Annandale Distillery Tasting

The full line-up

We had a packed crowd upstairs in our new surroundings of the Seven Oaks for February's tasting, a visit from the Annandale Distillery. Not too far over the border, it's only a couple of hours away on the M6 making it one of our closest distilleries. As is often the case, it's a 19th century distillery which closed in the 20th, but which has been revived in the 21st as part of the whisky boom.

Unpeated bourbon cask

Ambassador John had brought with him a mix of cask strength expressions showing off their unpeated (Man O'Words) and peated (Man O'Sword) range, and we added two bottles of our own from the club stocks for good measure.

So with eight drams to try we got straight into it, with an unpeated Man O'Words matured in bourbon casks. We certainly got the hit of vanilla and cream with this one. It tasted strong, you really felt this one in your chest on the way down, as well you might at 59.8% (no calibration drams here, clearly).

There was a caramel sweetness too, as part of a really long aftertaste. This was £75 and was nothing if not a serious start to proceedings.

Unpeated oloroso cask

Next a version aged in oloroso sherry, and even stronger at 61.5%. Again there was no mistaking that sherry, with plenty of spice, fruits, raisins and sultanas evident on the nose, which was a cracker and made us want to move quickly on to drinking the thing.

Those spices came through again on the palate, especially nutmeg, with a definite hint of ginger biscuits. Buttery shortbread was another shout. It was £85.

Unpeated fino cask

Completing the Man O'Words core range was dram three, matured in ex-fino sherry. The single cask fino makes this a unique whisky, John reckoned. This was different again, with yeast or bread on the nose. This gave way to something more cake-y on the palate, with a mixture of sweetness and almonds, so a Bakewell tart was an obvious tasting note.

Others picked out dark chocolate as well as other nutty flavours. Extremely pleasant again, and it came in at 60.4% and £95.

The fresh-filled bourbon

Before moving onto the peated core range, there was time for a detour via two bottles of Annandale sources from the club's back catalogue.

Again cask strength, whisky four was a 59.6% fresh filled bourbon. This did not taste quite as strong as the others or its ABV would suggest. Indeed, it had more of a "straight down the line" feel about it and was very pleasant and approachable.

The STR

Tasting notes included buttery again, along with "grainy" and a bit of sweetcorn. It took water well, too, apparently.

Dram five was an STR, the now familiar technique of shaving, toasting and re-charring, used by many younger distilleries to rejuvenate red wine and other casks for the maturation of whisky.

This got some mixed views in the room - some feeling the palate fell a bit short, but others really enjoying it. I fell into the latter camp and have written down the suitably vague "moreish" in my notes, so you'll have to make of that what you will. It was 59.2%.

Peated bourbon cask

Back to the distillery's core range for their three Man O'Swords peated drams, once again with bourbon, oloroso and fino cask expressions.

Dram six was matured in fresh bourbon. This was smoky on the nose, like a campfire barbecue, but not medicinal like some peat monsters can be. The PPM was 28-30ish, and we felt this was pretty approachable as these sorts of drinks go. "Delicious" was one view, and that it was great as it was, with no need for water.

Peated oloroso cask

This was 59.6% and was £75 (full disclosure: I bought one).

We were going in the same order as before, so it was oloroso next for a blend of sherry and peat. As you might expect, this made the whisky "very complex". Someone suggested it was more like a peated mead than anything else, although whether the Lindisfarne monks themselves ever needed to use peat to make their booze may be lost to history.

This was £85 and 61.1%.

If you think that the tasting notes recorded here might be getting shorter as the night progressed, you'd be right, but that's how it goes on an evening of eight cask strength whiskies. To finish we were treated to a peated version of the fino. It got an "ooh!" on the nose. We liked it, but amid stiff competition it perhaps wasn't quite the dram of the night. Nice, but maybe too peaty for some in the room.

Peated fino cask

Again it was 61%, and clocked in at £95.

As for that dram of the night voting, no fewer than seven of the eight whiskies got at least one vote, always a sign of a strong line up. The clear winner though was dram three, the unpeated fino cask Man O'Words, with an impressive 18 votes! The unpeated oloroso was second, with the peated bourbon and fino joint third.

Thanks to Martin for raiding the club stocks for those two additional bottles, and special thanks to John from Annandale for making the journey to see us and bringing such a great line up of drams to share.

New Year, New Home!

