Scallywag Noir on Taste; New Thai Whiskies; Delights from Tobermory; New Rock Island

Hello everyone

I was over on Mull recently for work reasons and was able to drop in briefly to Tobermory Distillery with Luke Fenton from owning company, CVH Spirits. Luke recommended a couple of the small bottles of distillery exclusives. These are smaller sizes, chosen and hand-filled by the distillery team and are limited availability from the distillery shop only. Once they‘re sold, that‘s it. You can‘t get them from their online shop either. I was able to buy my partner the Red Wine Cigar Cask for his birthday and left the Tawny Port Finish unpurchased. However, Luke bought one which he was kind enough to share a bit of on the ferry back. Heavenly stuff. One of those you could sit and inhale all day. I only wish I‘d bought both expressions. So, if you find yourself on Mull and at Tobermory, please do check the Distillery Exclusive bottlings as you won‘t get them anywhere else. I now have another good reason to go back.

I did cover Douglas Laing & Co.‘s Scallywag Noir last time from their media release. Since then they‘ve been kind enough to supply a little sample for me to do my own notes. Just as a reminder, Scallywag is a Speyside Blended Malt and this one was bottled at 52.8% abv with PX sherry casks the predominant finishing wood.

Appearance: Rich amber/mahogany with amber and deep orange highlights. Rather like the tea raisins have soaked in for making rich fruit cake.Tears very slow and sticky to form but not too widely spaced.

Nose: Rich, raisiny and dark chocolate with sweet spicing including cinnamon. Rich, mellow oak and quite a heavy vanilla note – like expensive vanilla ice cream. No hint of sulphur/struck match at this point.

With water, a little flatter at first then the fruit comes back through; baked spiced plums; a touch of wax and heady night-blooming floral notes.

Palate: Quite luscious and this where a little bit of sulphur does come in; raisin sweetness but a lighter character than expected. Some dark chocolate and black pepper; oak and tannins. Less fruit than on nose and more warm spices.

Finish: Medium – long; peppery and a dry finish with oak.

A distinctly palatable dram and one I‘d go back to though it is a limited edition and could soon be hard to find.

A new offering also from Douglas Laing this last week is their Rock Island 16 Year Old Sherry Edition. This range is also a blended malt from several of our islands – Orkney, Arran, Jura and Islay and they say, „Following the success of the 14-Year-Old Sherry Edition, released in 2023, this unique Island Malt has been matured for an additional two years in Sherry casks, resulting in even greater depth of flavour.“ I hope to judge that for myself as a sample maybe available when I get back from an upcoming trip. This is the first at 16 years old in this range. It‘s at 46.8% abv and priced at around £75.00 / €90.00. Not at all a bad price for a 16 year old whisky these days. Rock Island 16-Year-Old Sherry Edition will be available from specialist retailers and online across Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. I won‘t say more about it till I see if there is a sample to do my own notes.

Other samples which did arrive with me this week are whiskies from Thailand. I‘m promised that they taste good and not at all like Thai „whisky“ I tasted years ago. This is Thailand‘s first single malt whisky and goes by the name of Prakaan. It‘s from International Beverage who also own Old Pulteney Scotch Whisky and Cardrona from New Zealand. There are three whiskies in this Prakaan range launch, PRAKAAN Select Cask, PRAKAAN Double Cask and PRAKAAN Peated Malt – all from the Prakaan Distillery in the north of Thailand. I haven‘t had time to try them yet so will save them for my mid-July piece and tell you more about them and the distillery then.

Till next time, happy dramming.

Slainte mhath,

Caroline