02/12/2024 The Cashly

The Cashly 13yo 2011/2024 Highland Release 5 (50%, Stirling Distillery Sons of Scotland, First Fill Bourbon Cask, C#4416): a cask from an undisclosed distillery, bottled by Stirling Distillery, whilst waiting for their own stuff to mature. We had this last week. Nose: a slap of aromatic herbs in the face, with marjoram, thyme, oregano, and, especially, hawthorn. We also have gorse and broom, dried sage and rosemary, juniper branches, and, generally speaking, all sorts of things one would expect to find in a grappa, rather than a whisky. It has a whiff of custard too, topped with dried thyme leaves, but, above all, hawthorn -- hawthorn capsules, hawthorn infusion, chamomile, and medicinal herbal preparations. I feel all relaxed just smelling this. The second nose offers a white-wine custard, which is original, if nothing else. After-shave lotion, caramel coulis blended with cold coffee. It actually improves with time, in that the herbal character mellows out. Mouth: ooft! It has a certain sweetness, but that is hidden behind a colossal bitterness. Herbs again, but there is more to it; here are minty tar, liquorice, acetone-cleaned soft rubber, soft tyres so hot they are barely solid. This also provides a lick of windscreen that was just cleaned with acetone and a defrost spray. Chewing adds hard rubber soles too. Not an easy dram, this one! The second sip is more difficult yet: cold coffee splashed on recently-cleaned glass, acetone, bendy rubber, and broken glass. Meh. Finish: yeah, we have a delicate choux dough, but the dominant facet is bitter, and not so much herbs as it is rubber, now. Chewy rubber seals, silicone baking moulds, heated Bakelite, hot tyres, hot liquorice, sun-bleached rubber, and even something burnt, towards the death. This is really a challenge. The second gulp has a fleeting note of melted milk chocolate, soon overtaken by bitter white wine that would be on first-name terms with vinegar, rocket-infused grappa, or some herbal infusion or another, served in a rubber cup. Veeeeeery bitter, this one. 5/10 (Thanks, PSc)