Deanston Lepanto Distillery Exclusive
Distillery Exclusive Bottling Lepanto Finish | 59% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Worth travelling halfway around the world for, twice
The Captive Tourist
Whisky tourism is real. As lovers of whisky, for the vast majority of the time, we interact with distilleries through the whiskies they produce; coming in the form of a bottle, experienced in our own hometowns.
For those of you who are lucky enough to live closer to a source, your hometown may be very close to a distillery where your favoured whisky is being produced, which affords you one less degree of separation. But even then, I would imagine that most of your whisky experiences occur away from the distillery.
Even if you lived right next to a distillery, unless you only ever drank whisky from that single distillery, what I outlined above probably still holds true.
Therefore, when the opportunity arises, when I’m anywhere close to a distillery, I try my best to go out of my way and pay a visit, and sip some whiskies on site if possible.
My previous such excursion happened last summer when my family travelled to England to attend my brother’s graduation, I decided to jet off a week earlier and sneak a few days in Campbeltown. It was my first proper whisky trip, and as I headed straight to this capital of whisky (still is in my mind), I can’t stress how memorable a trip that was.
Since it wasn’t by any means cheap to make a trip like that, I didn’t think I would return to Scotland anytime soon, but sometimes life presents opportunities when we least expect it. Some time around March or April earlier this year, the idea of attending the Glasgow Whisky Festival was floated around, at the time it was really just a pipe dream, since we had recently moved, more expensive bills had to be paid, and there just wasn’t a lot of spare money. However, thanks to the ever vigilant Mrs. McAtear, she reminded me that our efforts in accruing airline loyalty points have yielded good returns, and if I really did want to visit Scotland, the flights could be taken care of. And so, half a year later, here I am, sitting in a hotel room in Glasgow, drinking in the Scottish weather, and bathing in whisky culture.
While I’m in Glasgow, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit one of my favourite distilleries, Deanston. Since I’m travelling alone, driving to a distillery was not going to be an option if I was to be sipping whiskies, so I have to embark on a long journey by public transport.
Around a 57km drive from Glasgow, it would take approximately twenty minutes to an hour, depending on the traffic, and for me to take the train and bus up there, the travel time would be approximately an hour and a half, which doesn’t sound so bad at all.
There was one caveat though. My final leg of the journey involved a bus ride from Stirling to the distillery, and that bus runs once per hour. Making matters worse is that one of the buses arrives at the distillery at 14:33, which means if I wanted to make it on time for the 14:30 tasting, I had to take the earlier bus, arriving at the distillery an hour before.
Truth be told, it wasn’t that bad, for one simple reason: there’s a nice cafe at the distillery. As experience tells me, I need a relatively full stomach before I drink whisky, which means arriving an hour earlier is perfect. It allowed me time to settle in, have lunch at the distillery, chat with the nice people at the distillery shop, while waiting for my tasting to begin. Perfect.
The tasting that I attended is the Warehouse 4 Tasting, hosted by the knowledgeable George, which costs £40, including three drams of Deanston whisky straight from the cask. According to the website, these were going to be 15ml drams, but since they were drawn straight from the cask and poured into a copita, I’m happy to share that these amounted to quite a bit more than 15ml. In fact, Brian provided me with small sample bottles to take away the whiskies that I couldn’t finish, both as a result of my pathetic ability to take alcohol, and the large volumes of the generous drams.
The three whiskies tasted was as follows:
A 2006 refill bourbon barrel (54.1%), a 2012 ex red wine barrel (58.5%), and a 1992 first fill PX butt (57.6%). All three of these whiskies surprised me: the colour of the whisky sat in a barrel maturing for 18 years could pass for a spirit that’s not old enough to be called whisky, because the refill ‘bourbon’ barrel was actually a 4th fill barrel, and it was a surreal juxtaposition of maturity and youth, ripe apples and a touch of cologne. The ex-red wine barrel of 12 years old was nothing like any of the wine cask matured/finished whiskies that I’ve tried, very balanced and complex, full of berries, grapes and the likes. While the 32 year old PX whisky also didn’t get overwhelmed by the cask, in fact the colour was similar to the wine cask matured whisky, but its age really showed, after all, I was a toddler when this cask was filled.
But you might be wondering, none of these whiskies are the one in the title of the review, so where does the Lepanto fit into this story?
