Crown 3 Year Old Single Grain Islay Quarter Cask Finish

Crown Spirits, a new Belgian bottler from Bruges, has launched three single grains in 2021, each a single cask at cask strength and each time at the very young age of 43 months – of which the first 30 months on a classic first fill bourbon barrel and then a finish of 13 months on a special cask, in this case an Islay Quarter Cask. 241 bottles were released at a cask strength of 60.0%. The distillate was distilled by Filip Braeckman of the distillery of the same name in Oudenaarde. Hey! That's an excellent nose! Coconut, vanilla, white chocolate, salted popcorn, honey, green garden herbs and white pepper. And the whole thing is wrapped in a soft smoky jacket, of course. Very inviting. Excellent mouthfeel with a strong stimulus from the alcohol percentage. A lot of pepper on arrival, but once your salivary glands have extinguished the fire a bit, a lot of smoke appears again (it becomes grand!) and then a whole range of white fruit, vanilla and coconut. A nice sweetness appears which gives it a somewhat sweeter note. Very, very good. The finish starts out very smoky, then becomes very sweet on popcorn with caramel and a lot of coconut which makes it clear that we are dealing with a grain whisky here. Yes, what a dram! Can hold it’s own against many Scotch grains. Were it not for the fact that it costs 75 EUR for a bottle of 50cl, I’d have brought it into the house. That's not cheap, right? But if your bank account can handle it, be sure to get it.