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Auchentoshan Three Wood

Fruity Toshan

0 988

@VictorReview by @Victor

20th Sep 2013

0

Auchentoshan Three Wood
  • Nose
    23
  • Taste
    22
  • Finish
    21
  • Balance
    22
  • Overall
    88

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Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

The reviewed bottle is 80% full, has been open for 2 years, and has been gassed for preservation for 11 months.

Nose: There is lots going on here...at first, stale Coca-Cola, but in a pleasant way, plenty of sherry, I would say "sherry cough syrup", crabapples, maple syrup, Winesap apples, pears, raisins, prunes, 8 yo Cognac. This is much more expressive long-opened than it was at first, but it was also very good and very rich then, mostly with the wine influences thick and highly emphasised in the early months. Rich and pleasant. Strong intensity. A few minutes in the glass and this has developed a lot of high pitched confectioner's sugar notes and citrus peeks out from the background. A little water had the same effect as waiting with the glass and giving it air: confectioner's sugar and citrus come out

Taste: translates all of that baggage train to the mouth...decent, very pleasant; water brings out some of the more bass fruity elements. There is a bit of murkiness to the balance of the flavours, but it is a very pleasant murkiness, with only relatively small bits of the whole unexpressed. In this case I actually think it works to have some "bits" a little undefined and undifferentiated, and I like it just the way that it is

Finish: medium length for the full package of flavours; long for sweetness and remnants of wine. Water makes the finish longer for the fruity elements, especially for the deeper tones among them

Balance: Auchentoshan Three Wood divides whisky lovers. I am in the PRO camp. This bottle has held up well open for 2 years. I have always liked Auchentoshan Three Wood, and found the wine/fruity elements pleasant and relatively clean. New bottle or old, Auchentoshan Three Wood is a whisky I would recommend to sherry-finished Scotch lovers

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9 comments

@vanPelt
vanPelt commented

Thanks for the review! Always great to see "PRO" support for a beloved scotch. I wonder whether your "murkiness" has to do with either oak influence or sweet elements-- 2 factors that others have described as affecting the balance. Personally I appreciate the added complexities and will keep this one as a constant member of the cabinet.

11 years ago 0

@talexander
talexander commented

Yeah, I gotta admit - not a big fan of this one. But I am hit-and-miss on the 'Toshans.

11 years ago 0

@OdysseusUnbound
OdysseusUnbound commented

@Victor I realize this is an old review but have you ever noticed sulphur in this particular whisky? I’ve only tasted it a few times, and that was when when we were visiting friends in Windsor, ON. Friends of theirs own a whisky bar (The Blind Owl) and I found some unpleasant “funk” in this one, but it wasn’t exactly an ideal tasting environment so i don’t have precise notes. Thoughts?

5 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@OdysseusUnbound the short answer is "yes" I have noticed sulphur in Auchentoshan Three Wood, this reviewed bottle being my point of reference. Even at the time of the review, open a year plus and gassed for almost another year I did not notice the sulphur, though I would say now that the "murkiness" I described in the review was almost certainly the sulphur. The next time and every other time since then that I tasted from this bottle the sulphur became obvious to me. While you see I reviewed this bottle at 88 points what I now have left from this bottle would rate more like 72 points for me.

It is well to remember also that I did this review in September 2013, when I was just starting to sensitize to the presence of sulphur. If I tasted from that same bottle at that same stage of air exposure today I expect that I would have picked up the sulphur earlier and more clearly than I did.

Being able to pick up sulphur is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because it means that your senses are becoming more acute, but it is a curse because the flaws in all whiskies are becoming more noticeable. The biggest upside is that more acute perception allows even greater ecstasy in the appreciation of the very best products.

5 years ago 1Who liked this?

@OdysseusUnbound
OdysseusUnbound commented

@Victor Thank you. I’m only starting to become more aware of sulphur/sulfur in whisky so I want to make sure my mental and sensory reference points are correct.

5 years ago 1Who liked this?

@markjedi1
markjedi1 commented

Three Wood unfortunately suffers from a lot of batch variation, I've found. Especially the older ones (with the black temple shaped label, if you know what I mean) can be quite suphury and bitter. The newest releases are much better, thank the Maker!

5 years ago 2Who liked this?

@Victor
Victor commented

@markjedi1 thanks for joining in. I am very happy to hear that recent batches of Auchentoshan Three Wood have been cleaner. This is one bottle I very much liked at first. I hope to try some of that clean Auchentoshan Three Wood in the future.

5 years ago 0

@OdysseusUnbound
OdysseusUnbound commented

@Victor Me too. My experiences thus far with Auchentoshan have been overwhelmingly negative. I’m hoping to find a good one for a reasonable price sometime in the next few years to see what @markjedi1 sees in them. Not that I don’t trust his judgment, but I’d like to experience it for myself.

5 years ago 1Who liked this?

@markjedi1
markjedi1 commented

@OdysseusUnbound Please do NOT trust my judgement. As Toshan Man I am 300% biased! :-)

5 years ago 2Who liked this?