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Are James Eadie's Core Releases any good?
Are James Eadie's Core Releases any good?
Once in a while, let's say almost every day, I get an email about whisky.
Mostly sales by online stores and announcements of Ardbeg special releases. In an email about a tasting event, I noticed a link to the "new in stock" whiskies and spotted two bottles with a label that just caught my eye. So, I went and got one of them, since I put myself on spending limit on whisky for a while. James Eadie has launched to new bottles early August, as the 'Core Expressions" series. Currently consisting of two small batch whiskies, one from the Dailuaine distillery and one from Teaninich distillery. I decided to go for the Dailuaine, since my collection has several unopenend Teaninichs and no Dailuaines.
But let's discuss the new series and review the Dailuaine!
On their website, James Eadie describes a fun background story on how these expressions came to be. To be honest, I'm not sure if the story is true, but it is a fun one and I like how it looks back to old "recipes".
Just like the James Eadie Trademark X, the story starts with the discovery of James Eadie's whisky ledgers, apparently containing details on the blends and casks of fortified wines.
This series is inspired by the latter. Apparently James Eadie had a fondness for maturing whisky in fortified wine casks.
Therefore the 11 year old Teaninich was finished on European Oak Malaga Hogshead and the Dailuaine on European Oak Oloroso Sherry Hogshead. Both bottles carry a label with some nice artwork. Is that the Harry Potter train on the fron of the Teaninich? I was able to try it at the store and was a big fan. Unfortunately, like I mentioned, my cabinet with closed bottles contained too many Teaninich so I had to go for the Dailuaine.
This whisky was bottled at 48,3% Vol.
I could not find any information on colouring or the filtration.
After waltzing it a little around in my glass, it leaves a sticky ring that tranforms into smaller droplets running back to the liquid level.
The color is a warm deep dark amber, it reminds me of a cup of Rooibos tea.
On the nose I get apple, but mostly sherried notes.
Dried fruits and some brown sugar. there is some dusty vanilla in there, as well as some cinnamon. A second sniff gives me some faint tobacco notes.
I was expecting something else with the first sip. The whisky sticking to the glass made me expect a mouth coating feeling, that it did not deliver on. What it does deliver on is the dried fruits and cinnamon. It is like spicing a bowl of raisins, prunes and dried figs with a teaspoon of cinnamon heat and some cane sugar. I like it, it is something different. At the back of the tongue some dark chocolate pop up and lingers a bit.
The finish is short, but packs sweet notes of dried apricots and sultanas.
It leaves some heat on the mouth, but a nice pairing with the dark chocolate notes that still linger.
Concluding:
From both new releases, I think the Teaninich is my favourite and I might get it in the future. The price is decent, around 50 euros depending on the store.
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