[youtube height=”720″ width=”1280″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4AJZ_TRy98&list=PL36O7QkNnc2MzmBPqoF80uezxARJRVgaJ&index=7[/youtube]
Rating
Price:
Circa £45
Who said the English couldn’t make whiskey?
Many people know Cotswolds based Adnams – either for their brewing or for their bars, but they’re also pretty prolific when it comes to distilling. Adnams produce at least one kind of whisky (here is proof… ABV 43% – ya geddit? HA!).
This one’s a single malt produced entirely from East Anglian barley and matured in new French oak casks, though they don’t give us an age statement ( as in, for how long it’s been aged). The one you’re looking at here is the second batch, the first was released in December of last year .
Asides from this whisky, Adnams also have a pretty wide range of gins, vodkas, an ‘eaux de vie de biere’ (thermonuclear beer?) and a few different coloured absinths! You get the impression that whoever runs the distillery is pretty fearless, I’d love to visit them at some point and see where all this stuff comes from.
We Drink It, Stuff Happens
Nose:
The first impression is that you’re about to drink something very different to Scotch or bourbon. Perhaps it is going to challenge you, oh yes. There’s a sweet yeastiness and a strong herbal note that reminds me of rosemary and madeira wine.
There’s also some honey on the nose (Adnams refer to it as ‘runny honey’), plus a lingering impression of something that smells a little like rubber (not in a bad way). It becomes ‘fragrant’ once you acclimatise to it after a few drams.
Palette:
Again, there’s a fair few fun moments of unfamiliar flavour. At 43% it is still smooth as glass, with a rich, creamy roundedness and strong taste of dried apricots, stacked on top of that pure, herbal/rosemary flavour you get on the nose, plus obligitarty vanilla and honey notes. I suppose I’d call it average in terms of sweetness.
All this lends it a kind of refreshing ’cleanness’ that I am failing to better describe. It’s not herbal in a ‘medicinal’ way – but in a ’I’ve just gone picking rosemary in the meadow’ way.
Finish:
About average length, maybe a little shorter. The yeastiness lingers at the back of your throat and the apricot notes fade to new leather. The rosemary gives you the (probably false) impression that instead of having ‘whisky breath’, you now have ‘rosemary breath’. A few hours later, as I wrote this up, I can still taste that herbal note.
Verdict
This is one heck of an ‘innovative’ taste they’ve created here. If you’re not put off by the herbal notes and the apricots (which are the major differentiators here) it is incredibly easy drinking. I’d say for this kinda of ‘easy drinkingness’ and novel combination of flavours, you have yourself a bargain.
It’s not a personal favourite but it is one I am both fond of and impressed with. As with all things, don’t just take my word on it, try to get a taster. You may be pleasantly surprised. Or just surprised 😀