Ailsa Bay Cask AB005 Creative Whisky Company

Ailsa Bay was built in 2007 by William Grant & Sons – well-known for Glenfiddich among others – on the old industrial site of Girvan. That way the company is able to provide enough malts for their own blends like Grant’s. This modern distillery, with a capacity of 5 million liters, can create three types of malt: ‘unpeated’, ‘mildly peated’ and ‘heavily peated’. Official releases are very few, but the Creative Whisky Company was able to put their hands on 6 casks already, which they bottled in the so-called ‘Single Cask Exclusives - Lowland’ range. This is the 5th one, AB005, matured on a port cask and released in 2018.

The nose is light and sweet – candy-like even – on caramel, butterscotch and red fruit. No, make that red licorice candy, like the shoe laces, if you know what I mean. There is also an earthy note that convinces me this is of the ‘lightly peated’ variety. This nose is no punishment.

It is creamy and feisty on the palate. Good strength. More caramel, licorice shoe laces and red fruit, but also a lot of spices like cloves, followed by some chili and black pepper. It cannot hide it’s young age, but it does not need to. This is very playful and summery.

The finish is medium long and spice on red fruit and some wood smoke.

Lovely little dram at a very attractive price. And of course it is also one of the few opportunities you’ll find to try this malt. For me, it was only my second Ailsa Bay – the first being David Stirk’s AB001, by the way – when I enjoyed a wonderful whisky dinner at Wullie’s Hielander restaurant in Alkmaar, Holland. Which reminds me… need to plan another dinner there soon.