This is my first bottle of Deanston whisky. Not my usual thing to start with the 18 but at the time I brought the bottle I had a lot of younger whiskies in my stash and not many 15+ whiskies.
First thing to say is I like the presentation of this whisky. Bottled at 46.3%, Natural colour, NCF. Nice bottle and a no fuss cardboard box.
Nose
Quite fruity (but not dried fruits) lemon, vanilla some oak and a subtle ginger note.
Palate
Tastes quite young for it's age. Quite bitter/sour initially. Biscuity and malty with lemons and a fizzy sherbert note. Some toffee in the development.
Finish
Quite drying, oaky with tanins. And the sour fruits lingering.
This malt is quite obviously bourbon cask matured and I like the fact that they've avoided the standard practice of dipping their 18 year old in sherry casks for a couple of years to give an artificial impression of age. As I mentioned I like the presentation. I also quite like the fact that the profile is a little unusual being quite sour and malty.
So why not a 90+ score? In truth I did find the one thing it was missing was a little complexity.
Still a very decent malt. Competitively priced (in the UK) for an 18 year old. Worth a look.
@Wierdo I’m struggling a bit with this one so I’m putting it aside to air out for a while. Your review is encouraging though, and I’m sure it will come around.
@OdysseusUnbound I’m on my third bottle of the Deanston 12. If you can find it at the right price you can’t go wrong.
@RianC no I've not had the 12. Went straight to the 18. Probably should have started with the 12.
@OdysseusUnbound if you're looking for a slightly older bourbon matured whisky and you can pick up a bottle of this for a sensible price it's defintely worth a look.