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Deanston 18 Year Old Batch 1

Average score from 3 reviews and 4 ratings 86

Deanston 18 Year Old Batch 1

Product details

  • Brand: Deanston
  • Bottler: Distillery Bottling
  • ABV: 46.3%
  • Age: 18 year old

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W

Reviewed by @Wierdo

5 488/100

Deanston 18 Year Old Batch 1

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.

R@RianC commented:

Nice review and I don't feel the need to write one from your sample now smile

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?

O@OdysseusUnbound commented:

Nice review. I’m putting this one on my list. I love an exclusive ex-bourbon maturation. I’m pretty sensitive to sulphur so sherry cask finishes are a crapshoot for me.

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@markjedi1

Reviewed by @markjedi1

1 083/100

Deanston used to be a cotton factory until 1966. Until 1971 they put Old Bannockburn on their label. Only after the distillery was taken over by Invergordon, in 1972, did they change it to Deanston. In 1982 it was closed, but in 1990 Burn Stewart Distillers Ltd gave it a second lease on life. Only 15% of the production is meant for single malt, the rest goes into blends with Scottish Leader as the main one. These single malt release – Bourbon Cask Finish – was launched in 2015. It matured on ex-bourbon casks and then got a finish on first fill casks from Kentucky.

On the nose, I get mildly burnt sugar (not quite caramel) with of sugared almonds and coconut. Quite some honey. The whole is a bit dusty, like sitting in the attic. Sunflower oil, hint of café latte. The fruit is kept under wraps for a long time, but finally some papaya and mostly mango reveal themselves. Not unpleasant.

The arrival is soft, mildly spicy with a bit bitter note. Grapefruit, orange zest, ginger and a hint of chocolate. Mango juice. Toasted bread. Breakfast cereals. All of this drenched in honey.

Fairly long finish on orange peel and ginger.

This is almost complex. But just a tad too bitter to be very good. Around 100 EUR.

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@Nemesis101

Reviewed by @Nemesis101

0 086/100

A floral, honeyed nose. Some lavender, light fruit - peaches, a hint of citrus and more than a hint of herbs. Slight aniseed. Honey binds it all together.

Sweet honey on the palate is tempered by a large aniseed and liquorice hit. Quite herby and floral, but relatively thick and oily. Hints of biscuit and cereal.

A long sweet finish with the honeyed style staying to the end.

A lighter style whisky than I usually go for, but I like it for being "au naturelle" - ie uncoloured and non-chill filtered. Definitely recommended for the more sweet-toothed whisky drinker.

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