 

The line-up

Our 2025 programme of tastings got off to a bit of a different start for a couple of reasons. The first was a week's delay due to a previous booking at our new venue, meaning our January tasting actually took place on the first Thursday in February.

North British 18yo

But I've already given away the second. After spending most of our decade-plus history at the Britons Protection (longer serving members might recall our earliest days in the Lass O'Gowrie then the Castle, but these memories are understandably hazy), events at the start of January meant Star Pubs/Heineken finally took control of the place following a long battle. Changes afoot there, not least the departure of the whisky stocks that made it such an attractive place for us for so long, meant we were briefly homeless.

In stepped another Manchester landmark, the Seven Oaks in Chinatown. Their upstairs room is an ideal size for us, and so that's where we assembled for Martin to take us through six assorted bottles raided from the club's stocks.

The Holyrood

We started off with a single cask grain, an 18-year-old from North British aged in a refill sherry cask and bottled by Douglas Laing under their Old Particular brand. This had a sort of leather, waxy type vibe about it, the sort of smell you get when buffing up your car (I was taking others' word for this, I'm afraid my poor old Ford has never had a buffing, at least not from me). On the palate we got some toffee at the end, butterscotch too. Not too vanilla-y, as some grains can be.

This was good, although at our table we weren't quite sure it was worth the £67 we paid for it back in 2022. Others raved it about it though, declaring it "surprisingly good". Other tasting notes included struck matches and sulphur. It was 48.4%.

SMWS Tullibardine

Dram two went to the other end of the age scale, and a very young whisky from Edinburgh's new Holyrood distillery, which says it's the first in the Scottish capital for a century. Set up by Canadians in an old railway building, the distillery has a reputation for experimenting, and has employed an ex-distiller from Macallan to help them realise what they want to achieve.

We weren't so keen on the nose here - cheese and sweaty socks - but it was totally different when you actually drank it. Very creamy and interesting. We'd like to try more of their stuff, but not necessarily this precise expression again. It was 49.8% and cost us £70 including postage.

Arran 16yo

As someone commented on seeing the line-up of bottles at the start of the evening, "it's always a good night when you see one of these," gesturing at the familiar Scotch Malt Whisky Society livery of dram three. This expression - Blindfolds and Pipettes, 28.95 - was a 10-year-old Tullibardine.

This was straightforward and very good, we felt. Understated but chewy. Not especially memorable on the nose but it had a super long aftertaste, with distinct flavours of apple crumble, custard and a honeyed sweetness. There were mixed views on whether adding water did all that much for it. This bottle was £70 for SMWS members and it was 59%.

Aultmore

After a half-time break to recharge our glasses downstairs in our new surroundings, it was back for another trio of whiskies.

And we kicked off part two on the Isle of Arran, with a distillery exclusive 16-year-old single cask from 2022. We weren't quite sure what the cask was, although it could have been Sauternes, or fino - it was certainly very pale for something which had been aged for that long. 

It was very nice all round though, and Arran is a popular distillery among many club members who felt this particular expression helped the liquid shine. It was £95, which was perhaps a little at the top end of what we'd pay for it. The strength was 58%.

Glen Scotia

To another club for whisky five, this time the Cadenhead's Club and a 15-year-old Aultmore, the result of a vatting of several casks. This had an incredible nose and looked great too: it made you (or at least me) instantly want to drink it. 

And indeed, it lived up to expectations. Very nice, with classical old Speyside flavours, including dates and sticky toffee pudding. A great all-rounder and a favourite so far for many in the room. This was £70 and 54.8%.

Martin had a bit of peat lined up for us to finish with. A Glen Scotia bottled for Callander, this was matured in fresh bourbon then PX casks. My notes here indicate that it was billed as heavily peated, but didn't really taste all that peated, indeed I wrote "is it really peated at all?" so clearly this was causing some debate. More of a soft hint of smoke than anything else.

This was really delicious though. That hint of smoke brought to mind smoky bacon and Frazzles. "Stunning" and "terrific" were among the comments. Incredible value too, as we paid £59 for it back in 2021. It was 52.9%.

That brought us to the dram of the night voting, and despite a strong challenge from the Glen Scotia, the Cadenhead's Club Aultmore got the most votes with 13. In third place was the Arran.

Thanks to Martin for putting together our new home and this great line up of drams, and to all at the Seven Oaks for giving us such a warm welcome!