A few years ago I bought a bottle of Deanston, bottled by The Creative Whisky Company. On the day I bought this bottle I found out that about half of the original cask already had been bottled a year earlier, also by The Creative Whisky Company. That called for a sample-swap and Wim Pollet was kind enough to send me a sample of his bottle. Today it’s time to finally find out how different both bottlings are. Or aren’t they?
The Glencairns are filled and immediately a lovely sherry scent surrounds me. I have already enjoyed a dram of my own bottle earlier and I’m very curious about “the other dram from the same cask”. That’s the dram I start with.
- Nose: Sweet notes of dried fruits, a bit of spicyness, salty hints that remind me of soy sauce
- Palate: Smooth, creamy en quite full bodied for it’s age. Nice Sherry notes, Oloroso is my guess. Dark chocolate and a bit of coffee together with dried fruits.
- Finish: Lasting and warming, again the dark chocolate here. Very nice!
Time to put my own bottle to the test as well.
- Nose: The dried fruits are here also. Compared to it’s sistercask this nose is a bit dusty.
- Palate: The smooth and creamy body is present and so are the dried fruit sherry notes. No dark chocolate here. This bottle has a bit more wood-spicyness. A bit of tannines as well.
- Finish: A bit of a drying sensation. Less warming and a bit shorter than it’s sistercask. Still very nice.
Deanston has put a very nice spirit in sherry cask 1930 when they filled it in 1998. The original maturation created a very nice whisky. The PX finish unfortunately didn’t make it even better. In fact, the first bottling is a little bit better in my opinion. Having said that I must also say I’m still very glad with my own bottle.
Wim Pollet, thank you for sending me your sample. It was very nice to compare both bottlings of the same cask.
