Strathmill 13 Year Old 2006 Signatory Vintage

Boy, will you look at the color of this whisky! Signatory gave this Strathmill, which matured on refill butts, a finish in a fresh sherry butt. They bottled it at 61.1% ABV in their famous Cask Strength Collection in those beautiful-but-impossible-to-pour-from decanter. Looks great, though.

Relatively sweet, but at the same time quite umami nose on caramelized fruit like oranges, raisins and strawberries, but also sundried tomatoes, balsamico and even some nougat. Becomes creamy if you leave it to breath. The prickle is doable. The alcohol seems to be well integrated, on the nose at least.

On the palate as well. There is no bite at all! It is a lot sweeter than the nose announced and I like that. All kinds of red fruit, origin chocolate, nougat, quince, notes of sugared black coffee, blueberry jam and apricots. Then some Jägermeister liqueur kicks in, followed by triple sec and walnuts. Becomes quite spicy and mildly bitter from the oak. But everything balances out.

The finish is long and feisty, with mostly nuts returning, but it dies quite an astringent death.

Well, if you are looking for a malt as a digestive, look no further. Around 110 EUR. It seems that the Germans are quite fond of this profile. Thanks for Marcel for the sample.

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