Miltonduff 12 Year (Blackadder Raw Cask)

 

I have become somewhat addicted to these incredible Raw Cask releases by independent bottler Blackadder. This is a 12 year single cask offering from little heard-of Miltonduff, which is one of the core spirits in Chivas Regal. Being from the Raw Cask series, there is absolutely no filtering done whatsoever: 

Check out the barrel char in this glass! It's unreal. I wish every bottler did this, and every customer expected it. I will say, for the record, that Blackadder features an unusually "fat" mouthfeel - all those extra oils and whatever isn't getting skimmed out really show up in the texture of the whisky.

This is bottled at 59.8% ABV and came from a single ex-bourbon hogshead. Let's investigate some Milton Duff goodness:

Nose: A faintly smoky (yet somewhat shy and muted) Speysider: orchard fruit, malt barley, light honey and caramel, and a very vague halo of smoke on the fringe. With time, orange marmalade is added to the fruit cocktail, and hints of sweet cherry. Maybe some peach too. There is also a nice earthiness here that suggests wet bark and soil. This makes me think of perhaps what Edradour would be like in a bourbon cask rather than sherry. 

Mouthfeel: Very heavy, viscous, coats the mouth. 

Palate: Wow! Rich palate that follows the nose closely but with a tingle of alcohol on the tip of the tongue: malt barley, wet bark and moss, apple, orange, honey under it all, and some smoke. A few reviewers of Blackadder around the net suggest the smokiness comes from the cask pieces left in the spirit for so long - I can't confirm that, but it sort of makes sense, I suppose - lots of carbon/ash sits in the whisky for a good while. Luckily, I love lightly smoky whisky, so I'm in luck. This has a nice "zing" at the beginning of the development. 

Finish: Good finish - oak, earth/bark, vanilla, fruit, and wispy smoke. 

Verdict: Haven't had very much Miltonduff, but I can't imagine it gets too much better than this bottle here. This is a Very Good Whisky, although not excellent - the nose is a little shy, the palate development is a little compressed and brief, and the finish is a little too earthy for the whisky to blow me away. But it's still great at what it does. Highly recommended - this seems to be about $90-100 most places on the net, and at that price it's a good bargain.