#MiniTasting - Bartels 10th Anniversary

An invitation on twitter from @bartelswhisky_ allowed the #MiniTasting team to try their 10th Anniversary bottling of a 17yo blend.

His Excellency has been established since 1961.  Bartels Rawlings International Limited released this bottling as a celebration of 10 Years of brokering with only 50 bottles being released. The blend consists of Edrington malts.

Here are the thoughts of the four of us:

Dram		Bartels 17yo Blend His Excellency
Characteristics		45% ABV, Cask #11, Natural colour, NCF
Distillery info		None.
Appearance
		Beautiful dark gold colour in the glass, swirls stick to the glass and fall as slow thin legs.
Nose	Brian	A lovely toffee note jumps out of the glass, dunnage warehouse and strawberry jam hints at some older sherry casks in the blend. There's a lot of sherry notes - but I'm getting some vanilla hints too. No peat though.
	John	Getting dunnage warehouses and a touch of nail polish remover too, plenty of dusty wood, feels like this has layers...in spite of the age there is green edge to this, was expecting it to be a bit more Christmas cakey but it isn't...
	Paul	Orange, dunnage warehouse, honeyed malt, little bit of chocolate, ginger and polished oak, toffee. This is not a "sherry bomb" though, its still quite fresh - with green fruits.
	Scott	First up a big milky mocha coffee hit. Dark chocolate, treacle, menthol cherry tunes and a hint of something like wood varnish or furniture polish. A slight green apple peeliness to it isn't there? A slight waxy note, like a Barbour jacket.
Palate	Brian	Thick oily arrival with lots of spice, a little honey sweetness and a more of the strawberry jam notes - nice! A few more sips and the sherry notes intensify, notes of chocolate and cherries are in there too.
	John	It's a very soft arrival, the texture is quite thin but there is a lovely warmth to the finish and a touch of spice.
	Paul	Quite spicy, citrus - sweet lemon, malty biscuits, bitter chocolate, coffee. Quite creamy, nutty, stewed fruits - orange, apple, pear. Getting things from what you would expect with ex-bourbon and ex-sherry. I was just starting to get that slightly bitter grapefruit which I normally find on refill sherry. Interesting
	Scott	A bit of weight behind this one. Hang on...Dark chocolate.... orange....holy sh!t JAFFA CAKES!! 😍🍊🍫 More bitter chocolate, cherries (thanks Brian) , sherry comes to the fore as we move into the finish with some brown sugar.
Finish	Brian	Long and spicy, slightly drying, maybe some sour citrus as Paul suggested. Nice.
	John	The finish is pretty long too, warm with a touch of spice.
	Paul	Medium-ish in length. Milk chocolate turning to dark chocolate, a little bit of citrus again, grapefruit.
	Scott	Big cask char influence with some stewed tea tannins. Quite short but nice enough.
Overall	Brian	Blend overall a really nice dram, complex on the nose, a nice spicy palate and long finish. A bargain at £36.
	John	Overall I think this pretty decent stuff, nose has quite a bit going on and the finish is decent, the flavours are good but it lacks a bit of texture for me on the palate but given the price point I can forgive this.
	Paul	Overall, Im quite enjoying this. It wont stop my hunt for single casks etc but as blends go it really quite nice. It has is little faults but at £36, you can not go wrong really!
	Scott	Overall a great mini #MiniTasting. Thanks @bartelswhisky_ for the dram. Less than 40 quid for a 17yr old blend and a really good one at that is not to be sniffed at!

So definitely worth a go, there's not many left so have a look here.