Peated Loch Lomand goes by several names: Peated Loch Lomand, Inchmoan and Croftengea. The most common, as you’ll see below, is Croftengea and is pretty much the only name you’ll find it under here in the USA. Inchmoan, particularly, is only really found in the UK and a couple of other international markets. Though, I guess if we view this from the place of origin then that would be reversed; the US is the international market it’s not found in and Inchmoan is available in the home market. Anyways…
Loch Lomand is an interesting distillery with a unique still setup. They’re home to pot, column/continuous, Coffee and Lomand stills. The latter being the most unique in that it resembles a column still with the plates pulled out to give it pot still functionality. It’s a tad more complicated than that, but that should give you the basic idea.
Loch Lomand has all of these stills so they can put out various types of whisky and do blending in-house with different malt and grain profiles and styles to achieve balanced blends without ever having to leave the distillery – which is why they have such a diverse product offering in the market.
Like all Malt Nuts events, this was done blind and the rounds broke out as follows
- Round 1: Cut Peated Loch Lomand
- Round 2: Cask Strength Peated Loch Lomand
Now, on to the tasting.
Round 1: Cut Peated Loch Lomand
1A: Loch Lomand Inchmoan 12 years: 46% – STR Cask
Nose: Malty, nutty, dark fruit, brown sugar, smoke, cocoa.
Palate: Dark sweets, dark fruit, bacon, smoke, cocoa, nuts.
Finish: Long -> Dark fruit, bacon, roasted malt and cocoa.
Overall: (3.5 / 5) Wow, this is good. It’s balanced, aromatic and tasty. A sign of good things hopefully.
1B: Cooper’s Choice Croftengea 9 years (06-16): 46% – ex_Bourbon Cask
Nose: Fruity, pond water, vegetal, lemon, clay, raw grain, touch smoke.
Palate: Spirity, minerally, pond water, vegetal, clay, raw grain, touch smoke.
Finish: Long -> Smoke and raw spirit.
Overall: (0.5 / 5) Raw and unappealing that opens to a musty/farty profile. Liking it less every taste.
Round 2: Cask Strength Peated Loch Lomand
2A: Kintra Croftengea 11 years (07-18): 52.7%
Nose: Buttery, vanilla, malt, jelly beans, minerality, smoke and alcohol.
Palate: Smoke, candy sweet, buttery, malty, fruity.
Finish: Long -> Smoke and spirit.
Overall: (2.5 / 5) Buttery sweet and fruity. Nice, but a tad off… almost cloying.
2B: Hepburn’s Choice Croftengea 12 years (06-18): 56% – Refill Hogshead
Nose: Mothballs, honey, graham, smoke, medicinal, cleaner.
Palate: Medicinal, smoke, honey, spice, graham and cleaner.
Finish: Long -> Smoke, medicinal, honey.
Overall: (1.5 / 5) Sweet to the point of cloying and a touch waxy but with a heavy medicinal and solvent/cleaner profile. Starts soft, but turns dry as it opens.
2C: Golden Cask Croftengea 7 years (10-17: 57%
Nose: Buttery popcorn, vanilla, malt, medicinal, smoke.
Palate: Medicinal, smoke, char, vanilla, smoked paprika.
Finish: Long -> Medicinal, smoked paprika.
Overall: (2 / 5) Crazy spicy and oddly savory. Water brings out some notes of raw spirit.
2D: A,D, Rattray Croftengea 11years: 59.3% – Ex_Bourbon Cask
Nose: Honey, smoke, minerality, graham, spice, vanilla.
Palate: Medicinal, smoke, buttery graham, spice, toffee.
Finish: Long -> Smoke, medicinal, buttery candy.
Overall: (2 / 5) Odd… super odd, but not awful just so… odd.
2E: Exclusive Malts Croftengea 10 years (06-16): 56.7% (cask 485)
Nose: Honey, malt, vanilla, spirit, apricot, smoke, sulfur.
Palate: Smoke, sweetness, honey, vanilla, spirit, apricot, sulfur.
Finish: Long -> Smoke, apricot, olde candy, sulfur.
Overall: (0.5 / 5) Cloying and rough all around. It’s a touch raw and sulfury at CS, but water turns it into a minerally, raw, spirity, farty mess.
2F: Exclusive Malts Croftengea 10 years (06-16): 55.5% (cask 486)
Nose: Buttery graham, malt, oil, smoke, fruit and waxy vanilla.
Palate: Buttery graham, malt, oil, smoke, fruit and waxy vanilla.
Finish: Long -> Smoke, herbal, waxy.
Overall: (2 / 5) Odd, but super interesting.
It’s always amazing to see the difference in sister casks. Sometimes there is very little difference and then there are times like this where they are vastly different.
2G: SMWS 135.16 Croftengea 14 years (05-19): 54.1% – Refill Hogshead/ex-Bourbon
Nose: Smoke, honey, orchard fruit, graham, vanilla, herbal.
Palate: Bacon, honey, smoke, vanilla, candy, herbal.
Finish: Long -> Bacon, herbal.
Overall: (2.5 / 5) Mostly sweet but almost balanced by more earthy notes.
2H: SMWS 122.23 Inchmoan Croftengea 7 years (11-18): 57.7% – 2nd Fill Hogshead/ex-Bourbon
Nose: Raw, minerality, graham, oily, citrus, spice, smoke, char.
Palate: Raw, minerality, graham, oily, citrus, spice, smoke, char.
Finish: Long -> Smoke and spirit.
Overall: (1 / 5) Minerally and raw all around.
2I: Single Cask Nation Croftengea 10 years (09-19): 57.6% – Hogshead
Nose: Apricot, butterscotch, honey, smoke, citrus, graham, malt.
Palate: Spirity, apricot, butterscotch, ham, smoke.
Finish: Long -> Spirit, apricot, ham.
Overall: (1.5 / 5) Meaty meaty meaty! And it gets even meatier with water.
2J: Single Cask Nation Peated Loch Lomond 10 years (06-16): 56.6% – Refill Bourbon Hogshead
Nose: Farty, waxy, honey, graham, smoke, stale orchard fruit.
Palate: Farty, waxy, honey, graham, smoke, stale orchard fruit, spirity.
Finish: Long -> Farty smoky and stale fruit.
Overall: (0.5 / 5) Just not good at all. Water brings out an odd cayenne note.
This was a fun tasting because it was all new whisky to me. I can’t remember having any peated Loch Lomond before today and so it brought up a lot of interesting new flavor profiles and gave us all a lot to discuss. A discussion, which ended up with several of us thinking everything for the Indie market was meant to be blended.
The IB stuff was fairly poor overall and the cut OB release ended but being my favorite by far; it seems like Loch Lomand is keeping all the great casks for themselves. Everything in the IBs came across raw, like they were pulled from heavily used casks that lent very little to the whisky. Which is the perfect whisky to be used as a peated top dressing in a blend, but not exactly what I want to be sipping on.
Till the next time, cheers!