House Of Malt Twitter Tasting

A great evening of whisky tasting took place on Friday 24th March and luckily I was invited to take part! @MaltmanMike distributed samples of @HouseOfMalt's Secret Distillery Bottlings from three distilleries, one each from the Highland, Speyside and Islay regions of Scotland.

Once again I used my geeky Tasting Mat design which allowed me to record and then tweet my tasting thoughts as we went along!

Distillery : Secret Highland
Whisky : 10yo
Characteristics : 700ml 43% ABV
Price : £35
Colour : Pale Gold
Nose : Quite a complex nose on this one, developed over the 10 minutes I was nosing. It started with Polish and honey, developed into strawberries, pears and apples then later a lovely vanilla came through.
Palate : Smooth and creamy with oranges, vanilla. It was also very drying and sweet like icing sugar.
Finish : A short spicy finish of orange oil.
Overall : I really enjoyed this yummy dram, a really complex nose, smooth creamy taste and spicy finish - what else do you want from a Highland dram?
Link : HoM Highland

Distillery : Secret Speyside
Whisky : 15yo
Characteristics : 700ml 40% ABV
Price : £45
Colour : Deep Gold
Nose : Vanilla and a little sherry, rubber glue and oak
Palate : Creamy sweet sherry, a little honey, lime and cinnamon
Finish : Short spicy finish like dry roasted peanuts
Overall : All we know is that this comes from Ex Bourbon and Oloroso casks - it was a nice dram with a typical Speyside sherry finsh.
Link : HoM Speyside

Distillery : Secret Islay
Whisky : 10yo
Characteristics : 700ml 43% ABV
Price : £40
Colour : Pale Gold
Nose : BBQ smoke, not medicinal, honey, stewed pears developing into BBQ bananas with chocolate drops
Palate : Smoke, a little honey, vanilla, salt, drying licorice
Finish : Sugared almonds, smoke
Overall : A nice smokey dram with BBQ overtones
Link : HoM Islay

Overall : A great evening of tasting, but it's really annoying that we don't know the distilleries! Personally I preferred the Highland even though normally I'm an Islay Fan Boy! The nose was brilliant - very complex! The Islay came second and the Speyside third. For the price these were all very good drams, fine examples of their respective regions and I don't think anyone who tries they will be disappointed!