Price: £30 (200ml)/£70 (700ml)
Purchased From: Falkirk Distillery
ABV: 48%
I had the pleasure of visiting Falkirk Distillery on my most recent trip to Scotland. As I was about to embark on a 10-day tour around various distilleries, I only picked up a 200ml bottle of this due to not wanting to overload myself early (spoiler alert – I wish I’d purchased more). Hopefully in the near future we will see this being distributed in Australia.
This is the 3rd edition of their flagship bottling. A mixture of 80% 1st-fill ex-Bourbon and 20% ex-Oloroso, with the former being supplied by Heaven Hill Distillery. It is a NAS but I believe the average whisky in this is around 4 years old. It’s also natural colour and non-chill filtered.
Nose
Fresh and fruity. Honey, vanilla and pears. There are also gentle grass and floral notes coming through. I don’t get anything from the ex-Oloroso on the nose.
Taste
Sweet malt and zest. Plenty of the honey and vanilla notes from the nose, quite common with 1st-fill ex-Bourbon, but it’s not overpowering. Citrus – orange and lemon peel. The ex-Oloroso comes through here and adds an extra layer of complexity with some subtle dried fruit and dark chocolate. The finish is long with a little bit of oak and minerality. Water wasn’t needed, it drinks very well at 48%.
Conclusion
This is a very good whisky for a young release and proof age is just a number. I also tried their other two current releases during my tour and all 3 were cracking drams, but for me their flagship had the best of both worlds, with a touch of ex-Oloroso giving it more depth (the other two were a 6-year-old 1st-fill ex-Bourbon and a 4-year-old 1st-fill ex-Oloroso). It’s also interesting how they have managed to keep a Lowland style whisky while using ex-Speyside stills, with the distillery utilising one pair of the stills from Caperdonich, which was mothballed in 2002 and later demolished between 2010 and 2011.