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Day 24 - KWM 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar - Berry's Blended Malt #1 1999

Posted on December 24, 2024

Day 24 — Berry's Blended Malt #1 1999

by Evan

What can I say about this bottle? Pretty much everything I can factually tell you is right there on the label. This is a Blended Malt Scotch. It looks like the whisky within was distilled in 1999. It was bottled by Berry Bros. & Rudd.

So, there you have it! Shall we give it a taste?

Hold on a minute. I should probably stretch this out a bit more than that. Hmm.

Here is what Berry Bros. have typed on the back label:

“Berry Bros & Rudd have proud history in supplying Blends and Blended Malt dating back to the 19th Century. While our most notable Blend my have been Cutty Sark, introduced in 1923, over the years we’ve put together many different Blended Whiskies and vatted malts. This single cask Blended Malt is the latest in the long tradition.”

And here are their tasting notes:

“This fine blended malt offers lovely nutty notes with some delicate oak influence and enlivening citrus. The palate is round and lively with some dried fruit and gentle wood coming through. The finish is lingering, with a hint of spice and orange-citrus.”

Well, that totally clears things up, doesn’t it? A Single Cask Blended Malt Scotch. No provenance or background given on the specific malts inside. But hey, it is from 1999. And look here – it was aged in a hogshead, with a total of 324 bottles coming from said hogshead, at 50.5% ABV.

Berry Bros & Rudd was established wayyyy back in 1698. The company is the oldest wine merchant in the world, but it started its life as a coffee shop at No 3 St. James’s Street in London; a site that it still resides into this day.

Berry Bros & Rudd has done a lot and changed a lot over the past 325+ years, and it was indeed the creator and owner of Cutty Sark, which was first launched in 1923 (The Blended Scotch Whisky, not the ship). It was dubbed “the first lightly coloured whisky of exceptional quality”, and sold quite well, illicitly in the Prohibition era USA. Berry Bros & Rudd owned the popular Blended Scotch brand up until 2010, when they sold it to Edrington Group. Edrington in turn held on to the brand until only 2018, when they in turn sold it to La Martiniquaise-Bardinet. The French company also owns Glen Moray Distillery, which it procured from luxury brand company Luis Vuitton Moet Hennessy back in 2008.

What is in this Blended Malt? There have been plenty of ex-Edrington stock casks floating around over the past few years. That seems to be the term for Blended Malt casks from Edrington, the company that owns the Macallan, Highland Park, and Glenrothes distilleries. So if this bottle is one of those casks, this could very well contain two or all three of those distilleries’ whiskies within.

There are a bit of legs to this theory, as Edrington and Berry Bros do have a transactional history. Berry Bros purchased the Glenrothes brand (but not the actual distillery itself) from Edrington back in… 2010. Berry Bros then sold the Glenrothes brand back to Edrington seven years later, in 2017. Confusing, no?

Maybe this isn’t ex-Edrington stock at all. Perhaps it is like the Soup Town Blend we had from That Boutique-Y Whisky Company in the 2022 KWM Whisky Calendara combination of Loch Lomond and Glen Scotia? I would definitely be up for more of that.

Or perhaps it is just a cask that fell off the Compass Box Lorry on the way to being bottled, and they aren’t sure what it is?

At the end of the day, does it truly matter? What matters is if it is any good, right?

What really matters is that you must be tired of me trying to make something from nothing with this post. So let's get on with it!

Berry's Blended Malt #1 1999 – 50.1%

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Like drinking a good, dark coffee while sitting around a campfire. Notes of soft smoke, chocolate coated espresso beans, roasted almonds, along with old and weathered leather, hay bales for sitting on, and underlying hints of raisins, dried apricots, and apple pie.

Palate: Silky yet spicy. More notes of chocolate, coffee, and roasted nuts along with salted caramel, seaweed salad with sesame seeds and oil, ginger and chili spices, pineapple slices with cayenne powder liberally sprinkled on, apple and cinnamon oatmeal, and a touch of ground black pepper.

Finish: Long and warming, full of chocolate and spice with orchard and tropical fruit quietly hiding in the background along with a soft but persistent smoke.

Comment: I don’t really care what is in this blend, I just want more of it.

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: creamy, chocolatey, and nutty with the promise of layered fruits; Caramilk Bar, Turtles, and chocolate truffles; nutty sherry with dried fruits and the faintest whiff of smoke... or is that just barrel char.

Palate: round, fruity, and sherried, with a very chocolatey palate; more Caramilk, Turtles, and chocolate truffles, but also something sweeter; maybe a chocolate old-fashioned cocktail with thick orange peels as garnish; raisins, dates, and figs, but also some more exotic fruits; Panda brand licorice, soft leather and fruity tobacco; later cloves and chocolate covered espresso beans.

Finish: rich, warming, and sherried with fading notes of sweet chocolate, dried fruits, and sweet spice. 

Comment: I have more questions than answers here... is this another mystery Edrington Blended Malt, an intentional creation, or a teaspooned single malt? I don't know, but it doesn't have the subtle smoke we often see in many of those Edrington Blended Malts; I have not often loved Glenrothes in sherry, but when it's good, it's kind of like this… I should pour another dram of this dangerously drinkable whisky and ponder the matter a little longer! 

I wanted this in our Not An Advent Calendar badly, and now we are nearly sold out of it! Hopefully, we will see some more blended malts like this in the future…

Cheers,
Evan

Playing catch-up on our 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar?

You can find the rest of the blog posts here!

This entry was posted in Tastings, Whisky Calendars, Independent Bottler, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM 2024 Not An Advent Calendar Tastings

 

 

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