Inchgower 13 Year (SMWS 18.38 "The Happy Ponderer")

 

Here is a new one to me - Inchgower, a four-still distillery on the outskirts of Buckie in Moray, Scotland. Dating from 1871, it was owned by Bell's for many years, and is currently owned by Diageo. It remains a major component of Bell's blended whisky, which I always liked just fine. I have never, not once in a decade of drinking primarily single malts, seen or even heard of a bottle of Inchgower, anywhere. According to the cask coding that the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") uses, this is only the 38th cask they've ever obtained from Inchgower - a real rarity!

This single cask release has been aged 13 years in a refill bourbon hogshead. Here are the official tasting notes: 

A pure, punchy and wonderfully naked example of this underrated and charismatic distillate. The nose showed initial notes of fresh paint, metal polish, soot coal scuttles and more fragrant notes of soft waxes, gorse bushes, balsa wood and oily canvass. Water brought out chalky notes, pithy lime zest, herbal medicines, dried mint, camphor and white mushrooms with a petrichor earthiness. The neat palate was superb upon arrival. Full-on rich, fatty, oily textural distillate driven whisky. Buttery cereals, sweet grains, caramelised oatmeal, camphor, lamp oil, lanolin, medical vapour rubs and lemon cough drops. With reduction, we got sweeter medical notes, bacon frazzle crisps, hessian, pumpkin seed oil, white truffle and umami paste. Superb! 

Wow, yes please. This is exactly the kind of funky profile I tend to seek out and admire: paint, metal polish, coal, wax, wood, oil...! Amazing. And that mention of a fatty oily distillate, with butter and grain, lamp oil (!) ... umami paste (!!). Bottled at 61.3% ABV, part of the Spicy and Dry profile at SMWS, and nicknamed "The Happy Ponderer." Let's explore this virtually unknown distillery:

Nose: Honestly, this first pour did not blow me away with crazy, wild, funky flavors. I got a lovely cooling grassiness, some malt sugars, some vanilla, some wax, and some freshly polished wood. None of the paint, metal, coal, canvas comes out right off the bat.

But when I came back a day later... man. This does get funky as it oxidizes. Chalk, citrus peel, wax, metallic overtones, and spongy wood. 

With some water, I get a lot of soft "farm" flavors - grass, hay, loam, moss, wood, old leaves - all tied together with a waxy vanilla bow. The waxy texture really comes through with water, and is quite pleasant. 

Mouthfeel: Medium-to-full, oily. 

Palate: Man, that 61.3% really sweeps through the mouth: very hot, like eating a spicy chili pepper and then waiting a second or two. I do agree with the "fatty oily texture" from the official notes - and that fatness carries flavors of butter, malt, lemon and assorted citrus, and a very slight herbal, grassy flavor that is quite nice. This is very solid - I like the buttery grassy element the best. Also a chalky element here. 

With water, this suddenly gets quite quirky. Dried ham, melon, lemon cough drops, toasted pumpkin seeds, and maybe even that umami paste that the official notes suggest (mushrooms? miso? Hard to say). A lot of flavors that don't necessarily cohere. I was unsure at first about the Spicy and Dry flavor category, but the more this whisky ages, the spicier/weirder and drier it gets. 

Finish: Not the longest finish in the world, you get oak wood and vegetable oil and furniture polish that steadily fades away. With water, the finish becomes noticeably waxy. Hints of smoke are left behind in deposits on the tongue. 

Verdict: So this is Inchgower! Interesting. It reminds me most closely of distilleries like Tomintoul: smaller-name players capable of producing big flavors. I like this bottle quite a bit - it's grassy, waxy, sweet but also savory... a lot going on. Complicated, takes some time to unpack. Worth exploring - but not for the faint of heart, maybe. Full of ponderous strangeness.