Watt Whisky Outturn Winter 2023
Six Indy Bottlings | Various % ABV
A note from Wally: some of the images are a wee bit blurry. Do not adjust your set. It’s Hamish. He’s old. Bless.
So Much Whisky Choice
It's hard to believe that we're done with 2023. What a year it has been. The last three years have been a blur: a blend of one big mad experience, full of ups and downs, with whisky in-between. And the whisky this year…wow. I can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store.
Genuinely, for me this past year is probably the best, so far, for tasty drams. I’ll give my two cents towards my whisky of the year at the end of this review, but in terms of the range of liquids I’ve sampled or purchased this year, 2023 has taken it to another level.
I’m really not one for revealing what I’ve spent. And I don’t care for those who do either. I get the appeal, and the curiosity amongst the whisky community…but it’s futile comparing your own budget and accessibility to someone else, especially a blogger or video reviewer. I’ve been subject to that feeling and thought before in my whisky journey and it’s done nothing but fuel FOMO and maybe a hint of jealousy too. Which takes away from the whisky and the words spoken or written by an individual.
2023 has been the year where I’ve hunted for value. What whisky can give me the best experience for my hard-earned money? I’ll often stick to some of the distilleries I know and love, but the likes of Dramface and YouTube give a greater insight to some whiskies I’ve probably never heard of or are simply not yet on my radar. The Indri Trini being one. Still being talked about and a whisky not yet in my shopping cart.
The most important takeaway for me this year is the importance and value amongst the people in this absolutely wonderful whisky community. Not only have I been able to continue to ramble on to this awesome audience that visits Dramface regularly, but actually meeting those readers face to face or even chatting online has been the best part of the year. All brought about and shared the love for this glorious liquid. I tend to think of whiskies that I’m tasting now and linking them, or the distillery, with an experience: the person who sent me the sample or a flavour profile that someone loves and told me about it.
Now that I’ve started this review off talking about the whiskies I’ve had this year and being the best whisky year of my journey so far, in part with thanks to you all, I was still blown away to be able to experience today's Watt Whisky sample set.
Diverted to me by Wally and eventually received from by Kate from the Campbeltown Whisky Company, I was excited to get stuck into a nice flight of drams and see what was in store in the latest winter outturn.
Watt Whisky has been an indie bottler I haven’t purchased…yet. But I’ve heard almighty things about them.
Review 1/6 - Hamish
Dailuaine 11yo, Refill butt, 2012 vintage, 58.8% ABV
£67 still some availability
Nose
Thick, dense and syrupy. Salted caramel and fudge. Sugared donut. Toasted fruit loaf. Vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce. Slight hint of tropical fruit, like a cubed mango on the back end. Damp/wet hessian bag, raisins and a touch of yeast/doughy element.
Palate
Aniseed. Clove and ground nutmeg. It's warming and coats the entire tongue very well. Slight tingle on the tip of the tongue and it becomes astringent and drying as the dram finishes off. Some ginger snap biscuits. Burnt sugar, cayenne pepper with a sweet medium finish that reminds me of chocolate lime sweets and an orange zest.
Score: 6/10 HF
Review 1/6 - Earie
Dailuaine 11yo, Refill butt, 2012 vintage, 58.8% ABV
£67 still some availability
Located in Europe, I don’t get to try these outturn sets as often as I’d like. thank you to the Dramface Mule Network for getting these to me via Wally then Hamish.
Nose
Slightly solvent and overall very spirit driven (possible this was put in a 2nd or even 3d fill cask). Sweet and sour notes from citrus, oranges and raspberry. Grassy and oily.
Palate
Grassy and slightly dirty with an oily, viscous mouthfeel. Green, sappy wood with cherry and candy going into a not overly long finish where that grassy touch lingers through.
The Dregs
Tasty and, despite being spirit-driven, also a layered Dailuaine, with an ever so slightly dirty touch to it. I really wanted this to be very good as I’ve got a soft spot for Dailuaine, and while it sort of suggests just how good it can be, it never really reaches that ‘wow’ point. That said, there can be absolutely no doubt that this i’s a good and classic Dailuaine, and I wouldn’t at all mind putting this one in my cabinet.
