Milk & Honey distillery – Experimental 3yo whisky #2 (lightly peated)

Whisky live 2018 Tel Aviv will take place Wednesday next week , and just in time for that M&H distillery (Based in Tel Aviv as well) has announced the release of it’s 2nd experimental 3 yo cask, this time a lightly peated spirit. Just like edition #1, this experimental expressions was distilled before the actual distillery equipment was in place, and distillation took place in a small still located in the Sharon area, by current M&H master distiller Tomer Goren and using very small scale equipment. The whisky was distilled in April 2014, and aged for 43 months in two cask types : first a 225 liter virgin oak cask, and after a period of 28 months, it was transferred to an ex-Bourbon cask for the rest of the maturation period at the distillery warehouse, and bottled recently.

The cask yielded 324 bottles (0,5 liter) at 46% abv, which are priced at 449 NIS ($130), which is of course not cheap, but quite limited… A first peated release, is always interesting, and at such a tender age of 3 yo, will it feel young? or will it feel more mature due to the hot maturation climate in Tel Aviv? Let’s find out.

Nose: A lovely sweet malty backbone , some citrus notes, and lemon peel, there’s a nice smoky touch to it, it’s not overpowering but it’s certainly there, adding as nice touch, vanilla, honeyed sweetness, and more subtle smoke. Feels young and fresh . Palate: the smoke is more pronounced, a nice peatiness and vanilla sweetness, with a touch of ground pepper, and more smoke. there’s more citrus, this time : ripe oranges, vanilla and a sweet malty note as well, cardboard and some wood. Finish: medium with quite some pepper, malt and cocoa, with the smoke and peat going for some time.