Lakes Distillery Whiskymaker's Reserve #3

A little later than planned, due to the lockdown, Lakes have released the third in their Whiskymaker's Reserve single malt series. WMR #3 comes in at 54% and has been matured in PX, Oloroso, Cream Sherry and Red Wine Casks

I really liked #1, #2 was even better, let's see what #3 is like.....

It seems that The Lakes Distillery are yet to settle on a house style, it's continually evolving - they release many different blends with some strange maturation and finishes - Orange Wine anyone? (Rather good actually!) But with their single malts it seems to be straight down the line of heavily sherried PX with a little Red Wine Cask thrown in for good measure.

But each release has a little tweaks to the recipe WMR #2 added a little ex-bourbon (adding vanilla notes and for me was better than the #1), WMR #3 introduces some Oloroso and Cream Sherry into the mix, the first time I can recall the use of Cream Sherry casks, lets see what it's like...

 

Distillery notes: The Whiskymaker’s Reserve No.3 is an aromatic expression, matured in the finest, meticulously sourced PX, Oloroso, Cream Sherry and red wine casks, bottled at 54% ABV. The nose is rich and fragrant with incense, spiced chocolate and toffee; layers of honey, figs and wood spice on the palate create a long, warming finish.

My thoughts:

Appearance: Orange gold, really really orange, but natural. Swirls cling, beads form creating an inverted crown before falling as slow thick legs.

 

Nose: Sherry notes of dried fruit, strawberry jam and milk chocolate - but it's not dunnage waterhouse notes - not a 'sherry bomb'. There's some toffee or butterscotch and it might be just the colour but I'm sure there are orange notes in here too - an interesting slightly bitter orange peel or oil note?

Palate: Thick syrupy arrival, maybe a little oily, very warming. There's an orange oil note again alongside honey and dried fruit. Brown sugar and citrus offer a sweet / sour zing and some dryness. A little time in the glass and a little air offers strawberry and a little sour citrus grapefruit note.

Finish: Long lingering oaky spice, some citrus and a hint of strawberry.

Thoughts: The first thing I notice when thinking back to previous WBRs is that the ABV has reduced - they've gone from 61% down to 54% and you do notice it, on previous bottlings the ABV jumped out and hit you but the whisky was still very tasty. The lower ABV on WBR #3 isn't as noticeable and to be honest I miss it. WMR #3 seems a little older and is a more balanced whisky but overall I think I still prefer WMR #2.

Lakes have nearly doubled the number of bottles for this release so it should be more readily available - it's worth buying a bottle! Many thanks to Lakes for the sample but that hasn't influenced my thoughts (please bring back #2!).

You can read my full review of the #1 here and a side by side with #2 here.

Geeky stuff:

Whiskymaker's Reserve Releases
Release	Bottled	ABV	Bottles	Cask types
3	Jun '20	54%	9,700	PX, Oloroso, Cream Sherry and Red Wine Casks
2	Oct '19	60.9%	4,778	PX, Bourbon, Red Wine Casks
1	Sep '19	60.6%	6,100 or 5,922	PX & Red Wine Oak Casks