Loch Lomond Distillery Edition Six

Just as the Summer ends @LochLomondMalts released the sixth in their Distillery Edition series going back to a similar MO as DE2 - a Single Distillery Blend

This time a little older and unpeated!

Loch Lomond is a distillery that's a little under the radar, it's really two distilleries - a malt one and a grain one sitting side by side in Alexandria on the southern shore of Loch Lomond.

It's the Willy Wonka factory of the whisky industry regularly producing 11 different new make spirit types and that's before we even start talking about different kinds of yeast!

On the malt side of the distillery they have 6 copper straight neck pot stills with rectifying plates (1 in a wash still and 17 in a spirit still) - the straight necks are up to 4 meters high, this allows collecting a wider separation of flavours. Unlike column stills these have a head cooling system. These are not Lomond Stills!

Wash Still (red) on the left, Spirit Still (blue) on the right.

The Spirit Stills also have cold water cooling rings.

There are 2 traditional copper pot stills with swan necks.

At the moment the Swan Neck Spirit Still has a Straight neck on it!

There is one continuous (Coffey) still for malted barley (A continuous still consists of a pair of columns - an analyser column and a rectifier column. They are made of copper but covered in protective stainless steel. Take away the stainless steel cover and you'll see the Copper Stills:

The grain distillery has a two sets of stainless steel continuous stills for wheat (look through the window!). The original set, from 1993, producing 2,000 litres alcohol per hour and a new set, from 2010, producing 1,000 litres per hour.

The spirit comes off of a pot still at around 70% ABV, spirit can be collected from the straight-necked stills at between 65% and 85% ABV offering a low and high strength spirit. It's 80-85% from the 100% malted barley Continuous Still and 94% from the Continuous Grain Still.

A combination of unpeated, and 50PPM heavily peated barley is used, a 50:50 mixture is also used to produce a medium peated spirit.

This release is a Single Blend so a mix of grain and malt whisky from the same distillery - in this case they are both from the malt side of the distillery so using 100% malted barley. Michael Henry shared the exact mix with me:

60% single grain M/MX yeast, 85% spirit take off, 2010 14yo (20%) and 2014 9yo (40%) (Rhosdu)

20% single grain Lallemand yeast, 80% spirit take off, 2016 8yo (Rhosdu)

20% straight neck still, low collection strength, 2014 10yo (Glen Douglas)

So 80% 'grain' and 20% malt, the whisky but all from 100% malted barley - a single malt you'd think but because of the use of the coffey still and continuous rather than batch process SWA rules say it has to be labelled a blend.

Loch Lomond say:

"Distillery Edition 6 is a blended Scotch whisky which features a combination of unpeated 10 year old Single Malt from our remarkable Straight Neck stills and unpeated Single Grain whisky distilled from 100% malted barley in Copper Column stills, ranging in ages from 8 to 14 years. 

Matured in American Oak casks and brought together by Michael Henry, our Master Blender. This fruit-forward blend offers mouth-watering notes of pineapple meringue, grapefruit, and toasted coconut."

Bottler thoughts:

After 5 sell out editions, we're excited to launch the sixth in the series. Just like our previous five editions, our sixth release showcases our distillery's innovation and whisky making ability. This series allows our dedicated whisky-making team, led by our Master Blender Michael Henry, to experiment with processes and ingredients in order to unlock new and captivating flavours. 

Distillery Edition 6 is a 8 year old unpeated blended malt whisky. The spirit make up is 20% 10 year old Single Malt unpeated whisky from our remarkable Straight Neck stills at a low collection strength, which has been matured in first fill bourbon barrels. The remaining 80% is unpeated single grain whisky with varying ages between 8-14 years old. This has been distilled using 100% malted barley in our copper Column Still matured in a both first and second fill bourbon barrels.

Bottled at cask strength of 56.9%, non-chill filtered with natural colour, to keep things as nature intended. 

Nose: Vanilla, pineapple, passion fruit and violet floral notes

Taste: Honey sweetness with pineapple, banana, grapefruit and toasted coconut

Finish: Long finish with ripe tropical fruit and creamy vanilla

My thoughts:

Appearance: Pale gold in the glass, swirls leave thin lines which bead up very slowly, hang for a while and eventually fall as slow thin oily legs.

 

Nose: Vanilla ice cream, icing sugar dusted dried pineapple, flaked coconut and some damp wood. There's a little honey, almonds and some marshmallow.

Palate: Thick sweet arrival, golden syrup, tropical fruit and icing sugar give sweetness: pineapple, mango and kiwi. The flaked coconut and almonds from the nose are here - maybe more of a marzipan note? An interesting baked sweet potato note, some citrus and a little salinity round things off. There's a dry peppery spice left on the tongue as the liquid disappears.

 

Finish: Lingering peppery spice, tropical fruit and a little salted lemon.

Summary: This one falls into the Dangerously Drinkable category, I'm glad I bought more than one! This is like the red labelled Floral and Sweet single grain on steroids. The higher ABV gives an obvious punch but I never felt the need to add water. Loads of tropical fruit notes, some citrus, salinity and a big bite of spice!

 

Loch Lomond Distillery Editions:

Edn	Released	Year	Age	Name	Information	ABV	Price
6	Sep '24	2016	8	Single Distillery Unpeated Blend	80% Rhosdu & 20% Glen Douglas spirit - vatting	56.9%	£50
5	Apr '24	2015	8	Orchard & Vineyard	Inchmurrin spirit, Chardonnay Wine Yeast fermentation - 3 cask vatting	59.1%	£57
4	Nov '23	2016	7	Supercharged Floral & Tropical Fruits	Rhosdu spirit - 3 cask vatting married for a month in wood	58.9%	£45
3	Jul '23	2012	10	Extra Long fermentation	Glen Douglas spirit - 3 cask vatting	57.2%	£70
2	Apr '23	2017	5	Single Distillery Peated Blend	80% Rhosdu & 20% Croftengea spirit, vatting	57.7%	£40
1	Nov '22	2010	9	Chardonnay Yeast	Glen Douglas spirit, Chardonnay Wine Yeast fermentation - Single Cask #119	57.1%	£65

Geeky Bit:

There aren't many distilleries capable of making a Single Blend, I can only think of five: Loch Lomond, Kininvie, InchDairnie, Ailsa Bay and Borders; and so far I think only Loch Lomond, Kininvie and Borders have. Loch Lomond's now have two 100% Malted Barley bottlings, Kininvie released a Malt & Rye Blend in 2019 and Borders' was a Malt & Rye Blend.