Sunday, 21 June 2020

Waterproof Whisky?

Some people like to add water to their whisky, I'm not one of them, but now thanks to MacDuff we've found out that whisky is in fact waterproof so all it will do is bounce off the bottle....


What am I talking about? Who knows! Ask my psychiatrist!

Waterproof is a new blended malt from MacDuff International known for their blends Grand Macnish, Lauders and islay Mist. It's a Sherry-influenced malt whisky from a handful of top distilleries, batch bottled at higher than normal strength of 45.8%.


The name and looks are inspired by 'Water' and 'Strength' (Proof) and by the Scottish inventor of the much-needed raincoat (the Mac), Charles Macintosh.

This is a blended malt, so contains no grain as a standard blend does, it's a combination of sherry influenced malt whiskies from Scottish distilleries.



Appearance: Bronze gold in the glass (but is it coloured?) swirls cling before falling as slow thin legs
 
Nose: Huge sherry notes - musty book shop, old leather, strawberry jam but with a sour citrus edge and maybe a hint of smoke? The ABV tickles the nasal hairs!

Palate: Thick syrupy arrival immediately spicy. Red fruit, more sour citrus and a drying note in the mouth. A few more sips off a sweetness - honey and more red berries.

Finish: Long warming finish, ginger spice and drying oak notes.

 
Overall: You can buy a bottle of Waterproof for around £33 which puts it on par with other blended malts like Scallywag or Smokestack, much cheaper than Scalasaig Island Hopper (also sherry influenced) but a little more than Monkey Shoulder or Sheep Dip but those are only 40% ABV. I'll do a future blog comparing some of these side by side, but for now I think Waterproof is trying to find a niche balanced somewhere between a reasonably priced neat whisky and a higher priced cocktail whisky. I'm not a cocktail drinker, preferring my whisky as it comes out of the cask or bottle so my thought were purely based on it's appeal as a neat drink and I'd suggest you buy a bottle.


Many thanks to @WaterProofMalt for their generous sample(!) and gift set but this hasn't influenced my opinion of their whisky.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You hit it with musty book shop. I was thinking old rebuilt barrels that were beginning to rot a bit.