Score: 6/10 EA
Review 2/6 - Hamish
Campbeltown Blended Malt 6yo, Barrel, 2017 vintage, 58.6% ABV
£60 still some availability
Nose
Icing sugar and lemon curd. Spent matches and dried wood sticks: kindling. White pepper. Vaseline petroleum jelly. Leather chamois cloth with a touch of motor oil. Cooked oats. Ripe peaches, strawberry jam and cola bottle gelatine sweets. Fresh raspberries, lemon sherbet with plums hiding in the background mixed with sliced pear.
Palate
From the nose, you immediately get that pear on the palate with some citrus that transforms into tinned fruit salad in sugar syrup. Deliciously malty and a lick of sea salt in here also. Plain potato chips and a little waft of smoke. A touch of smoked meats, maybe even a smoked cheese, it's just ever so faint. Madeira cake with vanilla icing. Cream from a can and raspberry syrup.
A medium to long finish with this pour. Ever so slightly drying on the tongue with a delightful tropical fruit sweetness that lingers and this fades off.
Score: 7/10 HF
Review 2/6 - Earie
Campbeltown Blended Malt 6yo, Barrel, 2017 vintage, 58.6% ABV
£60 still some availability
Nose
Creamy - cheesy and bags and bags of butter. A hint of unripe banana and banana bread with a nutty oiliness to it.
Palate
A bit nippy at first (ABV and youth showing I reckon), and again that buttery note. A gentle grassy - vegetal element on a dry, mouth coating texture. Mid palate it turns nutty and slightly woody before in jumps into a long and increasingly drying finish.
The Dregs
I’m a bit of a sucker for whiskies bringing that buttery note and it took me by surprise to find it in such plentiful amounts in this blended Campbeltown. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, for this is a very tasty and enjoyable whisky.
Score: 7/10 EA
Review 3/6 - Hamish
Dumbarton Single Grain 22yo, Hogshead, 2000 vintage, 55.5% ABV
£88 still some availability
Nose
PVA glue and a fresh new pencil case. It's like going back to school all over again. It feels young to me, even though it's a 22 year old. Strange. Not much depth. Nail polish remover. Unripe pineapple. Generic face cleanser and a touch of tree bark. Dried grass cuttings and hint of chocolate mint in there too.
Palate
Coconut cream pastry. Milk chocolate with desiccated coconut too. Vanilla extract and flaked almonds. Marzipan with raisins and warm honey. The mouthfeel with this one is quite silky, compared to the experience on the nose that's quite unexpected. The finish is medium to long and the lasting note is chocolate eclairs and a lot of that plastic element from the nose also.
Score: 5/10 HF
Review 3/6 - Earie
Dumbarton Single Grain 22yo, Hogshead, 2000 vintage, 55.5% ABV
£88 still some availability
Nose
Classic single grain notes, in the best of ways: light apples, granulated sugar, vanilla and honey. There’s a soft confectionery side to this and the grain makes itself known with a biscuity-bready note. After 15 - 20 minutes, a sweet cherry juice note pops up, sitting on a soft citric-grape like acidity.
Palate
Sweet and sour arrival. Some grain dust, citric notes and a peppery, alcohol driven (yet unobtrusive) sharpness. More fruit with grapes, grapefruit and green apples, before it turns increasingly woody towards the finish. After adding a drop of water the ABV is toned down, allowing even more room for the apples and vanilla notes to shine through.
The Dregs
Very decent single grain, yet also a bit predictable, perhaps? It definitely comes across younger than the age statement suggests, although of course that’s not uncommon with single grain whisky. It's engaging enough to grab your attention should you want to take a deep dive into this, although it never leaves the ‘easy drinking’ zone.
Score: 6/10 EA
Review 4/6 - Hamish
Peat Smoke on Gorgie 5yo, Blended Scotch Whisky, Part butt & a barrel, 2018 vintage, 57.1% ABV
£53 still some availability
Nose
Smoked paprika and white pepper. Old socks, a dirty used cloth and some toasted bread. Potato skins and warm corn on the cob. Wood bark and damp leaves. Back end of the nose on this one reminds me of a flat lager.
