Whisky : Blair Athol 8 Year SMWS 68.28 “Monkberry moon delight”

Country/Region : Highland

ABV : 56.1%

Cask : Rechar Hogshead

Age : 8 Years (Distilled 11 June 2010)

Nose : Monkey mashed berry moonshine— the initial aroma is hot and takes time to cool off.  Overripe berries and artificially fruity Starburst come forward, joined by the fruity sarsaparilla of root-beer and some twangy banana ketchup.  The fruit notes take over the longer the dram breathes with fresh figs, plums, and with wolf berry (goji berries) pastries.

Palate : The dram opens just as hot on the palate as it did on the nose and needs time to breath to open up.  Patience is rewarded with leathery dried persimmons, sweet katsu sauce, and fresh green vegetation.  The flavor profile has a nicely balanced sweetness even as it turns toward the candied notes of Haw flakes.  Wolf berry pastries, grape fluoride, and dried Chinese hawthorns (or mountain hawthorn/haw berry) come near the end and gradually come to dominate the palate giving it an almost fruity medicinal quality.

Finish : Lingering heat and fruity candies— haw flakes and dried plums.

Grade : 6

Mental Image : Dusty Bottom of the Candy Store Haw Flake Barrel

Something Better : Glen Scotia 10Y SMWS 93.98 (more tropical fruit, similar medicinal notes near end)

Something Similar : Eigashima 5 Year Cask Strength (similar persimmon and candied fruits)

Something Worse : Westland Cask #2479 K&L Selection (similar sarsaparilla and leathery fruits)

Notes : Wow! This started off with quite some heat considering it is not exactly rocket fuel.  The nose needed a good while to cool off and open up and then the palate took even longer.  Yet, patience was rewarded.  The dram transitioned from something that felt young, spirited, and a little unrefined into a complex mix of Chinese candies and pastries.  Once the dram cooled off and opened up it developed beautifully and each sip brought a new variety of candy store flavors.  Some of these were more pleasant than others: persimmons get a thumbs up, floride less so.

One of the tasters really enjoyed this dram and ranked it as one of the top of the evening.  It was a sentimental tastebud trip to childhood afternoons at the nearby Crack Seed Store— a type of Asian/Local fusion candy store which has become increasingly rare in the last decade as commercial retail rents have skyrocketed and the original or second generation owners have retired and shuttered their stores.  This dram was full of nostalgia for the bins of pickled, dried, and candied fruits that lined the shelves of the Crack Seed Stores.

The rest of the tasting panel ranked this somewhere in the middle of the pack— it was delicious with a really unique fruity profile, but it was not really stunning.  Without the twang of nostalgia, it was less attention grabbing and memorable.  This dram required a lot of patience and that can be a tall ask.  It did continue to open up nicely in the bottle as it oxidized— so if you had a full bottle I would reckon it worth it to just power through the first little bit (or maybe rebottle a good 4-6 oz. in another container) and then let this sit on the shelf for a month or so.  I assume the SMWS title is a message to consumers : only pour this on the Monkberry Moon… whenever that is.