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.