Strathmill 11 Year (SMWS 100.29 "Misbehaving in a Country House")

 

 This was the fifth of six samplings of the May outturn for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") - an interesting bottle from Strathmill, a respectable melding of bourbon and sherry due to an Oloroso finish. A gathering of about 30 people gathered at the Jack Rose Saloon in Washington DC to try and guess a blind tasting of the six drams.

Here are the official notes:

After eight years in ex-bourbon wood we transferred this into a first-fill Oloroso hogshead. The nose combined marzipan and brown sugar with toasted almonds and cashews, tarte tatin and Jaffa cakes. The palate had toffee apples, raisins and marmalade, cinnamon buns and porridge with stewed fruits; a lick of leather, a suspicion of cigar box and a touch of chilli to finish. The reduced nose was like ‘sliding down the polished banister in a country house’; also sticky toffee pudding, figs, sultanas and humbugs. The palate now encompassed prunes in sherry, cinder toffee and crème brûlée, with coffee beans, liquorice and oak in the aftertaste.

Pretty good description, all things told. Strathmill, as noted in my previous review of them recently, is one of the "shadow distilleries" of Diageo, that works anonymously to produce blend fodder. Bottled at 57.2% ABV. Let's dive in:

Nose: Walnuts, leather jackets, stewed red fruit, brown sugar, chocolate, alcohol burn, marzipan. Almost all sherry scents on the nose... at first. But the longer you let it sit, and if you add a touch of water, the bourbon emerges: vanilla, brown sugar, and cherries, specifically.

Mouthfeel: A nice, thick weight mouthfeel. 

Palate: Nuts galore, chocolate, thinned molasses, honey, bitter almonds. As before, with time and water the bourbon emerges in the same notes as the nose: cherry, vanilla, and brown sugar. Interesting transformation!

Finish: Heavily nutty and oaky, medium length. 

Verdict: I liked this one quite a bit. Like the recent SMWS-released Auchroisk that was sherry-finished, this was a good push/pull of bourbon and sherry flavors. Unlike the Auchroisk, which sort of shotgunned them all into your nose and mouth all together, this Strathmill has a very clear development pattern: the sherry gives way to bourbon over time. It's pretty well executed; recommended.