Whisky Discovery #1646

Loch Lomond Single Grain NAS 46% abv
Single Grain Scotch Whisky
Circa £32.00 70cl

I first discovered this whisky at Whisky Live London earlier this year, I was intrigued at the time, to learn that it was a single grain made with 100% malted barley distilled through their Coffey Stills.

You see, the Loch Lomond Distillery is a very adaptable distillery, being somewhat unique (certainly for Scotland) having a range of different distillation apparatus.

We were fortunate to visit the Loch Lomond distillery earlier this year, the headline trip of Dramboree 2016, and saw for ourselves the unusual set up of stills. When we visited there were four pairs of copper pot stills, however, all but two of them are fitted with rectification columns instead of the traditional swan necks, alongside there was a Coffey Still that was installed in the early 1990's. There's also five continuous stills used for their grain whisky production. The distillery's capacity is noted at around 5 million litres of malt spirit and 18 million litres of grain.

A curious combination of stills

The legal definition of a single malt whisky says it "must be made exclusively from malted barley (although the addition of E150A caramel colouring is allowed), and must be distilled using copper pot stills at a single distillery." Therefore this Coffey Still distilled spirit cannot be called a single malt, hence the Single Grain tag.

So What Did We Think?

Nose: Plenty of sweet, fruity grain character here, I was picking up a strawberry note, which Kat said reminded her of strawberry shortbread. There are subtle hints of candied lemon peels, icing sugar, and fresh grasses, not your lawn grass, but summer hedgerow grass.

Palate: Pineapple juice is one of the official notes,and it's certainly something I picked up, albeit more of a canned pineapple flavour. It's sweet, but not overly so. I found stewed apples too, alongside pencil shavings and some woody spices adding a mild peppery hit. There's a pithy dryness towards the finish

Finish: Surprisingly long, which starts off dry with  grapefruit pith, and finishes with Wrigley's Juicy fruit chewing gum.

Verdict

This is a very easy drinking whisky, It's soft, and smooth, with a barley water sweetness. It's not overly complicated, but it is very enjoyable. Think of it if you will, as the Scottish equivalent of Nikka's Coffey Malt, but at a fraction of the price!

Slàinte! Dave

Whisky Discovery #444

SMWS G9.1 'Sweet and Sour Mélange' (57.8% abv)
Single Cask Single Grain Whisky
£63.40 to SMWS Members

The first SMWS cask from grain distillery No.9 and an 11 Year Old, distilled on the 27th September 2000 and matured in a refill ex-bourbon cask, yielding just 187 bottles at 57.8% abv.

This was one of the ten releases launched during the Society's Grain Week (17th-25th May) as part of their 30th Anniversary celebrations.

Distillery G9 is more commonly known as the Loch Lomond Distillery.  Whilst there are over a hundred malt distilleries, there are only seven grain distilleries in Scotland. The Loch Lomond distillery is unique in that it has both single malt stills and grain stills and has the most modern, being commissioned in 1994. Their single grain whisky is made using wheat and a small quantity of barley.

So What Did I Think?

The nose opened up with lemon cream puff biscuits, this was followed by notes of vanilla, zesty citrus, sherbet and there was a herbal/vegetal element too. With water the nose became much sweeter, with creamy vanilla and toffee, a little white pepper along with some lemon zest and sharp pineapple notes.

It came across as quite thick and mouth coating, and on the palate there was a gentle sweetness at first which starts to turn slightly sour, although not an unpleasant sourness. The white pepper picked up on the nose comes across on the palate too which is followed by some woody notes. The long finish has a spicy chili pepper kick and the woody notes remain to the end.

With water it became much smoother and creamier and reminded me of a lemon cheesecake (without the biscuit base) and was sweeter too. Again the finish was long with spicy pepper but with a citrus edge.

So, my first whisky from the Loch Lomond distillery, and many thanks to the SMWS for sending me a generous sample try. Although no longer available to buy in the UK, I'm sure you should be able to try a dram or two of this in an SMWS lounge.