Whisky : Loch Lomond Rhosdhu 6 Year SMWS G15.7 “A wee cheeky chappie”

Country/Region : Scotland/Highland (Single Grain)

ABV : 62.3%

Cask : 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon

Age : 6 Years (Distilled 13 May 2013)

Nose : Garden Center. Green compost, lawn clippings, fertilizers, garden hose water, and a slightly medicinal herbicide.  Earthy notes of fresh potting soil and modeling clay came to mind along with old comic books and rice crackers.

Palate : Medium-light body with a nice palate coating oiliness.  Initial blast of malted milk candies, milk chocolate, and brown sugar.  Herbal notes slid into focus with lemongrass, Thai basil, dandelions, and fruit punch.  Earthy clay and potting soil arrived at the end with a mouth clearing dryness.

Finish : Long and lingering with dry milk chocolate and subtly sweet molasses.

Score : 7

Mental Image : Bushy, the Basil I adopted at HomeDepot

Notes :  Good, but weird.  This was distilled from peated malted barley that Loch Lomond distilled on a column still.  The use of that still was why this was labeled a single grain rather than a single malt, even though it used entirely malted barley.  This kind of thing used to be slightly more common when distilleries could label the product as “Pure Malt.”  Loch Lomond still does it sometimes because they can, otherwise it is not the sort of thing you will often encounter outside of blends.

This had an intensely earthy mineral nose, while the flavor profile drifted more toward herbal-chocolate with some tantalizing hints of fruit and earth.  It was exceptionally popular at a local virtual tasting which absolutely shocked me as I thought it was the kind of weird that only I would love.  While most of the SMWS bottles I post are from local tastings, this was one of the few SMWS bottles I picked up for myself as I am totally down with odd ducklings like a peated single grain.