Burns' Night, tonight.
Rabbie's Dram 12yo (46%, Rabbie's Dram Whisky Co., b.2000s): nose: we have OME, for a minute, with old pickle brine, dust and cardboard. It soon dissipates to reveal a more modern profile, with custard, shortbread and vanillin. Oh! yes, this has vanilla custard written all over it, now. Toffee, butterscotch, maybe a dollop of polish on a biscuit tin (it feels more accurate than car bodywork). Scratch the 'maybe': this definitely has a layer of polish on it, fragrant and waxy. Over time, it is not just the wax that grows, but also the metal; biscuit tins... and car bodywork, after all. Patrician green. Far in the back, there is a hint of blue ink or watercolour. The second nose has lots of toffee, hazelnut liqueur-laced custard and hazelnut oil, as well as distant lichen on (white-oak) staves. Mouth: mellow and unctuous, the fruit-juice texture is supported by a distinctly metallic structure. There are some berries too (dried raspberries, wild strawberries) and a gentle spiciness that spreads its wings a bit more with each passing second. Milk chocolate rocks up, and even a touch of tame mocha. The second sip has a drop of lemon or yuzu joining a white-wood influence -- white wood full of sap and life; birch, acacia, young oak and, later on, even bramble bushes. Finish: custard powder, vanillin extract, sawdust from a sawn Bourbon cask. This is all shortbread, custard and gentle ginger powder, really. The second sip lingers on forever and, without fundamentally changing the profile, adds a nuance of peppermint to keep things fresh and exciting. That peppermint is in laughable proportion, however -- one Fisherman's Friend lost in a bucket of custard. Sadly, the berries from the mouth have more or less disappeared, but the toffee is making a comeback, sticky, tasty, and somehow minty fresh. Pleasant, if undemanding dram. Now, which Single Highland Malt this is is anyone's guess. 7/10 (Thanks for the dram, JS)
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