Tasting Notes: Shieldaig: Speyside: 10 year

Shieldaig: Speyside: 10 year (Scottish Speyside Single Malt Whisky: 10 Years 40% ABV)

Visual: A light chestnut brown. Clear.

Viscosity: Very slow, very thin streaks.

Nose: Shortbread. Peanuts. Light sugar dust floating in the air. Marzipan and shortbread.

Body:  Sweet. Syrup and meringue. Light apricot. Black cherry at the back with thick cream.

Finish:  Dry chocolate. Dried apricot. Brandy cream and a chocolate dust air. Slight sour cream touch at the very end.

Conclusion: I had this a week ago. The first time I had it, it didn’t make much of an impression. Lots of push on the flavour but a certain simplicity that didn’t make it seem very appealing, and the character reminded me of some of the base notes in a blended whisky. Quite middle of the road.

I was then quite surprised, I revisit it, tasting note book in hand and within moments I realised I needed to give it a touch more credit.  Whilst still slightly simple, it brings a nice fresh fruit and brandy cream favour that were completely hidden initially, possibly by a cold room temperature. These new elements make it seem almost Christmas tipple style and are very welcome.

The long chocolate finish is done especially well. Well apart from a touch of alcohol burn, then sour at the end. Those two elements don’t quite fit. Apart from that it compares very well to Dalmore which brings in a similar finish. A pity I didn’t get to try it with water as I get the feeling it would open it up a lot.  A nice forceful little number, not a bad attempt and much better than I remember from the first attempt.

Visual: A touch of research tells me that Shieldaig is not, as I first assumed, a distillery, but an independent bottler. Due to a lack of “The” at the start I don’t think its from “The Speyside” which is a distillery distinct from speyside, the region . Though I could be wrong. I presume the somewhat generic “Speyside” name means that they did not get the rights to say which distillery it is from.  A pity as it would be interesting to find out. Tried at the Royal Oak, it was the only single malt whisky they had that night. A crying shame, they used to have such a great range. No side jugs of water were available for the tasting so this is all done neat. I messed up the glass photo, so it is bottle only at the moment I’m afraid.