 SMWS G3.4 Caledonian 27yo  
Caledonian Distillery - Dalry, Edinburgh (demolished) |
Paint a picture...
Imagine waking up from a drug trip, disorientated and with little memory of how you got where you are, with exotic sights and smells peaking out through the sticky, damp darkness. You stumble through wooden corridors and out into a harbourside, where an old Asian man is bent over an oak bucket preparing fish sauce for fermentation. As you walk past, the smells attack your nose as the extra strong mint you're slowly sucking in the side of your mouth tries to fend off the fishy nasal invasion.
As you try and slip away from this Oriental brain-burp, you find a gap between the wooden shacks and make a bid for your exit, only to find an old door in your way with a shiny, metal tongue firmly attached to it. Not knowing what compels you, you place your tongue onto its metal counterpart and lick... instantaneously, you are sat at a pub table in homely surrounding, with a bag of crisps, a tart apple and a bottle of coca-cola in front of you. You wonder if it could all have just been a dream, as a cold, tingly feeling from your tongue shatters that warm illusion.
Come on now, what are the key flavours?
Smells of fish sauce, old marker pens, aniseed balls, mints, cheese. Tastes of prawn cocktail crisps, apple juice, tangfastics sugar, coca cola and varnish.
Seriously though, any good?
This is really different. I tasted this with three other grain whiskies (two Strathclydes and an Invergordon) and it was nothing like the other three. It's really hard to call it as it's great that it stands out and it's quite an experience, but it's really rather sour on the taste before beginning to sweeten. Is it great? No. Is it worth trying? I'd say so, yes.
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Tasted on: 01/06/13
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  Prepare yourself for a journey into the unknown.. |
In summary:
Really different, complex and intriguing. Not a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and hard to tell if it's even a winner, but it's worth trying to see how you experience it.