66 Gilead Wild Oak Whisky
Apple and Cucumber
0 281
Review by @JasonHambrey
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall81
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Distribution of ratings for this:
- Brand: 66 Gilead
- ABV: 47%
This whisky is made by 66 Gilead, who are a caraft distiller in Prince Edward County, which is a wine region in the winemaking area in Ontario. This whisky is made in a "bourbon-style", it is matured in new charred oak casks with corn as the predominant grain. It is bottled at 47%, and is about 3 1/2 years old. It has both rye and wheat as secondary grains.
Nose: A motherload of apple and cucumber on the nose; the youth of the whisky is evident on the nose though oak is also present. It is a bit oily with a light spicy and grassy bite - overall, though, the nose is quite light and clean. There's a touch of light earthiness to it as well, and some baked spice cake notes too. The fruitiness is incredibly bright, with a bit of a corn backdrop - it doesn't really remind me much of bourbon -though it does have some of those dried apricot notes- almost more like a really fruity malt matured in a bourbon cask. The cucumber, though, is very interesting - I haven't come across much like that in whisky. 80%
Taste: Intense fruit at first before a bit of corn hits, and the palate dies off for a while with feel but not a lot of taste before the grains come back with some white pepper. Interesting how much grain I can taste here relative to the fruit, compared to the nose which was just crammed full of fruit. It's sweet, but it's balanced well by the spice. There's also a bit of oiliness and smoke which combined reminds me a bit of bacon fat. 80%
Finish: Good development into the finish, with a fruity and grainy interplay. Some spices come through, and a touch of smoke from the charred wood. Apple is still there in bulk, as well as the cucumber, and the length is quite good, with some more earthy and woody and ashy notes emerging over time, and it's a bit dry. It's not full of complexity, but the feel of the finish is quite nice, and I enjoy that. 87%
Intrigue: I like that it's bottled at 47%, I think at lower strength the flavour might not be enough for me. I like the interplay of everything going on, and I don't mind the "youthfulness" - by this I mean some of the oily-like flavours which get broken down over time in oak - but I think a bit more age would do this one well. The cucumber on the nose is also very interesting because I haven't found much like it anywhere... 80%
Weighting the nose 25%, taste 35%, Finish 15%, and Intrigue 25% the overall grade is 81.
@JasonHambrey, that's a very curious-sounding whisky. I guess I just need to taste it to give it a sense of reality for me. Apple and cucumber in a bourbon-style production process? Most odd. The new oak influence sounds almost inconsequential, which with bourbon it almost never is. Really you can get knock you over intense flavours with these ingredients in 3 1/2 years,...though I guess that those 3 1/2 years are much lessened here from aging in the Ontario climate, compared to Kentucky. Reading your notes the one thing which really occurs to me is to learn what the distillation proof of the whisky is. Canadian industrial process allows much higher distillation proofs than can legally occur in the US for straight bourbon or rye whiskey. That could easily account for the noteworthy mildness of the flavours here...but not for the nature of their taste.