Millstone Peated Moscatel Special #22

Tasting Notes

Curt's Tasting Note

Nose: The peat kinda hints at Islay here. Soupy and slightly V-8ish. Leather. Toasted peanut shells. Lemon candies. Pine-Sol and Lemon Pledge. Certs candies. Some charred wood notes. Something like peppered watermelon. Sprite. Iodine. Ginger snaps. 

Palate: Very sweet distillate meets very clean peat smoke. Beautifully balanced, despite a bunch of strange notes. Keylime pie with a touch of strawberry. Almond paste and sugar cookie dough. Earthy and almost vegetal for a few seconds before the wine makes its presence felt. Unmistakable, but tactfully done. 

Finish: Mostly ends on tart wines notes and a bit of fruit leather. Nutty and salty. And smoke, of course.

Thoughts: A good example of moscatel for those that have never tried. 

Distillery

The Zuidam Distillery was founded in 1975 in Baarle Nassau, which lies in the southern Netherlands near the border it shares with Belgium The Founder, Fred van Zuidam, had accumulated two decades of previous experience in spirits production before deciding to make a go of it on his own. Under his care, the distillery started by making a line of premium liqueurs using natural ingredients, from grain to fruit to herbs and spices used. This methodology continues to this day, as Zuidam spirits are made with no artificial colouring or flavouring. This goes for all of their products, be it their Cassis Liqueur (which is delicious by the way), Apple Flavoured Gin, Dutch Courage Old Tom Gin, Premium Genever, or Single Malt Whiskies.

Zuidam’s first experiments in whisky-making started in 1994, and regular whisky production commenced four years later in 1998. Even then, the Zuidam family showed patience, not releasing their first single malt whisky commercially until 2007. The first bottling was a 5 year old. It was also the first release to use the Millstone name, which was a reference to the use of Dutch Windmills to stone-mill the malted barley. Nowadays, the use of windmills is no longer enough to supply all of the grist needed.

Fred’s son Patrick van Zuidam is now in charge of whisky and spirit production at the family distillery, and under his influence, the distillery’s line of whisky has stretched into a variety of different styles and grains, including Rye and three and five-grain blends. Further experiments in growing their own barley are ongoing with the stated goal to be self-sustainable when it comes to grain soon.