Strathmill 11yo
refill hogshead
Exploring taste(r)
If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know I have a great connection to some other people there. With two of them, I even do tastings online. I truly enjoy trying new whiskies with them and talk about the stuff related to that dram, or distillery, or fun story. I call them my drambuddies.
Also known as @dramblingman on Instagram, Martijn is one of them. He visited me recently, to drop off some samples we are going to use in a future online tasting. But enough about that, either follow us, or not, this blog is about a taster he brought as an extra gift for me:
The Strathmill 11 yo by Hogshead Imports.
Now, I could spend a time writing about this independent bottler, but why try to find the words when someone else has already written them down?
For example the same Dramblingman I was talking about. On his website dram1.com he has a whole page about Hogshead Imports, which I would recommend reading before or after the tasting notes below.
This 2011 whisky, bottled in 2022 is not chill-filtered and has no added coloring. (Do I have to mention that if you can see that bright pale color on the images on this page?) It is bottled at 48% according to the label.
after a quick dance trough the glass, it leaves a very thick line with thick legs.
On the nose: Floral. Spring flowers in a barley field. And then some of the malt, and some fresh hay. On the second nose its is more fruity: Pears, apples and peaches.
Warm and fresh summer fruits. closely followed by some spices: Some thyme and basil.
Taste: Stingy on the tongue at first. The fresh summer fruits. But then: Spices. Think of pepper. Black pepper in this case. The fresh hay also repeats itself. Truly impressed by the powerful flavour this dram packs, compared to the very fresh and fruity nose. The second sip also leaves some hints of fresh toast, white grapes and a little bit of oak.
The finish is a long one. The impact of the hay, pepper and warm fruits lingers long and ends in a some small notes of bitter citrus. I even get some salty notes in the very end, that make me want to try this dram again with some sushi.
And maybe I should do that right now, order some sushi to go with this dram.
Thank you Martijn, for gifting this taster to me to try. Truly a dram with impact!
