A tasting site dedicated to silent stills.



Ayrshire Batch 1

Ladyburn Distillery - Girvan, Ayrshire
That Boutique-y bottling (purchase link).
WhiskyBase reference page

For info   Reviews on sshhh! aim to detail the flavours, feelings and quality of each dram, wrapped up in as little nonsense as possible (!). Each whisky is tried on its own and given time to speak out, even if they often talk gibberish.
 
Distillery profile   Silent for: 48 years   |   Existed for: 10 years   |   Type: malt
Girvan grain distillery added pot stills in 1966 to start producing malt whisky and although most of this went into Grant's blends, some of it has since escaped as single malt releases, although not that much.. it's one of the rarest single malts out there. - see Malt Madness - Ladyburn for a detailed profile.
 

Tastes & Smells
Kid's sweets on the nose! Candy fruits, fruit pastilles, strawberry laces and it's creamy like milk bottle sweets. So many sweeties! Just moving things forward a few years, but not too many, alco-pops come into play. Much more watery in taste, and slightly spicy/acidic (sweet chili sauce) and fizzy like sour laces - like sour strawberry laces. Still lots of sweetness apparent, but a sourness too: pear drops, lemony flavour turning to bitter lemon and fermented limes - washed down with some soda water. Still a bit of that sweetness in the finish but very limey. It makes you pull a face like sucking a lemon and has some length, but not in a very rich way. The strawberry-ness has now gone.

Worth shouting about?
The nose, and taste to a lesser extent, was very distinct: really sweet and full of strawberries. It was fun and exciting but was definitely nose > taste > finish in terms of quality. The actual taste and enjoyment wasn't brilliant, although still reasonably interesting. It's a bit too spicy / burny, yet watery and sweet.. bizarre in a way, yet pretty distinct with its fruity creaminess - only two whiskies I've had are anything like it, and they were both reviewed on my GRAINS site: This Port Dundas 20yo had a similar strawberry smell whilst Bain's Cape Mountain Whisky had a similar taste, with me noting 'pink candystand swirly candy'.

Summary & Ramblings
With all those sweets appearing this immediately evoked thoughts of being a kid in a candy store (or a sweet shop, more precisely!), perhaps ending in disappointment or the purchase of a sour gobstopper: nice for a while, but the fun gradually fades.


6.6
1.7

  Last photo before my camera upgrade should improve things..!


tldr;
A very interesting nose, full of strawberries and sweeties. It didn't taste as good as I'd hoped from the nose, although it had similar things going on. A bit too watery, a bit too spicy and a little vague, but I won't forget those strawberry sweets.
 
 

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