Islay Single Malt
Circa £28.00 70cl
I picked this up while I was in Cambridge Wine Merchants in Ampthill and was my official February addition to the journey. I never got round to opening it at the time, and with so much going on recently, sat on the shelf waiting for the right opportunity. It was only when I finished the 'Big Peat' the other afternoon, that I thought I needed a little more peat while working in the garden. Peaty whiskies amongst other magical and medicinal properties seem to go 'hand in gardening glove' too.
Sound of Islay is an Independent bottling from Cambridge Wine Merchants. It's their seventh edition and was bottled at 40% abv on 4th July 2011 from a single cask, yeilding 526 bottles. Although they're not allowed to use the distillery's name on the bottle, the cask was sourced from the Bunnahabhain distillery. I don't know whether this has been chill-filtered or not, but it is naturally coloured.
So what did I think?
I really like this, and at £28.00 for a single barrel release, is good value too. It would however, be a lot better if it had been bottled with a slightly higher abv, say 43% to 46%.
That said it has a really interesting peaty nose; the slightly medicinal Islay notes are there but aniseed, fennel and liquorice play on the senses. The smooth mouth-feel with peaty smoke and the liquorice dominates the fennel and aniseed. There is a slight salty tang in the peaty, peppery medium length finish that has me wanting more. There's not much of this available now, though I did see a bottle on the shelf in the Ampthill shop last week.
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