Palate
It's quite meaty and dense. I'm getting wafts of smoke on this one. There's sausage meat, stale bread and a hint of rosemary. A slight tongue prickle and a sharp pepper spike at the end. A little element of brine when sipping this dram. There's honey glazed ham slices and gravy granules (just before the boiling water is added to make a gravy). A nice sweetness comes toward the end with pour, reminding me of brown sugar and real thick treacle.
Score: 6/10 HF
Review 4/6 - Earie
Peat Smoke on Gorgie 5yo, Blended Scotch Whisky, Part butt & a barrel, 2018 vintage, 57.1% ABV
£53 still some availability
Nose
Very easy on the peat. It’s there but understated at first and it needs ten minutes or so to emerge and make itself present. A pleasant combo of sweetness and peat with a lot of fruit in the mix of unripe kiwi and oranges countered by a soft, slightly medicinal peat note.
Palate
Copy paste the nose on to the palate and you’re pretty much there.
Again very easy on the peat, as sugary sweetness, oranges and vanilla lead the way with a swift pepper note into a short finish.
The Dregs
Sometimes the best delights are the simplest ones. There’s nothing difficult or demanding about this, and it makes for an utterly unpretentious but dangerously quaffable drink.
Score: 5/10 EA
Review 5/6 - Hamish
Croftengea (Loch Lomond0 6yo, single Malt, Barrel, 2017 vintage, 57.1% ABV
£53 still some availability
Nose
Lemon zest and sweet peat smoke. Charred wood. Maple smoked bacon (uncooked). An abundance of meringue nests, dried twigs and blackberry jam. With some further investigation you could just about pick out melted milk chocolate and crushed hazelnuts.
Palate
Awh this is delicately smoked. Soft wisps of campfire smoke and a mix of nice citrus fruit Lemon curd and raspberry jam. Raw oats and muscovado sugar blended in there. Thin slices of deli ham paired with cheddar cheese. Honeyed. Sultanas and a real lovely oily mouthfeel. Nice long finish that sweetens more and more toward the end with delicate peat smoke that lingers on and on.
Score: 7/10 HF
Review 5/6 - Earie
Croftengea (Loch Lomond0 6yo, single Malt, Barrel, 2017 vintage, 57.1% ABV
£53 still some availability
Nose
Sweet, medicinal peat. Grassy, wet earth, and umami notes coming from hard cheeses. Things get a bit more smoky over time, countered by fresh, green lime notes.
Palate
Peppery and peaty. Smoky and earthy-savoury with notes of fungi this time. This may sound as if it gets quite heavy and serious, but throughout it all, there’s a ‘lightness’ to this which makes it both layered and complex, but also accessible and above all very enjoyable.
The Dregs
At the risk of sounding like a record on endless repeat, but pretty much everything coming from Loch Lomond these days is a safe bet when talking about quality. The peat on these Croftengea releases is far more outspoken than on the Inchmoan and I would love to see Loch Lomond (re)installing Croftengea as a core range offering. Until then, it’s very reassuring to know there’s quite a bit of high quality bottlings from indies to go around. This one is no exception. Top notch gear!
Score: 7/10 EA
Review 6/6 - Hamish
Chateau Laubade Bas Armagnac 17yo, Hogshead, 2006 vintage, 54.8% ABV
£90 still some availability
Nose
Brown sugar and leather. Some dried tobacco. Raisins, date and figs all mashed together. Caramel with a dark roast coffee. Orange zest and varnished wood.
Palate
A bit chalky with the mouthfeel on this one. Dries the mouth out completely. Treacle and brown sugar that lingers on and on. We have pecan nuts and stone fruits. Cinnamon spice, cloves and dark chocolate.
Score: 6/10 HF
Review 6/6 - Earie
Chateau Laubade Bas Armagnac 17yo, Hogshead, 2006 vintage, 54.8% ABV
£90 still some availability
Nose
Wood and spices (clove) lead the way. Deep, dark fruit notes of blackberries, overripe black grapes and dark, dry honey. With a bit of water, even more dark honey and burned sugar notes.
