With the OSWA’s done and dusted, I thought this series might be a good opportunity to talk about some whiskies and/or distilleries I consider to be worth your attention. Apart from the awards being a celebration of what we as a community hold dear and want to see from producers, it’s also a great and easy way to broaden our own horizon and set our antenna’s on ‘pay full attention’. Now obviously, there’s usual suspect to be found that probably need little introduction – the Bunna’s, Springbanks, Ardna’s, Redbreasts and so on. But in each of the 4 editions we’ve had so far, there’s always a few whiskies that, if it weren’t for the OSWA’s, would have been flying completely under my radar and therefore caught me by surprise. This year it was the Woven Superblend, nominated in the ‘best blend’ category, and I shamefully admit I never even heard of it until I saw it in the nominee list. Seeing how it’s very reasonably priced (around the €45/£40 mark) I’m keen to pick it up should it cross my path.
But I was equally happy to (finally) see a distillery making an appearance in the ‘best non malt’ category – Zuidam's Millstone’s 100 rye. I’ve covered a few Millstone whiskies here in the past, some were good, some were very good. The 100 rye didn’t end up winning, but that’s really not very important, as the main thing to take from that, is the fact that a Dutch distillery is even up there, lined - up alongside stuff like Redbreast, Wild Turkey, Elijah Craig and Jack Daniel’s. It shows that Millstone is making a mark and is having people sit up and pay attention.
When I visited the distillery about a year ago, we were given the full tour by Patrick Van Zuidam. Patrick is the 2nd generation owner and head distiller/master blender, and it was him who took a gamble by expanding the distillery and started making whisky. This was way back in the 1990’s and after a bit of trial batches, Zuidam started making whisky -both rye and single malt. Those early batches from 1996 have since gained a bit of a cult status amongst quite a few enthusiasts, and stock from that first year of whisky production has run all but dry. Imagine my delight as Patrick treated us to some drams from those early days. More than that, when we said our goodbyes, he provided us with literally a handful of samples, a fair few of which were pretty ‘high end’.
Zuidam doesn’t look much like a distillery from the outside, as it’s located in a SME area on the outskirts of Baarle Nassau, close to the Belgian border. However, once inside, the place oozes with the noise, activity and smell of a quality whisky (and jenever, and liqueur, and gin, and vodka and yes, even rum) distillery. Honestly, if you ever have the chance to find yourself in their oloroso casks warehouse, just do it, as the fragrance is unbelievable. I would happily pay rent just to come and sit there for an hour once a week or so. It is that wonderful! Needles to say, I had pretty high hopes tucking into 2 of their high end single malts, both distilled in that magical year 1996.
Millstone 23 yo (1996-2019). Oloroso sherry cask matured, 375 bottles, 46% ABV, app. €260-€300 but long since sold out.
Nose
Rich and deep with hints of wood, spices and dried fruit – it really is like walking into an oriental grocery store. Stewed fruit and jam, and somehow it still manages to have this fresh and lively touch to it, like the scent of homemade strawberry marmalade. Clove, cinnamon and some ginger, cardamom and vanilla oil and burnt sugar (like you get on crème brûlée). Gorgeous
Palate
Rich, full-on arrival dominated by wood and wood oil. Spices from the nose return and are a bit more ‘intense’ now. Manuka honey adds a very pleasant bitter-sweet element, sitting on a dry mouthfeel. Careful if you add water as despite the powerful profile, it’s also somewhat delicate, but with a few drops it allows notes of dark, bitter chocolate to emerge. The fruit that was quite obvious on the nose is harder to find now, but that’s about the only ‘downside’ to this.
Finish
Very long and lingering with echoes of wood and spices (clove and ginger) and dark chocolate.
Millstone 1996. 19 yo oloroso sherry cask (bottled in 2016). 49.4% ABV, 300 bottles, app. €200
Nose
Just like the 23 yo, the nose is so ‘jammy’ and fruity, delivering a sweetness halfway between brown sugar and granulated white sugar. Vanilla oil notes add both sweetness and depth. The ‘richer notes’ linger underneath with dark honey, wood and caramel. It’s almost like the mirrored version of its older sibling: so much similarities, but accentuating what was more hidden in the other one and vice versa. With a drop of water notes of raisins and chocolate appear. Again, this is stunningly beautiful and seductive.
Palate
Ooh, wow! Immediately the fruity marmalade notes lead the way, nut mid palate it takes a complete U-turn as those rich, dark notes of woody, heavy oil and treacle take over and steal the show. With a drop of water that balanced is restored and it gives you the best of the two.
Finish
Long, with notes of raisins and chocolate.
Final thoughts
The nose on the 23 yo is on another level and while the palate may perhaps just not reach the same quality, it takes little away of this absolutely splendid whisky. Almost the same can be said for the 19 yo: it’s so rich and gives you everything you could hope for from an oloroso cask matured whisky. That fresh, marmalade fruitiness prevents it from going full sherry bomb, and in my opinion, that’s by no means a bad thing as I find a lot of those super heavy sherry cask driven whiskies often to be quite interchangeable, leaving little left of what can be described of the distillery character. Just last weekend I tried a 28 yo Glenrothes matured in a sherry cask from Signatory at Spirits in the Sky in Brussels. While it was absolutely impressive in terms of richness and density I couldn’t help but feel it might have been from just about any other Speyside distillery as I found nothing even closely reminiscent of that buttery Glenrothes spirit character. Fortunately that’s not the case with these two as they are a clear case of two casks bottled at their absolute peak. Both of these summed up in 3 words? World Class Stuff!
And seeing how we started today’s post by reflecting on the OSWA’s, why not share the love for another community driven awards, set up the wonderful Jeff whisky, celebrating all and everything to what’s arguably one of the most booming whisky scenes currently: the English whisky awards. You have until Saturday to cast your votes in, so take a look why don’t you?!
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