Daftmill Winter Release, Circumstance & A World Blend

TBWC World Whisky Blend

A blend which really is what it states on the bottle. The blend includes whiskies from: Scotland, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, USA, Switzerland, Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Germany (Bavaria), France, Japan and Finland. Totalling 14 countries some of which I didn’t know produced any decent whisky (more research for future). TBWC recommend having this neat or with your favourite mixer or as part of a cocktail – one of my favourites being a whisky-based espresso martini.

Nose: It smells like that initially hit when you walk into a European bakery, sweet honey and a slight hint of peatiness (very slight).

Palate: Mellow, summer citrus, toasted oats, maltiness with stewed pears.

Finish: Vanilla ice cream, cinnamon and clove spice.

79/100

Circumstance Organic Single Grain Whisky

Circumstance Distillery pride themselves on creating organic whisky and successfully produce all their whisky carbon neutral. That’s no easy feat! Each bottle carries a code which you can type into the website to give you some info on the bottle. This is what we got for our code 2:23:1:29:37.

Batch number: This was batch number 2 of this particular whisky to be bottled.

Fermentation: A combination of 22 and 15

Distillation: Stainless steel pot still with copper head and 4 plate copper column.

Ageing method: Maturation methods 2, 12 and 13 combined

Ageing: This whisky was aged for 37 months

Nose: Spiced fruits, Christmas cake, pistachio’s, and roasted malt.

Palate: Ripe soft fruit and toffee with milk chocolate and a touch of black pepper.

Finish: Oak, Werther’s Originals a hint of that  peppercorn.

89/100

Daftmill Winter Batch 2011

Last year we tried the 2010 batch, on the whole we enjoyed it, with its earthy taste, harvested fields and Autumnal tones. This is the 2011 Winter batch release, limited to 7500 bottles worldwide, laid to rest and mature in 27 fresh bourbon barrels for 13 years. Daftmill have established themselves well in the Whisky world over the last couple of years, with their limited releases and small batches.

Nose: Marzipan, freshly combined fields, late summer countryside, hint of teabags.

Palate: Vanilla, honied barley, crushed almonds.

Finish: honied sweetness, short

I do like this, however something I would like to see Daftmill do is create a core bottling – something released quarterly, either an 8 or 10yr old that shows what they can produce on a regular. I worry that the way they currently release their batches is a case of distil their new make and throw it in some barrels, release it with different flavours for premium prices. For me a sign of a good distillery is what they can produce regularly in their core bottlings, it then makes their limited releases all that bit special.

90/100

Which is your favourite?

• TBWC Whisky World Blend
• Circumstance Organic Grain Whisky
• Daftmill Winter Release 2011