Chivas 18 First Fill Boubron Cask Finish
Really Nicely Done
0 292
Review by @MaltActivist
- Nose23
- Taste23
- Finish23
- Balance23
- Overall92
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I'm a big fan of the Chivas 18. Good solid travel retail whisky which still comes at a relatively decent price tag (compared to the absolute madness that is going on in this world!).
I've also attended a couple of tasting sessions of the 18. One where they broke down the different whiskies that became part of the blend and another super interesting one which compared different ways of drinking it.
So it was a nice surprise when my mate picked this particular release from the Duty Free. Called the Ultimate Cask Collection (I assume there will be more) it has been finished off in first-fill American Oak, non-chill filtered and served at quite a decent ABV of 48%.
My sample is from a brand new bottle.
Oak. Toasty oak. Malt. Licorice. Quite floral. Vanilla. Cinnamon. Chocolate. Coconut. Barley. Nice strong sherry. Really like this nose even if it's a touch uncomplicated. The higher ABV makes the aromas stand out more. I like it. 23/25
Nice and creamy mouthfeel. Quite robust. A little spicy. That coconut again. Dark honey. Cinnamon. All spice. Butterscotch. Almonds. Licorice. Whisp of smoke. Fudge cake. Really really liking the palate on this one. It's quite wonderful and the texture makes it feel quite rich. 23/25
Long. Caramel. All spice. Nice. 23/25
Well, what can I say? Pernod Ricard seem to have taken a quality product and made it a little better. Nice to see them keep their ear to the ground and come up with a higher ABV and non-chill filtered product. Plus the finish really does the whisky well. It's a bit on the expensive side, mind you, but if you're rich then you won't mind.
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@MaltActivist, thank you for a beautifully written review.
Your approbation for this whisky is obvious from the very beginning to the very end of the story. That is delightful to see in this land of so many "yes,...but" products.
It is a giant step forward for more blended Scotch whiskies to be produced at 48%, 50% and higher ABVs, and without chill filtration...but I don't think that we'll see inexpensive prices on 18 year old Scotch, even blended Scotch, anytime soon.
It is fun to see all of the experimentation going on now in the Scotch industry with incorporating more wood influence into the mix. There is room for it, for sure, but it is very easy with the mild and delicate flavours of barley malt to bring so much wood influence that the barley is overpowered. Light finishes with either new charred oak or "first fill" oak barrels are probably the easiest and quickest way to do this. A different but very interesting kind of whisky will result from much longer aging in new toasted, but not charred oak barrels. I could not believe it when Jim Murray wrote that Glenmorangie Ealanta was aged like bourbon. It was not. Bourbon requires charred oak barrels, and Ealanta was aged in toasted oak barrels. There is all the difference in the world between the two, over any given period of aging. After 19 years in charred new oak, there would likely have been no malt to taste in Ealanta. Like you, Ealanta is not a great favourite whisky of mine, but there are parts of it that I very much like, especially the mouthfeel.
I rarely get maudlin about mouthfeel. For me it is ok, usually, noticeably thin at times, or, rarely, exceptionally nice. Exceptionally nice for me is 1 whisky out of 100. Ealanta is that 1 whisky out of 100 for exceptional mouthfeel.
So Ealanta is not a model of anything other than mouthfeel for me, either, but I do believe that other whiskies in this style would be quite interesting, and that many would be very enjoyable. The one big problem going forward for this to happen is that using toasted new oak with barley will require significant aging, and these days, no one wants to wait to bring product to market. It is so much easier and quicker to do a finish with charred new oak or with easily obtained "first fill" barrels.