Virtual tasting: Three Ships

You may not of heard of @ThreeShipsSA, they are one of a number of brands of South African whisky distilled at the James Sedgwick Distillery, one you may have heard of is Bain's.

I was lucky enough to try 6 of their bottlings.

The James Sedgwick Distillery was founded in 1886, the only commercial distillery in South Africa.

They have a great animation on their website explaining how whisky is made.

They have two Forsyth built copper stills but these only work for 2 months of the year producing about 2m litres of Low Wines. The rest of the year the rest of the distilling equipment is used to produce grain whisky including Bain's.

Paul @pswhisky moved from South Africa to Scotland bringing with him some of his whisky collection, he shared some of his Three Ships bottles with a group of us and organised a Zoom tasting. We were joined by former James Sedgwick Master Distiller Andy Watts @TheWhiskyMaker.

Dram	Virgin Oak 7yo (Bottled for Pick & Pay)	1st Fill Bourbon 7yo (Bottled for Private Barrel Co.)	10yo (2007 Vintage) (Core Bottling)
Characteristics	48.6% ABV NCF, Natural Colour 8-12PPM 10 Medium Char American Oak casks B: Apr '21, equiv £17 in	63.8% ABV NCF, Natural Colour 12-22PPM Single Cask : 186 bottles D: '13, B: '21, equiv £30 in	46.3% ABV NCF, Natural Colour 30PPM 15% 1st Fill / 85% refill 4,800 bottles D: '13, B: '21, equiv £24 in
My thoughts:
Appearance	Dark gold in the glass, swirls cling an a thin line, form small beads and fall as slow thin legs	Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and eventually fall as slow thin legs	Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, form small beads and fall as slow thick legs
Nose	Rye spices, gummy sweets, pine needles, cinnamon	Vanilla, cinnamon, sweet orange zest, dry smoke, menthol	Orange zest, pine needles, menthol, mint, green apples.
Palate	Orange zest, rye spices, cinnamon, dark minty chocolate	Thick sweet arrival, honey, pine needles, rye spices, cinnamon, oak, orange zest, dry peppery spice, gingerbread	Dry sweet arrival, tropical fruit, honey, light smoke. A little citrus and brown sugar.
Finish	Medium length cinnamon, nutmeg and some toffee	Short, herbal notes, dry spice	Long dry smoke, citrus and tropical fruit

Dram	Fino Sherry 6yo (Bottled for Private Barrel Co.)	Moscato 7yo (Bottled for Whisky Brother)	PX 9yo (Bottled for Whisky Brother)
Characteristics	54.6% ABV NCF, Natural Colour 8-12PPM 3yrs American Oak, 3yrs Fino Sherry Single cask : 677 bottles B: Mar '18, equiv £40 in	55.1% ABV NCF, Natural Colour 30PPM 5yrs American Oak, 2yrs Moscato Single cask : 716 bottles B: '19, equiv £40 in	63.7% ABV NCF, Natural Colour 8-12PPM 3yrs American Oak, 6yrs PX Sherry Single cask : 546 bottles B: Mar '18, equiv £40 in
My thoughts:
Appearance	Dark gold almost bronze in the glass, swirls cling an a thin line, form small beads and fall as slow thin oily legs	Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling an a thin line, form small beads and fall as slow thin legs	Dark gold almost bronze in the glass, swirls cling an a thin line, form small beads and fall as slow thin legs
Nose	Musty dunnage notes, orange zest, brown sugar, toffee, dates, figs, blackcurrants	Musty 2nd hand bookshop, dried fruit, smouldering hay, blackcurrants.	This one was quiet closed, took a while to open up - blackcurrants, black cherries, dried fruit, orange peel, spice
Palate	Thick syrupy arrival, instantly drying, dates, figs, blackcurrants, a little tropical fruit and some citrus	Thick sweet arrival, very dry. Gingerbread, dried fruit, blackcurrants, milk chocolate, chilli spice	Thick arrival, blackcurrant jam, orange zest, dates, cherries, prunes, strawberries, balsamic vinegar, ginger spice
Finish	Lingering dry smoke, blackcurrants and dried fruit	Lingering blackcurrant jam, chilli spice and dry smoke	Lingering blackcurrant jam, ginger spice, dry smoke

For me the first three shared some notes which I assume are distillery character - rye spice, orange zest and a pine needle / menthol hint. I think the Virgin Oak was a too much in your face for me, the other 2 calmed down a lot - the 10yo was very drinkable.

The last three finished whiskies shared some of the Three Ships DNA and added to it - all have fabulous blackcurrant notes and the the two sherry ones added dried fruit and spice. The final dram the PX has the same liquid as the recent TBWC bottling but with an extra 3 years in the PX butt - this was my favourite of the night!

All of these drams are peated to some extent but the smoke notes can be difficult to find on some of them. I included the equivalent UK price based on what they retail for in South Africa - far cheaper than over here in the UK - a lot of this will be tax...

Currently in the UK we've been able to buy the indie TWBC bottling and a 12yo peated bottling I reviewed here - let's hope Three Ships bring more releases to the UK soon!

It was really interesting to try a flight of drams which aren't normally available to try in the UK, unfortunately Three Ships have only released one bottling outside of South Africa - the 12yo I reviewed here. A huge thanks to Paul for sharing his collection and to the Andy for sharing his knowledge of them on the night.