Whisky: Teaninich 9 Year, Lady of the Glen

Country/Region: Scotland/Highland

ABV: 56.7%

Cask: Refill Hogshead (8Y), Rivesaltes Barrique Finish (1Y)

Age: 9 Years (Distilled 9 Feb. 2012, Bottled 12 Feb. 2021)

Nose: Toffee, spice, and mellow herbal notes. A bit waxy with cracked pepper, tarragon, ginger, and roasty notes of chocolate barley and dark beer. Butterscotch, caramel, and toffee pudding drifted toward boba milk tea— maybe a strawberry Oolong. 

Palate: Full-bodied and thick with an oily viscous mouthfeel. Notes of sweet nougat, fruit, and chocolate malt. Tingling rich caramelized sugar with waves of butterscotch, brown sugar, and nougat. The saccharine profile brought to mind a grab bag of Halloween candies: candy corn, malted milk balls, Twix, Milky Way. There were hints of dried fruit, especially at the end, with cherry chocolate cordials, strawberries in dark chocolate, and chocolate malt truffles. A few drops of water brought the fruits forward and added citrus and ginger tea notes.

Finish: Lingering sweet caramel chocolate candies.

Score : 5

Mental Image : Halloween Evening Feast

Notes:  This benefited from a few drops of water. If, for some reason, future-you is reading this with a dram of it in front of you, then past-me wanted you to know that you should really add water to this. Maybe not even a few drops; perhaps you want to grab the tablespoon. With water, this opened up and immediately scored up a few levels from where I had been tempted to rank it. Water softened the mouthfeel— which of all things I found too heavy— and brought forward plenty of delicious fruit and more subtle notes of citrus and tea. A few drops broke up some of the tannic structure and quieted down some of the caramel and nougat.

While I suspect fans of big butterscotch would find a lot to love with this one, I have a bit of an aversion to drams that come off as quite so sweet. After trying a few Rivesaltes wine cask finishes lately, I have generally concluded they are not my jam. They amplify the sugary sweetness inherent in the malt in a manner that does not appeal to my taste.

Overall, this was interesting. It had loads of structure, which I expect from Teaninich and some interesting chocolatey and malt notes, but was generally dominated by sweet candies. Water improved it quite a bit, in my estimation.

Image Credit: Whisky Online