Loch Lomond CWY

My favourite kind of whisky from @LochLomondMalts is from their Straight Necked Pot Stills, when it's fermented with Chardonnay Wine Yeast (CWY) it ticks all of my boxes!

Aqvavitae has just released anther pair of bottles, lets try them!

Rob @aqvavitae_sco has released a number of bottles from a number of distilleries, one of his, and my, favourites are Chardonnay Wine Yeast fermentations. Two years ago he release a 10yo single cask from 2011 numbered #735, this year he's released it's sibling cask #736 which is now 12yo and a 14yo cask #118 which is the sibling cask of Loch Lomond's Distillery Edition #1 cask #119.

Still with me? Let's try all 4 side by side!

One of the mighty Loch Lomond Straight Neck Pot Stills with cooling rings!

My thoughts:

Dram	2010 9yo Single Cask #119	2010 14yo Single Cask #118
Characteristics	Distillery Edition #1 Straight Neck Pot Still, Wide Cut, Low Collection Strength RF Bourbon HDD 57.1% ABV, NCF, Natural Colour 265 bottles	Aqvavitae bottling Straight Neck Pot Still, Wide Cut, Low Collection Strength RF Bourbon HDD 58.2% ABV, NCF, Natural Colour 236 bottles
Distillery notes	Opens on freshly grated lemon peel, pear and white peach with vanilla and icing sugar. There is creamy vanilla and honey sweetness, grapefruit and tangy pineapple before a finish of  mouth-watering citrus, elderflower and gentle cinnamon spice.	Juicy peach and pear, blossom honey and floral notes of violet and lavender. An elegant  mouthfeel with a creamy fudge sweetness, kiwi, apple and apricot before a gentle mineralic limestone dryness. A long finish with tart fruit, lemon citrus fizz and waves of cinnamon spice.
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Pale gold in the glass, swirls leave thin lines which bead up, hang and eventually fall as slow thin oily legs.	Light gold in the glass, swirls leave thick lines which bead up, hang and eventually fall as slow thin oily legs.
Nose	Slightly musty - bread dough, lemon zest, vanilla and tropical fruit: pineapple, mango, kiwi and peach. Huge icing sugar notes here too, nothing in the way of spice. You can smell the effervescent fizz I associate with CWY.	Huge juicy fruit bomb to start: apples, pears, peach. No sign of the it's younger siblings' mustiness. There's a little vanilla and an interesting Parma Violet note. Loads of icing sugar, a little honey and a hint of citrus.
Palate	Thick sweet arrival, immediately effervescent  and spicy - loads of thick lemon juice and pineapple cubes. There's a dry icing sugar note, more than I remember previously. Marzipan adds a little nuttiness and cinnamon a lovely spice.	Not as thick as DE1, a little oily even, much sweeter: golden syrup, icing sugar and caramel. Apple, pear and apricots fruit notes come through. There's spice from the start with black pepper and cinnamon. Very very dry, a little doughy and full of lemon notes. The CWY effervescent is subdued compared to DE1.
Finish	Lingering lemon zest, pineapple, drying icing sugar and cinnamon spice.	Lingering cinnamon spice, lemon zest and dry tart pear.
Overall	My DE1 bottle has been open for a few months, I just couldn't bring myself to finish it off but it's time has come. The first think I noticed was that the swirl lines were a lot thinner than from a freshly opened bottle (only 2 left in the cupboard now...) The orchard fruit notes on the nose are all tropical now. It's a lot dryer than I remember and a lot spicier. I'm not sure it's improved with all the air in the bottle to be honest. The Aqvavitae 14yo is a very different beast, the extra 5 years have turned up the spice and dryness and turned down the CWY effervescent fizz and lemon notes. It's more orchard than tropical like I remember from my first review of DE1 - the air has obviously had a big impact on my DE1.

Dram	2011 10yo Single Cask #735	2011 12yo Single Cask #736
Characteristics	Aqvavitae bottling FF Bourbon Barrel 54.9% ABV, NCF, Natural Colour 250 bottles	Aqvavitae bottling FF Bourbon Barrel 53.1% ABV, NCF, Natural Colour 227 bottles
Distillery notes	Fresh natural vanilla, Granny Smith apple and lemon peel with clove and black pepper. There is a silky mouthfeel, creamy fudge and vanilla syrup with apple and pear, some lime juice and a lemon sherbet effervescence. The finish is long with a demerara sugar sweetness, mouth-watering grapefruit and warming cinnamon spice.	Opens with caramel and pineapple, fresh natural vanilla then grapefruit citrus and ginger spice. There is a toffee sweetness on the oily palate with crisp green pear and gooseberry then some vanilla syrup and sherbet fizz before a long finish with powdery icing sugar and freshly squeezed lime juice.
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Light gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly forming an inverted crown, and fall as slow thin oily legs.	Gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up very slowly forming an inverted crown, and fall as slow thin oily legs.
Nose	Stewed orchard fruit to start: apples, pears, apricots and citrus zest, There's a marzipan note and some cinnamon spice. There's some caramel and some sour dough notes typical of ex-bourbon. A little time and air turns the fruit more to the tropical side: pineapple and mango with grapefruit adding to the citrus.	Similar orchard fruit notes to the younger sibling just a little subdued, the extra couple years in the cask has mellowed things a little. Toffee and honey suggest sweetness, damp grass and lemongrass a little mustiness. A little time and air offers grapefruit, pineapple and unripe kiwi.
Palate	Thick sweet syrupy arrival, honey, toffee and a little pineapple. The CWY effervescent mouthfeel is here - the liquid seeming to dance on the tongue! Huge lemon notes: zest, drizzle cake, meringue and icing sugar covered bonbons giving a dryness. A little nutty marzipan and a bite of cinnamon spic with grapefruit adding a little sour note as the liquid disappears.	Thick oily arrival, mouthcoating caramel and honey. There's a lovely cinnamon spice, icing sugar dryness and some sour citrus. Very little of the lemon zest notes of it's younger sibling, in fact very little of the effervescent fizz I was expecting. This is a very different dram. Every sip is chewy and mouth coasting, pineapple toffos, grapefruit and
Finish	Lingering lemon zest, caramel, dry oak and cinnamon spice.	Lingering sour citrus, cinnamon spice and pineapple.
Overall	Cask #735 is one of my favourite CWY bottlings, I just think it works better at a younger age. The interesting switch from orchard fruit on the nose to tropical on the palate is reminiscent of Loch Lomond's 12yo Inchmurrin, from the same stills but the 12yo takes a narrower higher strength cut of the spirit. The CWY characteristic lemon zest and effervescent  fizz are lovely - I could drink this all day! Cask #736 is very different, I really struggled to find the CWY characteristics in this one but it was still a lovely dram, very reminiscent of some of the cask strength 'Inchmurrin' bottlings I've bought in the past. Pineapple toffos was a new one on me, I've had strawberry toffos a few times on sherry cask drams but this was whole new level of sweetness, rum cask finish like even?

So, trying to pick an order... I'd go 10yo, 9yo, 14yo and 12yo.

A huge thanks to Roy are arranging the bottling of these with Michael Henry and allowing  me to buy them! For me there is a wide variety in the character and complexity of the CWY fermentation bottlings so they are always worth hunting out as long as they are from the Straight Neck pot stills - I'm not a fan of the Swan Neck one I bought.