Ballindalloch 2000 Malts of Scotland sherry butt 5408

‘Ballindalloch, you say? Err…’

Yeah, that was my first reaction too. So I did some research. There is a county in Scotland by the name of Ballindalloch, even a castle. There are several distilleries in this region: Braeval, Cragganmore, Glenfarclas, Glenlivet, Tamnavulin en Tomintoul. We are obviously in the Speyside.

So it’s not too hard to find out the true nature of this whisky. This is a Glenfarclas in disguise. As you are probably aware, Glenfarclas is one of the distilleries that will not allow independent bottlers to use their name on the labels. Hence Glenfarclas is released under several aliases, such Old Speyside, Speyside Finest, From the Valley of the Green Grass (which is the translation of Glenfarclas), Glenfairytales and… Ballindalloch!

The nose (and the color) leave no room for doubt: this is a sherry cask. Wonderfully sweet with stewed fruits and oranges. But… unfortunately that doesn’t last long. Leave it for a minute and it will become quite salty. Leave it a little longer and it will become downright bad: from bitter to sulphury, from rubber tyre to eggs that have seen much better days… Pity.

On the palate, this whisky is nicely creamy, drinkable despite the 59,2% ABV. Moet again the sweet touches are easily overcome by the drying bitterness. I’m left wanting… I had expected a lot more. I tried adding a bit of water to rescue this whisky, but to no avail.

The finish is pretty long, but unfortunately not a plus in this case.

What a strange, almost devilish cask choice from Malts of Scotland… Available for about 50 EUR.

72/100