Deanston 18 Year Old Batch 1
Sour sherbert
5 488
WReview by @Wierdo
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall88
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This is my first bottle of Deanston whisky. Not my usual thing to start with the 18 but at the time I brought the bottle I had a lot of younger whiskies in my stash and not many 15+ whiskies.
First thing to say is I like the presentation of this whisky. Bottled at 46.3%, Natural colour, NCF. Nice bottle and a no fuss cardboard box.
Nose
Quite fruity (but not dried fruits) lemon, vanilla some oak and a subtle ginger note.
Palate
Tastes quite young for it's age. Quite bitter/sour initially. Biscuity and malty with lemons and a fizzy sherbert note. Some toffee in the development.
Finish
Quite drying, oaky with tanins. And the sour fruits lingering.
This malt is quite obviously bourbon cask matured and I like the fact that they've avoided the standard practice of dipping their 18 year old in sherry casks for a couple of years to give an artificial impression of age. As I mentioned I like the presentation. I also quite like the fact that the profile is a little unusual being quite sour and malty.
So why not a 90+ score? In truth I did find the one thing it was missing was a little complexity.
Still a very decent malt. Competitively priced (in the UK) for an 18 year old. Worth a look.
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Nice review and I don't feel the need to write one from your sample now
I tried this alongside the 12 and honestly preferred the 12. Much juicier and fresh although both are very good. The 18 was recently going for just over £50 on Amazon but I think, having tried it, if get another 12 and save a few quid! Have you tried the 12?