The Winter Series 2024 Collection

$595

49 Left

Flavour Profile:

Deep Rich & Dried Fruits, Peated, Spicy & Sweet
Age:

13 years, 9 years, 12 years, 15 years
Region:

Islay, Speyside
Cask:

Refill Pedro Ximenez hogshead, First-fill Spanish oak Oloroso hogshead, First-fill barrel, First-fill hogshead HTMC
ABV:

58.5%, 61.0%, 61.5%, 55.9%
VOL:

700mL, 700mL, 700mL, 700mL

Notes

Our Winter Series 2024 is a toast to the spirit of the ceilidh (pronounced kay·lee), a tradition that once incorporated not only dancing but also storytelling, poetry and music. We’ve selected four bottlings to be enjoyed in convivial settings over the coming months. Whisky is for sharing – and that’s what the spirit of this series is all about. We’ve released just 84 sets featuring all four bottles, complete with specially designed labels, available in bundle form only:

• For Halloween 2024 – Cask No. 53.486 Supernaturally sweet smoke
• For Christmas 2024 – Cask No. 115.31 Merry Christmas
• For New Year’s 2025 – Cask No. 39.306 Welcome in, 2025
• For Burns Night 2025 – Cask No. 88.29 Supper sipper

Each bottling features a QR code which gives you access to whisky tales from Tasting Panel chair and ‘Whisky Bard’ Robin Laing. Robin has captured the essence of each of these four whiskies with a series of fireside tales. Expect songs, poems and stories to bring the bottles to life – each one comes with a QR code on the back which will take you straight to his whisky tales. Join us in raising a glass and embracing the spirit of the ceilidh!

Slàinte Mhath!

Cask No. 53.486 - Supernaturally sweet smoke
Date distilled: April 2011
Cask: Refill Pedro Ximenez hogshead
Age: 13 years
Alcohol: 58.5%
Region: Islay

Tasting Panel Note: Atop a bed of crushed smoked pears, we found salted cashews. This was juicy, sweet, nutty and sooty. The palate wrapped the aroma in parma ham and dusted the sweet-savoury appetiser with a light wood spice. Water served our noses with charred root vegetables, honey-and-smoke-cured ham, and tarred rope dipped in grist. The palate was now candied nuts drizzled with rosewater and a serving of peat-smoked rhubarb on rough oatcakes. After nine years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this to a refill PX sherry hogshead for the remainder of its maturation.

Cask No. 115.31 - Merry Christmas
Date distilled: October 2014
Cask: First-fill Spanish oak Oloroso hogshead
Age: 9 years
Alcohol: 61.0%
Region: Speyside Spey

Tasting Panel Note: The neat nose suggested a nicely funky and slightly old-school sherry profile, with lots of drying earthy notes, tobaccos, pickled walnuts, balsamic and game meats. There was also a hint of animalistic aged pinot noir. Water brought an acetic edge, along with unlit cigars in a humidor, sharp red and dark pickled fruits, aniseed, camphor and tomato vines. The neat palate was well in sync with the nose, showing lots of aged balsamic, walnut wine, pickled tarragon, beef stock, camphor and black pepper. Water maintained this sense of funkiness, while adding another leathery aspect and some medicinal impressions of tar extracts and herbal cough syrup. This was matured in a bourbon hogshead for six years before being transferred to a first fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead.

Cask No. 39.306 - Welcome in, 2025
Date distilled: December 2011
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 12 years
Alcohol: 61.5%
Region: Speyside Lossie

Tasting Panel Note: On the nose neat we found green cooking apples, stewed rhubarb, muddled mint, glacé cherries, and melted butter in couscous or on a warm croissant next to camphor and a lemon bundt cake. On the palate at first we found a creamy coconut chicken curry before a spicy pineapple margarita infused with jalapeno syrup kicked in. Following reduction, the sweetness was that of ripe, sweet strawberries macerated in sugar, creamy vanilla panna cotta and Greek tea made from Crete lemon verbena. To taste, we sipped a tiramisu martini, coconut rum, noisette and herb-flavoured liqueur, amaretto, chocolate syrup, rum-coffee liqueur, and peach and butterscotch schnapps before, in the finish, finding a sweet chilli heat.

Cask No. 88.29 - Supper sipper
Date distilled: February 2009
Cask: First-fill hogshead, heavy toast/medium char
Age: 15 years
Alcohol: 55.9%
Region: Speyside Spey

Tasting Panel Note: We were reminded of a Danish open-faced sandwich called smørrebrød, with roast beef, pickle and horseradish next to roasted parsley potatoes. The taste was somewhat dramatic, conjuring a Caribbean rum banana flambé, a spectacular flaming dessert made with caramelised bananas and rum served over ice cream and drizzled with an almondy Italian liqueur. After reduction we were closer to home and the scent of a Victoria sponge cake and cinnamon-baked apples. On the palate, a bacon butty was served alongside a bowl of spiced porridge with nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and runny honey. Following 12 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a first fill heavy toast medium char hogshead.