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Whisky Sponge release No. 95 is a teaspooned malt from a well-loved Speyside distillery. It's a marriage of 2 casks married together and bottled at 51.4% abv.
Producer Notes:
This is our latest bottling of Burnside blended malt made by William Grant & Sons, which we are now calling ‘Sideburn’. It’s a multi-vintage, small batch 30 year old composed of a 1992 2nd fill barrel and a 1993 1st fill barrel, bottled at cask strength. We are extremely happy with how this one has come out, it’s a stunning, perfectly mature honey and fruit bomb that tastes pretty much exactly how you would hope 30 year old, top tier Speyside malt whisky would taste.
700 mlProducer Tasting Notes:
Nose: deeply luscious and full of layers of honey, ripe green and yellow fruits and sweet rich cereals and malt. Also things like custard, dessert wines, citrus and wax. Just irresistable!
Palate: luscious is the word once again. Riddled with honeys, sweet wines, waxes, pollens, beeswax, dried exotic fruits, citrus marmalades. The list goes on... pure pleasure!
Finish: long, and still dominated by honeys and fruits – everything that you want from a 30 year old Speyside whisky.
90pts Whisky Fun
"Right, sideburn, so Burnside, got it? So, Balvenie. Colour: gold. Nose: we’re closer to Balvenie’s DNA, in truth, this could have been an official Balvenie of the same age, with all its attributes. Apricot tarte, tarte tatin, quince jelly, mirabelle jam, acacia honey, vanilla custard and all that. I need not say more. With water: notes of ‘a walk in the woods’, a drop of rainwater, some nougat, a tiny coconut ball, some broken branches, liquorice wood… Mouth (neat): creamy, with Earl Grey tea, rooibos tea, vanilla cream, cédrat liqueur, quince paste, green lemon juice (in tiny but noticeable quantities), a small piece of vanilla fudge… It’s funny, it’s rich and precise at the same time. With water: it’s a Balvenie truer than nature, with more white pepper and tea. And some tiny notes of sawdust and fresh vanilla (pods), then the quinces return with a few touches of fresh eau-de-vie, like kirsch. This time I don’t really find mirabelles, rather a bit of grated lemon zest and banana peel. Finish: a bit more herbal and with oolong tea. Grapefruit liqueur in the aftertaste. Comments: in the same league as the Whisky Age, perhaps just a tad more complex. Maybe that’s the multi-vintage ‘à la Sponge’ effect. SGP:661 - 90 points."
$584.99
Whisky Sponge Edition 96 and 97 were released together to celebrate two favourite whisky islands (See Whisky Sponge Edition 97 for the other half of this pair). This 2005 vintage Bruichladdich was bottled after 19 years in a First Fill ex-Bourbon Barrel at 55.8%. 88.56pts Whiskybase & 88pts Whisky Fun.
Producer Description:
The Bruichladdich is a 2005 1st fill barrel, it’s a wonderfully rich, creamy and powerfully maritime example. Waxy, peppery, robust, full-bodied and hugely characterful with loads of distillery and Island character.
$959.99
The second from final release in the Whisky Sponge range is a multi-vintage Glen Moray, marrying a 1990 refill hogshead with a 1992 2nd fill sherry hogshead, bottled at 32 years and a cask strength of 51.8%. 89.83pts Whiskybase
Producer Description
"This is Whisky Sponge Edition No.99: the Penultimate Sponge! Like Edition No.1, it’s a sexy old Glen Moray. However, for this one, we did some well-honed Decadent Drinks cask mixology and muddled together a refill hogshead of 1990 Glen Moray with a 2nd fill sherry hogshead of 1991 Glen Moray. We left that brew to stew inside the sherry hoggie for several months, then bottled the mix at natural cask strength. It’s fruity, opulent, decadent and tastes like the set furniture from 2001 Space Odyssey draped with all the cardigans in rural Englandshire. Please enjoy this whisky while trawling this website and reading every single rear label on every single bottling we ever did. The first person to spot the cheekily concealed secret to quantum fusion technology contained within will win a t-shirt and a bespoke insult from the Sponge."
$229.99
This is Whisky Sponge Edition No.100. It’s a 2016 and 2017, 7 year old Ardnamurchan small batch made with both peated and unpeated malt, and a fair bit of sherry... 57.1%. This is the final Whisky Sponge release, No.100!
Producer Description
"It’s a potion that Angus cooked up in collaboration with the good folk at Ardnamurchan Distillery. It’s a mix of 1st fill and 2nd fill, peated and unpeated sherry octaves. We mixed them all together and married them in a refill sherry butt for over six months until the whole potion turned 7 years old, then we bottled it with slight reduction at 57.1%. For those of you that deify transparency, here’s the recipe...
"We wanted to celebrate and mark the final edition of Whisky Sponge with a whisky that was excellent quality, one that was collaborative and that we’d had a role in creating and making unique to us, and that was modern in the best sense and looked to the future. We feel we have succeeded in this – we hope you agree. Now, please buy a bottle of this whisky, place it into your rucksack, put on a sturdy pair of brogues and walk to the far West Highlands of Scotland, whereupon you will spend the rest of your days communing with nature and enjoying erotic woodland rituals with whoever will agree to participate. Good luck and farewell!
"Whisky Sponge. Xxx"