Apogee XII 12 Year Old – Bimber

So, Bimber have gone and done something rather interesting..

Ok they are not the first English whisky distillery to do this but they are the one distillery i really didn’t expect to do this.

What have they done ? ok, this Pure malt release from Bimber is not bimber distillate, its Scottish.. What was whisky produced in Scotland and then blended together was then re racked into casks that had previously matured Bimber whisky. A rather interesting procedure and obviously poses the question as to why ?

The why is and isn’t important depending as to which side of the fence you sit on. Me, if the whisky is good then the why becomes a little less important, it does however still pop up every now and again.

What intrigues me is to what effect did those bimber casks have on the whisky? We all know when whisky is matured within say ex Islay casks that smoke effect is imparted and many say the coastal qualities are too ( even though many of the casks spend their lives in the seaside resort of Glasgow )

Anyway Bimber obviously had their reasons for taking matured whisky from Speyside and the highlands , re racking it into their own casks then bottling as a side kick to their own fabulous whisky, is this a great marketing act or just genius marketing… You decide.

Picture courtesy of Master of Malt

Apogee XII

Distillery.. Unknown

Region.. Speyside, Highlands, Uk

Age.. 12 years

Abv.. 46.3%

Casks.. Ex Bourbon – Ex Bimber

Nose.. The first impressions are Vanilla and honey with a lovely warm toffee apple aroma drifting through. Dried fruits interestingly make an appearance with dates and chocolate covered raisins evident and even a little blackcurrant jam on warm toast making an appearance.

Palate.. Again this has an abundance of dried fruits and plenty of spices greeting you before the true bourbon notes start to deliver. Vanilla and toffee notes are a little more subdued but there is plenty of evidence of those fresh fruits and citrus notes.

Finish.. Sweet with gentle spices

Thoughts.. This is interesting and certainly well put together, those Bimber casks seem to have imparted a familiar feel to this Scottish whiskies blend although its hard to say exactly what effect is truly from the Bimber casks without actually trying the whisky before it entered their casks but this is a very interesting experiment and who knows maybe this is a fore runner to what we can expect from the Bimber model in the future with the Scottish distillery well under way..

This sample / bottle was very kindly sent by Bimber with no expectations so thank you.