There is a company that has taken a new approach to bottling whisky - 'That Boutique-y Whisky Company'. They bottle whisky from different distilleries into 500ml bottles and slap a label on them that would look at home in a comic book store. The artistic labels generally reference prominent figures from the industry or depictions of anecdotes from the distillery chosen for that bottling. The bottles do not carry any age statements; they are bottled in batches and the different batches might very greatly in age. They offer so many options that I cannot list them all here.
To get my hands on one of these (I managed to get bottle 125/422) I had to order directly from the UK. I chose the Aultmore: Batch number 1 solely because of the label; I had seen this several times via social media and it struck me as the most popular. If you are like me you have to ask yourself, "what prominent figure or story could this label possible represent?". Well, to quote the bottler, "'That Boutique-y Whisky Company' searched
high and low to find a wealth of interesting stories and legends about
this Speyside distillery but to no avail. So you get a Velociraptor
fighting a shark - enjoy." It really is pretty awesome.
The odds of you finding this particular batch are very small, it has already been discontinued, but there is a Batch 2 available now. As I mentioned with the age statements, Batch 2 could be very different than Batch 1 in flavor. I am writing this review more to bring awareness to 'That Boutique-y Whisky Company' than I am to tell you about this particular whisky since it is such a limited run. Still, I will offer a short review of the contents of the bottle in case you happen to come across an opportunity to taste.
The whisky is a bit on the strong side - 53.4%. I added a small bit of water to help me nose and taste effectively. The whisky is dark amber in color with medium legs. I could smell the oak right off the bat; it smelled potent and spicy and I could detect a little vanilla if I tried. The mouth feel was lighter than medium but I wouldn't call it flat-out light. It had a definite burn to it (to be expected for a higher proof whisky) and it really opened up my taste buds. The most prominent flavor that I picked up on was cloves, both in the taste and the aftertaste. With that, I also tasted orange citrus and the vanilla I had picked up in the aroma. The aftertaste stayed with me for a respectable amount of time, coupled with a lingering burn in the taste and in my stomach.
Rating: 3.5 out of a possible 5 Casks.
Reason: I had some difficulty pulling the individual aromas out of the whisky, and I ran into the same difficulty with the taste. After a few sips I was better able to taste the flavors, likely due to the higher percentage of alcohol. The cloves in the flavor were interesting and probably the most memorable part of the whisky (aside from the label). Overall it was a good whisky but not great, as it lacked a bit of character in my opinion.
I recommend that you get a bottle from this company if you have the opportunity. They are rare enough, fun to look at, and a great conversation piece. Prices range anywhere from $60 to $600, shipping will set you back around $30. It's a lot to bite off for a bottle that is 2/3 the size of your standard scotch but again, it's more about the aesthetics and rarity.
Until next time, cheers.
Charles
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