Uncharted Whisky Co. Maturing Samples

Indy bottler Uncharted Whisky Co. sells shares in maturing casks as well as their own bottles.

Each year they take samples of the maturing casks and allow share owners to try the whisky.

Jack and Dana started Uncharted in 2020, an independent bottler from Fintry who focus on releasing single-cask and small-batch whiskies. The bottlings are characterised by contemporary label designs and transparency around cask details. Each release is unique, named after the pair's favourite rock songs and linked to the whisky’s story.

I tried Caledonian Dreaming at Southport Whisky Festival in the summer and immediately bought a bottle, it's a 28yo Loch Lomond Single Grain and it's yummy!

Jack told me that they had a sister cask which they were finishing in a 2nd fill Oloroso cask, this was part of their Cask Shares syndicate.

Currently called Angus this would be bottled at 30yo in Spring '27. I bought a share in the cask and so was able to try a sample. Jack also kindly included a couple of other samples - probably to tempt me to buy shares in those casks!

Let's try the whisky!

Dram	Caledonian Dreaming	Angus	Auzzy	George
Characteristics	Loch Lomond 28yo Single Grain Cask UC046 48% ABV 595 bottles	Loch Lomond 29yo Single Grain 58.19% ABV 1mth Oloroso finish	Aultmore 13yo 56.67% ABV 6mth FF Malaga finish	Teaninich 5yo 61.59% FF Madeira
Distillery notes	This exquisite whisky has matured for 28 years in ex-bourbon cask. It was distilled at Loch Lomond distillery and matured at Loch Lomond for the entire 28 years.  Nose: American cream soda, granny smith apples, apple pie and Cornish vanilla ice cream. Palate: Smooth and gentle with wisps of humidor and spices. Apple pie and cream coats the whole mouth. Finish: The fruit fade first letting the woody flavours of oak, cloves and nutmeg take centre stage leaving a gentle warmth.	An unpeated, single grain sherry cask maturing now in Edinburgh with bottling due at 30 years old. Bottling and delivery due in early 2027. For those Uncharted Whisky fanatics among you, you may notice that this cask is a sister cask to those that made up the bottling Caledonia Dreaming- a 28 year old vatting of 2 ex-bourbon casks. Well there was third… and we did something funky. At the same time as we were bottling the Loch Lomond, we also bottled a beautiful Braeval 10 year old called Higher Ground. The wood still had bags of vibrant aromatic flavour to give and the Loch Lomond cask was just sitting there. The combination of the two was inevitable- it was too perfect an opportunity!	An unpeated Speyside sherry cask maturing in Speyside with bottling due at 16 years old. Bottling and delivery due in early 2028. Distilled at Aultmore Distillery in February 2012, Uncharted Whisky re-racked this lovely spirit into a Malaga fortified wine cask in March 2025. All sherry has to be made in the ‘sherry triangle’ near Jerez, Andalucía in South Spain. If a similar style of wine is made elsewhere, it can not be called sherry. That is what going on here. This fortified wine was made using Pedro Ximenez and Moscatel grape varietals. The resulting rich and sweet wine seasoned this rather lovely barrique in Spain before it was moved to Scotland and filled with fragrant, appley Aultmore. Up to that point, the Aultmore had been matured in refill bourbon wood.	This barrel had a serious leak when first Uncharted got it. It had been filled to it’s original wood at the classic strength of 63.5%. The two years of maturation in refill bourbon cask had begun to mellow the spirit but there was still a way to go- it was vibrant, malty, and ferociously aromatic. The maturation had started well enough but we thought it could do with an upgrade. The ex-bourbon barrel had begun to introduce the canvas of classic highland whisky- good body, strong aromatics and sweet oaky vanilla flavours. Then Uncharted got it and decided to do something a little more off the grid. We took a brand new first-fill ex-Madeira cask, fresh from the best cooperage we know, dumped out the sacrificial wine (wine left in the cask to keep it in top quality condition while it finds it’s way to Scottish shores) and re-filled it to the brim with this gorgeous Highland single malt spirit.
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Pale gold in the Glencairn, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thin legs.	Pale gold in the Glencairn, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thin legs.	Pale gold in the Glencairn, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up and fall as slow thin legs.	Mid gold in the Glencairn, swirls cling as a thin line, take an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thin oily legs.
Nose	Green apples, rum and raisin ice cream, pine needles and a lovely buttered popcorn.	Green apples, rum and raisin ice cream, pine needles and a lovely buttered popcorn.	Freshly bitten juicy apples, berries, cherries and a hint of spice. There's a little vanilla and milk chocolate.	Huge berry jam notes with brown sugar and toffee. There's a lovely balsamic vinegar note and some dark chocolate,
Palate	Mouth coating, sweet arrival, loads of honey and toffee, gives way to gentle spice The rum and raisin ice cream from the nose is back alongside spiced apple Danish and caramel sauce.	Very similar to the Caledonian Dreaming, the RF oloroso has started to make an impact, there's hints of dried fruit and maybe berries.	Thick sweet arrival: honey, toffee, berries and cherries jam. 6mths has had a huge impact on this. There's a huge orange marmalade note, thick cut! A little drying spice rounds things off as the liquid disappears.	Thick sweet arrival: berries and cherries, dried fruit and a lovely cinder toffee note. It's instantly drying with a little tannic note but this is yummy! A few more sips gives dry spice with the moisture sucked from your mouth!
Finish	Lingering ice cream, spice and caramel.	Lingering ice cream, spice and caramel.	Medium length, dry spice and orange marmalade.	Lingering dry spice, berries and cherries.
Overall	The Loch Lomond Caledonian Dreaming is a yummy dram, as I said, I bought a bottle after a sample at a whisky show, but I do love a well aged grain and there's aren't that many Loch Lomond bottlings around. The Angus sample was only around 6 weeks older, and having spent that time in a refill Oloroso cask there wasn't much difference. I did pick up hints of dried fruit and berries - this is going to be delicious in a year or so when it's bottled! The Auzzy sample was lovely, the 1st fill cask having had a huge impact on the spirit. The jam and marmalade notes make this a very fruity dram. The George sample was yummy, typical port and sherry maturation type notes and a well integrated ABV. This presents much older than a 5yo, I can't wait for the final release!

Huge thanks to Jack and Dana despite my moaning about the postage charges - some really yummy drams!