Loch Lomond Distillery Edition Four

Just before Christmas @LochLomondMalts released the fourth in their Distillery Edition series and then promptly had to recall them all...

Let's find out what happened but more importantly try the liquid!

As I'm sure you know Loch Lomond distil three different types of whisky at their distillery in Alexandria:

• in the malt side of the distillery malt whisky is distilled in pot stills (swan neck and straight neck)

• grain whisky is also distilled using 100% malted barley in a continuous coffey still where the spirit is normally taken off the still at 85% ABV

• in the grain side of the distillery grain whisky is distilled using wheat in their continuous coffey stills

This release is from the 2nd type: 100% malted barley in a continuous coffey still and for that reason having to be called grain..

Although clad in stainless steel the stills are made of copper.

Loch Lomond say:

"Our Distillery Editions celebrate our distillery’s innovation and whisky-making ability. Our fourth edition is a 7 year old single grain whisky which is made using 100% malted barley, fermented for 96 hours using a specially selected yeast, and is distilled in our continuous “Coffey” still.

During distillation, the spirit is taken off the still at 80% abv, a relatively low strength for grain whisky, retaining more flavour. This creates a spirit that is both full-bodied and fruit-forward with added depth & complexity.​ "

Not having a Visitor's Centre means you can only buy this bottle from their website.

Bottler thoughts:

7yo Single Grain distilled 2016, bottled 2023, 400 bottles

The fourth edition in our series is a 7-year-old single grain whisky which is made using 100% malted barley, fermented for 96 hours using a specially selected yeast, and is distilled in our continuous “Coffey” still.

During distillation, the spirit is taken off the still at 80% abv, a relatively low strength for grain whisky, retaining more flavour. This creates a heavier spirit that is both full-bodied and fruit-forward with added depth & complexity. Matured for 7 years in a combination of first and second fill bourbon barrels - elevating the floral aromas and developing notes of caramel sweetness, deep fruit notes of peach and mango, followed by warming oak spice.

Bottled at cask strength of 58.9%, with no added colour and non chill filtered.

Nose: Supercharged floral notes of violet and honeysuckle, peach, banana and cracked black pepper

Taste: Caramel sweetness with juicy tropical fruit. Notes of mango and green apple then some vanilla syrup

Finish: Medium length finish, dry with warming oak spice.

My thoughts:

Appearance: Mid gold in the glass, swirls leave thin lines which takes an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thick legs.

Nose: It's a tropical fruit bowl: pineapple, banana, kiwi, mango, melon; a little citrus and some malty digestive biscuit. Honeysuckle is mentioned in the tasking notes and that comes across really well. A little time and air offers coconut and fruit notes heading towards the orchard with peach, pear and apricot.

Palate: Thick sweet creamy arrival: honey and chewy toffee to start. The liquid coats the mouth and dries it before turning spicy. A few more sips and the complexity comes through - all of the juicy tropical  fruit notes from the nose, ginger spice and a lovely citrus zest note - lemon and lime. This is a dram to sit and take your time with, each sip offering a little more. There's a little salinity, some black pepper spice, floral hints and some BBQ pineapple hinting at a little smoke. At no time is the 58.9% ABV noticeable.

 

Finish: Long dry and spicy - sweet tropical fruit and salted lemons.

Summary: The lower take off strength of 80% (v the normal 85% for the core range single grains and 94% for the wheat based spirit on the grain side of the distillery); the longer 96 hour fermentation time and the use of unusual Lallemand yeast has really dialled up the tropical fruit notes on this one. It's a little like a straight neck pot still Inchmurrin on steroids! It might say grain on the box but this doesn't have any grain notes - there's no buttered popcorn, not much in the way of vanilla and little in the way of cereal - obviously it's because it's distilled from barley!

Surprisingly this bottle is still available on the website - so get one while you can! 

Geeky Bit:

So what was the reason for the recall?

Just to make it absolutely clear - it had nothing to do with the liquid or the quality of the bottling!

Take a look at the two pictures below and see if you can tell the difference - it took me a long time to find it - in fact I had to be told!

Pre-recall on the left, post-recall on the right.

If you haven't seen it yet, it's a 'simple' typo? on the bottle label - both boxes call this a Single Grain Scotch Whisky and you expect the labels on the bottles to say the same but a mistake at the printers led the bottles initially to be labelled Single Malt Scotch Whisky. 

The SWA wouldn't have been happy with that so Loch Lomond contacted everyone who'd bought a bottle and offered to replace it if it hadn't been opened (by getting a courier to pick up the bottle, LL replacing the label, and getting a courier to drop it off again) or my sending out a replacement label for the customer to affix themselves. Either way an expensive proposition. LL also offered everyone  a £10 discount against future purchases. I went for the 2nd option and within a couple of days some nice shiny labels arrived for my bottles.

Geeky Bit 2:

Loch Lomond used a different kind of yeast for this fermentation - they normally use a combination of M and MX strains from Kerry on the straight necks and 100% barley continuous stills, this time they used a Lallemand yeast, which is also used on the swan neck stills, it gives a more floral character with enhanced fruit notes..

Loch Lomond Distillery Editions:

Edn	Released	Year	Age	Feature	Type	ABV	Price
4	Nov '23	2016	7	Supercharged Floral & Tropical Fruits	3 Cask Vatting married for a month in wood	58.9%	£45
3	Jul '23	2012	10	Extra long fermentation	3 Cask Vatting	57.2%	£70
2	Apr '23	2017	5	Single Distillery Peated Blend	Vatting	57.7%	£40
1	Nov '22	2010	9	Chardonnay Wine Yeast fermentation	Single Cask	57.1%	£65