As well as their main shop in Campbeltown, which I visited last April, they have shops in Edinburgh, London, Berlin and Cologne (Germany), Odense (Denmark), Baden (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria) & Milan (Italy).
| Dram | Deanston 2008 | BenRiach 2008 | Knockdhu 2006 |
| Characteristics | 56.2% ABV, Non-coloured, NCF, 576 bottles from 2 bourbon hogsheads | 58.9% ABV, Non-coloured, NCF, 564 bottles from 2 bourbon hogsheads | 56.5% ABV, Non-coloured, NCF, 768 bottles from 3 bourbon hogsheads |
| Bottler info | Our Small Batch Cask Strength releases are vattings of a maximum of 4 casks, but normally 2 or 3 casks, and these whiskies are bottled at Cask Strength. The only factor that we consider when deciding what strength to release a whisky at is taste – because taste is what matters most to us. And we are pleased to say that these bottles are available globally as well as in our shops. | ||
| Nose: Cocoa leaves, wood spice, roasted pine nuts. Palate: Almonds, dry roasted nuts, kiwi fruit. Finish: Hints of ginger. Quite herbal with thyme coming through. | Nose: fresh with light citrus notes and sweet wood spice. Palate: Oily, old leather with hints of wood smoke and toffee biscuits. Finish: Buttered gingerbread, green apples and toasted coconut. | Nose: Honeycomb, banana, geraniums and custard creams. Palate: Herbal with vanilla, salted butter, frankfurters and Battenburg cake. Finish: Pebble beaches, white chocolate and coconut. | |
| My thoughts: | |||
| Appearance |  | ||
| Pale gold, almost white wine in the glass, gravity defying swirls turn into tiny beads eventually falling as thin legs. | Pale gold, almost white wine in the glass, swirls fall as slow thin legs. | Pale gold, almost white wine in the glass, swirls turn into tiny beads eventually falling as thin legs. | |
| Nose | Acetone with oak, nut and vanilla notes. There's some underlying red fruit. | Again acetone, warm porridge with some sharp citrus notes. | Cookie dough, tropical fruit, icing sugar. There's some citrus notes here too. |
| Palate | Thick sweet arrival loads of nuts and Kiwi fruit as the official notes say. The ABV hits you leaving a huge spice note on the tongue. After a few sips there's some apple and brown sugar here too. It's quite drying and hugely spicy - Yummy! | Another thick arrival, but this time with sour rather than sweet notes. There's loads of citrus - lemon, grapefruit etc but it soon gets covered in a thin blanket of smoke! After a few sips the porridge from the nose makes an appearance with some apple and ginger. | Oily arrival with cookie dough, pineapple and ginger notes - sour and spicy at the same time. There's some chocolate and icing sugar notes but the sour and spice dominate. |
| Finish | Medium length, spicy and warming. Pepper dominates but with a little honey and apple. | Lovely long warming finish of ginger spice and orchard fruit. | Spicy ginger with notes of citrus. |
| Overall | I've never had a bad dram from Cadenhead's and these drams don't disappoint! The Small Batch series is always good at showcasing a distilleries DNA and Cadenhead's have does this with the drams at cask strength, natural colour and non-chill filtered from simple Bourbon Hogsheads. For me the Deanston was the best of the three, lovely spice notes mixing with the fruit. The BenRiach surprises with the peat smoke and the Knochdhu balances the sour and spice notes well. I'd recommend any of the Small Batch bottles - most are reasonably priced and not too difficult to get hold of. | ||
Many thanks to @Pop_Noir & @BengalAsylum for the sample swaps!
So what is a bourbon hogshead?
All of these three drams were matured in Bourbon Hogsheads - a hogshead is a c240 litre cask, which in this case has been used to mature American Bourbon.
So what is Cask Strength?
All of these drams were bottled at Cask Strength - a Cask Strength whisky is one which is bottled at the strength the whisky came out of the cask i.e. it doesn't have any additional water added.
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