Isle Of Harris: The Hearach: 1st Release: HE00002 23 (Scottish Island Single Malt Whisky: 5 Years: 46% ABV)
Visual: Pale gold. Fast, thick streaks come from the spirit.
Nose: Juniper. Madeira cakes. Green grapes. Vanilla. Alcohol air. Water adds tart grapes. Menthol.
Body: Green grapes. Raisins. Boozy alcohol. Fruitcake. Cherries. Vanilla fudge. Slight custard. Sherry soak raspberries. Slight sour grapes. Water brings crushed grape pulp. Crumpets. Cough syrup.
Finish: Dry fudge. Green grapes. Sherry soaked raisins. Water adds slight sour grapes. Honeycomb. Crumpets. Palma violets.
Conclusion: Well, this is another one that changed a lot with time to air. Initially it seemed, well, fine, a touch alcohol touched with youth but generally fairly standard. It felt like a kind of Highland like whisky with no real stand out elements. Good for its age but nothing special.
Soooo … time has changed it quite a bit from then. I don’t think I can see the whisky I would have described like that any more.
Now it still has the alcohol evident from its youth, though less than you would expect for 5 years old and 46% ABV. There is a base of toffee and fudge sweetness but that is where the resemblance to the spirit before ends.
Instead there is now a strange grape and juniper character that is slightly sour and slightly sweet in a mashed up fruit way, creating a fresh and odd character.
Then you get darker fruit, with Madeira and sherry soaked fruit, making a little dance through the thing. Not a heavy showing but just giving a richer character so the odd sour sweet grape notes don’t dominate and become unwelcome. Over a longer drink the fresher notes still can get a bit much, but they work for a single dram.
I’m not 100% sold on it yet, water opens it up but some cough syrup like unwelcome notes also come in. It has promise but is not a must have as is, just an interesting oddity so far.
Background: This is the first release from a new Distillery and, I don’t think I’m being unfair to say the really are trying to get the most out of their first release. As well as being a first release, they have split it up into eight different batches, each with different codes – I presume to get the real collectors hunting for HE00001 23 which would be the very first batch. Me I’m happy with batch 2, which is, as far as I am aware, the lowest batch released outside the distillery itself. Looking at the web site, it looks like each batch is made with identical ingredients, barrel ageing, etc, with the only difference being bottling dates and exact number of bottles in the batch size. Unless I missed something. At 5 years old it is held for a bit longer than a lot of new distilleries first release – which often come at the three year age that is the legal minimum. Still quite young. Ageing is mostly in Bourbon casks with 21% in Heaven Hill and 64% of Buffalo Trace, with a much less at 11% of Oloroso and 4% of Fino for the sherry. No chill filtering or colouring. This was grabbed from Independent Spirit before this batch quickly vanishes. Drunk while listening to Butcher Babies: ‘Til The World’s Blind. I found the band as a warm up for Fear Factory and very much enjoyed them – though they overloaded the mic wires and blew it out twice. Amusing for us, probably less so for them as they tried to fix it. The box for this looks super pretty but is very impractical – if you grab it wrong when picking it up the whole thing will fold open and ditch your precious whisky to the ground.