for example, relative balance in the nose, relative balance on the palate, relative balance on the finish, etc...to me adding up to Harmony. Preferring one to the other is strictly an aesthetic choice: they do both point to basically the same reality.