The Nadurra range from The Glenlivet is something I think is a great idea. They create a batch of whisky and age it for 16 years in selected bourbon barrels. After that, they bottle the whisky without chill filtering and with no colour added. This is all sounding great to me and you know that each batch will be different and have its own nuances. I don't know why The Glenlivet doesn't simply produce all of their whiskies without colouring and without the chill filtering. Anyway...
 |
| Click to enlarge - The Glenlivet Nadurra 16 Year Old Batch 0911P - Scotch whisky lemonade? |
Colour: full gold
Nose: like lemon custard on the nose but the pastry chef put lots of lemon zest in that custard. I get some sort of sweet fruit on the nose as well. Soft on the nose for a cask strength but will give some burn if you pull too hard. I get some tartness on the nose.
Palate: sweet and tart like dessert lemons. Nice mouth feel - you pick up the extra texture from the non-chillfiltering. I've said before that this is "like scotch whisky lemonade" and I think that stands. A creamy lemon note is in the forefront. There is a light butterscotch or vanilla thread going thru there as well. At full strength, it certainly gives spice and heat at the tail end of the palate.
Add 5 drops of water and the palate gets a little softer and creamier but the tart lemon note still stands. Scotch whisky lemonade... is that a real thing?
With another 5 drops more water the butter scotch becomes more pronounced. I'm liking this!
Finish: the finish is shorter but certainly on the long side for a whisky aged in bourbon barrels. Its great for warmer weather (I first tried this in Hawaii and enjoyed it very much!).
Comments:
This is the kind of whisky that the "I don't drink anything younger than 18 year old" crowd would often buy for less money if they just freed their minds enough to try it and explore a little. My local shop just pulled out the next batch of Nadurra (can't remember the batch number off of the top of my head) and this drink excites me to try the next one.
I just tried the Glenfiddich Cask of Dreams - Canadian Edition this weekend and it is a bourbon aged higher-alcohol special edition that oozed the butterscotch and vanilla notes almost like this one really gives that lemon custard note. Makes me curious if the next Glenlivet Nadurra will be similar in profile to the 0911P or if it will be like the 'fiddich I just tried or if it will be something really cool that I never would have thought of. Hopefully we'll see.
Anybody want to send donations to get me to buy one and find out?
P.S. After I wrote this, I thought about something that Local Scotch guy told me and I think this applies to this drink (and any cask strength, probably) is that you should, at some point, try and destroy the thing by adding drops of water and tasting. You can see how far you can push it. I kept adding water to this one and it changed from very lemon-centered flavour to a quite pronounced butterscotch flavour. Next time I have it, if I feel like that butterscotch profile, I might add 10 - 15 drops of water right off the bat. Anyway, its a good experience to taste, add water, taste add water, and so on as you can see what comes of it. Some whiskies will take a lot and some won't. My only tip is that you should quit when you get it to a spot you really like.
No comments:
Post a Comment