The difficult second album....

It's always hard for a band to follow up a successful debut album and in the case of independent bottlers a successful debut release.

The Waxhouse Whisky Company released an 8yo peated Ruadh Maor (Glenturret) in the Autumn of 2019 (read my review here) and have followed it up with a 13yo Glenrothes.

The Waxhouse Whisky Company was founded in 2019 by members of the St. Albans Whisky Club, the names comes from an old medieval gateway called The Waxhouse Gate leading up to the Abbey at the top of the road that the pub where the club started.

This, their second release, is a Glenrothes distilled in May 2006, matured for 13 years in a 1st Fill Oloroso Cask and bottled at 50.7% ABV into 170 bottles in February 2020. It was released in July 2020 for £85.

Tasting notes:

Nose: Christmas cake, toasted malt loaf, orange peel and chocolate-dipped raisins.

Palate: Stewed fruit, black cherries, burnt orange balanced with sticky sweet bread and butter pudding. Full-bodied and creamy.   

Finish : Dark chocolate and sugared almonds give way to liquorice root then deep notes of Oloroso sherry.

In album terms - your debut album catapults you into the limelight, your shows are starting to bring in big crowds and you’re gaining more and more column inches. The major label lay it on thick, heap you with praise and give you a massive advance to make your second record. On paper, everything is rosy, but then comes the calm, the expectation and almost too much time to think.... 

Let's see if this band has held together, got over their differences, and produced a great second album or like some second albums maybe it should never have seen the light of day....

My thoughts:

Appearance: dark gold almost bronze in the glass, swirls cling as a hairline crack, slowly bead up and fall as slow thick legs.
 
Nose: dunnage warehouse mustiness, rich strawberry conserve, stewed orchard fruit and a hint of smoke. A little time in the glass and a little air offers Terry's chocolate orange notes and dried fruit. Nice!

Palate: thick, chewy and mouth coating - huge fruit jam notes - strawberry, plum, dates and cherries with some orange peel and dried fruit. The sherry has an instant trying effect in the mouth leaving a lovely sour citrus note. There's not much in the way of spice in this dram, the 1st fill oloroso cask giving sherry notes without any oaky vanilla spices. A little time and air offers a hint of the Terry's chocolate orange from the nose.

Finish: long lingering drying sherry notes and this is where the spice kicks in - a little cinnamon.

 

Overall: yes it's a sherry bomb, all the characteristics are there, you could be drinking A'Bunadh or 105, but this dram also has a few hidden surprises - chocolate orange alongside the sherry berry notes, an almost complete lack of spice until the finish. The 50.7% ABV puts it a little lower than the other two I mentioned but I think this allows flavour rather than the strength to shine through. It's yummy, a great second album release - buy a bottle before it goes!

Many thanks to @Waxhouse_X for the sample, the bottle is available from their website.

Thanks to Readers Digest for this next bit:

Once bands deliver their successful first album, they are often met with the curse of the difficult second album. Here are seven bands who not only nailed it but changed the face of music in the process! I think Waxhouse have continue that tradition!

07. Black Sabbath – Paranoid (1970)

06. The Beatles – With the Beatles (1963)

05. Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat (1968)

04. Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994)

03. Frank Zappa – Hot Rats (1969)

02. The Pixies – Doolittle (1989)

01. Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)