Distillery Edition #3 | 57.2% ABV

We are not as influential as we might think

Let’s get to the nitty gritty and extend our TL;DR for this one; this is a belter. It’s unique and quite unlike anything you can easily buy right now. If you’re a whisky geek and you like exploring the flavour bandwidth, and if you can buy it, please do so now.

Despite the wording of the previous paragraph, this isn’t what Dramface is about. An inevitable by-product of us, as a collective, writing about the drink we love means sometimes we’ll encourage people to buy a bottle. That’s a significant responsibility and we’re all aware of it. Perhaps, due to words we write and feelings we share, someone, somewhere will part with real cash.

I hope our motives are clear. We do not intend to act as a sales or marketing outlet for any producer. We buy our own whisky, for the most part. Bar occasional sample outturns from indies and diverted bottle offers that are always passed on to someone outside of the transaction (in our existence I can think of two; our Tamdhu 18yo and a Raasay) we write about exactly what we like.

As of yet, we don’t include affiliate links to bottles that remain for sale, even when there are schemes in place to accommodate this, it’s a big decision to make and one we’re still chewing on. We are currently afloat thanks to our members and we’ll make a call on these things only after conferring with them.

What we actually do at Dramface is build a library of reference; of individual experiences, moments, stories, feelings and thoughts on everything that surrounds a bottle and anything it may inspire. When we give scores, we’re always careful to contextualise them knowing that it’s ultimately a subjective thing, even when we find consensus as a team, it’s always down to the individual. You may also notice our scoring system isn’t really designed for promotional use by producers. You might know a 7/10 on Dramface is a cracking score, but it looks bang-average to an uninvested onlooker.

I know there may be many who read and believe there are behind-the-scenes schemes and deals, favours, handshakes and winks, but I have to tell the truth; there is not. In fact, if you were to think such a thing, you flatter us. We are not as big as you might imagine. We are not a huge influence. We are merely a sliver of a very large, but still pretty niche, community of whisky fans. Today, there are endless places for that community to spend their time. Many of them are still to discover Dramface.

Growth requires building of trust and pedigree. The grind is real and it takes a long time. When whisky folk do discover us, they’re just as likely to not take to us straight away as they are to connect. Most things take time and heaps of investment, on both sides; the efforts of the creators, the pleasure and trust of the readership.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Our stats are truly impressive given our very young age, you know this because we share them to celebrate milestones. As we slip past our 18 month mark I am truly grateful we took the steps to build this; another faithfully independent voice in whisky. You seem grateful too and we love to get the feedback that we’re appreciated. We’re far from perfect and we’ll try to constantly refine, but we’re doing okay.

So, what of our influence? Does a great write up and high score from Dramface shift bottles? Firstly, I doubt it. Secondly, I don’t care. I don’t think any of us do. It’s simply not a motivator for us. We are funded by readers. Our priority is to you. If we find something we love, it’s easy to write about. We share it with you. If we don’t love it quite so much, we’ll do exactly the same. If, in our honesty, we offend friends or supporters then we should ask if they were true in the first place.

This isn’t typical in any field - inside and outside of whisky - so it makes sense that the strange funding is often met with cynicism. Yet, the more independent models there are, the more we all benefit. This is why you’ll find links to alternative, outside sources at the bottom of every article we share. Again, that takes effort and it’s not typical, but it’s the right thing to do.

Anyway, I’m about to share an opinion on a bottle from a producer I’ve spoken about often, mostly very positively. It may, or may not, shift bottles for them. In this case, I actually hope it does because you deserve to have this bottle, but it’s incidental. If it doesn’t, all the more for me. Yet, at time of writing, this is still available.

However, what I really want to achieve, is to plant the seed that this is another example of how Loch Lomond are not interested in solely focussing on core ranges and high volumes, they are leveraging a very unique set up to bring some truly exciting expressions, and I get the feeling they’re only just getting started. Regardless of what we say.

I am a fan, but I’m far from alone.

Review

Loch Lomond 10yo, Extra Long Fermentation, Distillery Edition #3, 500 bottles, 57.2% ABV
£70 direct from the distillery online shop, still in stock at time of writing.

This is the third release from their Distillery Edition Series. The first was a 9yo wine yeast single cask (delicious), the second a 5 year old weird-but-wonderful peated expression (reviewed by Ramsay here) and this is their Extra Long Fermentation edition, a 500 bottle outturn.

Fermentation and the amplification of those heady and fruity esters are a far more common thing today than a few years ago. Ardbeg’s Fermutation springs to mind, but we also have many others playing around such as Dornoch distillery’s experimentations and Tomatin recently ‘balancing’ their production with incredible 168 hour fermentations across the board. Everyone is after those aromatic and ripe fruity esters it seems.

So what are we talking about here? The average fermentation is around 72 hours, but you hear anywhere from forty-ish through to triple figures fairly regularly. This particular expression is similar to the aforementioned Ardbeg ‘accident’ of over 500 hours, or three weeks. And before we denounce this as a copy-cat move, consider this is a 10 year old expression. Loch Lomond has been at the playful end of the classroom for a long time now.

Anyway, all very impressive, but what does it do to the profile? Well, I could summarise in a single word but I’m going to try to complete all of these notes without saying ‘fruit’.

Nose

Ripe and sharp. Sugared lemon, limoncello, lemon and lime pastilles, pink grapefruit juice, Alka Seltzer, orange peel, lemon sorbet, mineralic and slightly chalky too. Some soft, mushy banana bread, tart white grapes and dry white wine.

Palate

Crisp, sharp, dry and fizzy. Minerals on the palate too but it’s all about the citrus bang and pop of sherbert lemons, lime pastilles and bubbly effervescence. The overall sensations are that of a long, mineralic, drying grapefruit. It’s lip-smacking and moreish, you go back for more without even realising we’re way up beyond 57% ABV. Just cracking.

Water, believe it or not, exaggerates it all.

So much benefit is found here in the sensitive ex-bourbon casks, note how few of my notes are likely from the oak. Lovely balance.

And no, I didn’t manage to get through without saying the f-word. Check the TL;DR.

The Dregs

I think it’s unlikely you have anything like this on your shelf right now. In fact, if you do I’ll bet it’s because you already bought this. While that could be possible, it’s been on sale for weeks and, despite huge praise, it’s still available.

I’ve been all over the place with it, first comparing it to their fruity chardonnay wine yeast releases, before comparing to an Inchmurrin (also from Loch Lomond’s straight-neck pot stills) then I was over on the Ardnamurchan peninsula with the dry pebbles and chalk, before chewing through Bladnoch’s bready, heady fermentation-forward recent releases, but I give up. It’s out on its own.

Let’s also pause to consider value. This isn’t cheap, it’s £70. But when you consider the cost of hogging your fermentation vessels for three weeks, and then keeping everything managed and separate for 10 years, only to go with an inefficient and experimental 500 bottle small batch, it’s great value. In my book at least.

So, having no idea how many of these remain, it’ll be interesting to see who makes the decision to buy based on some words from a fat-fingered Glaswegian who has not only bought a second but is considering throwing another £70 Loch Lomond’s way to get a third.

I won’t though. I think. That might be greedy. You may like it and I’m confident there will be more like this in future. It’s too good a liquid to hide away. If you do, let us know in the comments. Did we lead you astray? I’m confident we didn’t. This is a good one.

It’s proof that the real influencers aren’t scoring whisky, they’re making it.

Score: 8/10

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. WMc

Other opinions on this:

Malt

Brian’s Malt Musings

Whiskybase

Got a link to a reliable review? Tell us.