My trip to Campbeltown last year was bookended by two days in Glasgow, and for one of those days, I visited Deanston. Yep, this was my second time. Why was I so keen to go back? Because I needed to buy this 2012 ex Lepanto butt matured exclusive whisky. This was in the lineup of the Warehouse 4 tasting when I last visited, but for some reason I didn’t buy a bottle at the time, and I’ve been regretting it since.
Seeing on the distillery’s official website that it was still available, I made a bold bet that it will still be available by the time of my visit, after all, the worst case scenario is that it isn’t available and I could have gotten another bottle from the warehouse tasting. In the end, the whisky gods had me covered, I got my bottles, and I could even snatch one filled by Brian, the gentleman who poured me this whisky the first time around.
It was my first time trying a Lepanto finished whisky, and I was taken aback by it, so fruity and jammy, especially trying it in the cold warehouse at Deanston, it left a very positive impression on me. Let’s see if the whisky is as good when bottled and tried at home.
Review
Deanston 2012, Lepanto Cask Finish, Distillery Exclusive, 59% ABV
£135 distillery only
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Worth travelling halfway around the world for, twice
Nose
Very floral forward on the waxy nose, borderline perfumy, sour honey, like honey that’s gone bad, which technically doesn’t exist. It’s prickly on the nose, but in a refreshing way, lots of jams, lemon curd, hints of ginger and vanilla, toffee, flowers, melons, orange zest. What a nose!
Palate
A sip of this brings me right back to that cold day at Warehouse 4, the nose wasn’t able to do this, but the palate achieves this beautifully. This is Deanston at its waxy best; chewy wax, creamy arrival, with ginger, vanilla, marmalade, more jams, candied and fresh fruits, strawberry jams, green and red apples, bitter and zesty oranges, and lemons. Bright and zesty marmalade lingers in the finish, which goes on for ages.
A few drops of water brings out a surprisingly tannic side of the whisky, a coffee note appears where it wasn’t before. With this sitting at 59%, a bit more water to bring the ABV down to around 50 - I’m guessing - and it takes the water very well; indeed, it has “grown up” a bit. The zesty bite is gone, the liquid has become more rounded, and the bitterness has become a lot more prominent. While it’s still excellent, I prefer it at its high 50s, but talk about a whisky that takes water well… this is one of them.
The Dregs
Deanston prides itself on its spirit of exploration, and that can be a double-edged sword, considering its recent Tequila finish, the reception is lukewarm at best. This Lepanto finish though, I hold it in high regard among any of Deanston’s whiskies, it caught my eye a year and a half ago, and it’s retained a place in my heart for those 18 months, so much so that I made an effort to go back to get it.
For some context, Lepanto is a Spanish brandy produced in Jerez, the region famous for making sherry. In my limited experience, brandy casks go very well with unpeated whiskies, bringing out a lot of fresh fruits, this one is no exception.
Distillery exclusives are often criticised for being overpriced as they try to exploit the visitors, I can see both sides to the argument: for a visitor like myself, not including layovers and stuff, it took me more than 17 hours to get to the distillery, I would like to be rewarded with a fairly priced whisky. On the other hand, as the distillery, if they know that someone’s made the effort to travel all that time to a distillery, they are less likely to walk away empty-handed, so why not charge a few quid extra while they can? Except I have anecdotal evidence to tip that discussion one way. Twice at Deanston, I have witnessed other visitors coming off the tour and heading straight to the bottles with keen eyes, only to hesitate after seeing the prices, and more often than not, they decide to buy something more affordable like a core range 18 year old. In other words, I do think that the distillery is charging a bit more for these exclusives than they should. Perhaps I’d be returning for my second bottle, not my first.
Other than that, I have nothing but praise for Deanston. The distillery is a great example of a working distillery that also accommodates tours, the people around the distillery are very nice, and I even managed to meet a fellow Luton fan in Craig. If I do travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh again, I will definitely make the effort to go up to Deanston again.
Deanston, you’ve not seen the last of me.
For those takeaway souvenirs, I hope you’ll charge me a little less next time.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. MMc
-
Dramface is free.
Its fierce independence and community-focused content is funded by that same community. We don’t do ads, sponsorships or paid-for content. If you like what we do you can support us by becoming a Dramface member for the price of a magazine.
However, if you’ve found a particular article valuable, you also have the option to make a direct donation to the writer, here: buy me a dram - you’d make their day. Thank you.
For more on Dramface and our funding read our about page here.
