Weetwood's The Cheshire - 5yo

For their 6th release @weetwoodcheshire have bottled a 5yo!

I've really enjoyed all of their bottlings to date so bought some of these straight away!

I've written about Weetwood before here, a small distillery built on the back of a successful brewery. 5 releases at 3yo have been released so far, this, their 6th, takes that upto 5 years of age.

Distillery info:

This very special, limited release marks a new milestone in our whisky journey. Patiently matured for over five years in a specially selected range of casks, this glorious expression balances depth, character and refinement. The additional cask time amplifies The Cheshire’s smoothness and reveals layers of richness, warmth and lingering complexity.

Presentation: Natural colour, non-chill filtered, 1,333 bottles

Cask types: Initial maturation – single-use, ex-bourbon, American oak quarter casks, shaved, toasted and re-charred to a medium/heavy degree.

Finishing: European oak port, red wine, madeira and moscatel casks.

Nose: Vanilla, toffee and figs; subtle roasted almonds evolve into a delicate marzipan richness.

Palate: Silky layers of honeyed malt open onto waves of caramel and dried fruits.

Finish: Lingering smoothness with a silky, nutty sweetness that slowly fades into mellow spice.

My thoughts:

Appearance: mid gold in the Glencairn, swirls cling as a thick line, hang around for a while and eventually fall as slow thick legs.

Nose: summer berries, dried fruit and marzipan. There's strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, a little honey, dates, figs and some plump sultanas. There's a little dunnage funk here too. A little time and air offers a little icing sugar. 

Palate: thick sweet arrival - all the berries from the nose are here, some black cherries, dried fruit and a lovely peppery spice. Dates, figs and prunes make an appearance as the liquid disappears before the dram goes all dry - loads of icing sugar rather than tannins. A few more sips repeat the berries and cherries, there's a little liquorice, some marzipan and some chocolate covered chewing nuts. Yummy!

Finish: lingering berries, dried fruit and dry spices.

Overall : Another cracking dram from Phil and the team at Weetwood - the mouthfeel on this one is amazing - thick and chewy at 'only' 46%. Well balanced and very berry fruit forward. Yummy! A few 'friends' suggested that the 'complicated maturation' might be to cover some flaw in the spirit and hide it's youthfulness - absolute rubbish! There's no youthful new-make type notes and the port and wine maturation just adds layers of complexity as you enjoy another dram!

Geeky stuff:

My spell checker wasn't happy with "Moscatel" wanting to change it to "muscatel" so I thought I'd have a quick check - both are valid!

Moscatel and muscatel are both terms for wines made from the Muscat grape family, with the spelling often indicating the region of origin. Moscatel is the Spanish and Portuguese name, while muscatel is the English term. The grape itself is known as Muscat in English, Moscato in Italian, and Moscatel in Spanish and Portuguese, and is one of the oldest grape varieties in the world.