SALTY SEA DOG

A good few years back a local whisky shop employed a rather cheeky looking lad, I remember chatting to the staff who all spoke rather highly of this youn whipper snapper.. A good few years later and this your lad is no other than Joe Clark from the whisky lounge,  over the years we have chatted a few times at the festivals and on Twitter and he pretty much knows my taste in whisky.. So a few weeks ago while chatting he offered to send me a couple of samples from bottles bottled by the whisky lounge, great was my response. The samples arrived, I opened the box and how delightfull Joe had sent some lovely islay malts ( your such a star Joe) I love my peated islay malts..  ( someone will get my sarcasm)

I decided that I would try do this tasting as blind as I can, so it’s a lucky dip from the four samples, no other info known other than it is named ” Salty Sea Dog ” with a 43% abv, it is batch 4 and I will confidently say natural colour..

 

Nose.. First impression is an islay malt, peated but not a real kick in the teeth peated, smouldering  damp wood smoke with stewed apples and toffee.. A subtle citrus note with hints of almonds and burnt sugar..

 

Palate.. The peat is more prominent on the palate than the nose might suggest, wood smoke with a twist of burnt toast and salted caramel with  burnt sugar.. Very subtle fruity notes can be found while a hint of vanilla tries to be noticed..

 

Finish.. Quite long and of course smoke infused to the end..

 

Thoughts.. As soon as I opened this I was fairly sure it would be an Islay, I don’t think it’s older than 8-12 years, not sure if it is a single barrel or vatting ..  So Joe.. You have seen the faces I’ve pulled at tastings when the islay malts come out.. But Bravo.. This actually isn’t too bad,  reminds me of Caol ila but probably isn’t.. This does have some very good points, some good complexity and is well balanced.. This really should be a go to malt for any peat / islay fan.. If like me your not into heavily peated malts this is still worth a try, it makes for a very warming malt and I know  if I served this to my islay fan friends they would want more.. I might just have to buy a bottle of this, you know just incase ..

Many thanks go go out to Joe from the Whisky Lounge for this sample..

After looking this up I found out it is indeed an Islay malt aged 10 Years… No idea of distillery or if single cask or vatted..