Palate
A burst of wood, which frankly dominates the palate from start to the (very long) finish. In between: clove, treacle, bitter chocolate, burned caramel, honey and dark fruit notes. With some water it’s again the dark honey stepping forward, accompanied by some caramel this time.
The Dregs
Maybe it’s because I started my tasting session with this sample, but it gave me a bit of a spanking in terms of it being feisty and delivering plenty of bold notes. Some bottles should come with a ‘Handle with caution’ warning on the label. Once my palette was adjusted to the feisty woodiness, it was actually a very pleasant encounter. It’s a worthy malternative and I feel as if many a seasoned enthusiast will appreciate this as it’s, if not similar to whisky, then at least very recognisable to a whisky familiar palate.
Score: 6/10 EA
The Final Dregs (Earie)
I quite enjoyed my time with these samples which I spread out over the course of a weekend as I really wanted to take my time with these and make the most of it. I also pretty much echo everything Hamish said above (bare perhaps his shrugged shoulders on the Armagnac). The two I would happily take a deep dive into, would be the blended Campbeltown (which I probably would never have put down as a Campbeltown if it wasn’t written on the label) and the Croftengea.
I also owe a fair amount of gratitude to Hamish and Wally for pushing these samples my way. While we do get some offerings from Watt whisky over here on mainland Europe, post Brexit, it’s often becoming a bit of a challenge to get your hands on some of the more interesting, smaller-scale indie bottlers in the EU, meaning us mainlanders will often have to ‘settle’ for just the one bottle being available. In that regard it was a real pleasure to be able to have access to a full line-up, as these occasions always make for an interesting opportunity to see what they’re about and how they’re doing things.
EA
The Final Dregs (Hamish)
The Dailuaine when starting this flight off was promising on the nose, but fell just a little short on the palate. A great initial sniff and it has your typical Dailuaine profile there but lacked a little with the flavours and experience in my opinion. A good, decent pour but not my pick of this bunch. A nice whisky for this winter/Christmas period indeed.
The Campbeltown Blended Malt was an absolute joy, and a very nice pour from this outturn. For a bottle priced around £60, this is a fabulous bottle to own, open and enjoy with friends. It had a lot in the nose and palate that keeps you going back to more. The ABV wasn't off putting, and this is one you could get lost in as you delve into the liquid to uncover what else it's got hiding. I'd buy this, maybe even stock up on a few.
The Dumbarton Single Grain started off a bit flat for me but got better on the palate compared to the nose. I was so surprised that this tasted far better than those initial sniffs. Didn't seem that old. Given it's 22 years, I'd have suggested this was younger than 5-6 years if this was blind. A greater enjoyment on the palate with this single grain but off putting when nosing in the glass. I don't think this would be a bottle I'd purchase for my own collection or enjoyment.
For the blended scotch. Something came to mind that Whisky N’ Wine Trails Tom mentioned just this week on Jim Ingram’s Jimbo’s Crimbo live. (maybe even in the green room after). Tom can appreciate a well constructed wine, but the flavour might not necessarily be for him. He’ll score a wine quite highly, given its makeup and craft…but even if he didn’t like the taste. This kind of blew my mind a bit. And it’s something I’m gonna have to annoy him about and pester him with questions (sorry Tom!). But reviewing this blended scotch, I felt the same way. I get it, but it’s not for me. A well-crafted whisky right here, for a decent amount of money but it’s not something I’d purchase myself.
Loch Lomonds Croftengea was a delight and I’m glad to have tasted another variation from the Loch Lomond output, and their incredible range of malt and still variations. I didn’t expect the smoke but was pleasantly surprised, and welcomed it. It had a lot of character and a dram that a lot of people could connect with. This dram takes water very well also. Could even be one of those cask strength, smoked drams that you could recommend to someone who’s looking to take their whisky journey and experiences to another level.
The final pour being the Armagnac. I've had a few brandies, cognacs and armagnacs before over the christmas period, but nothing to shout home about. To me it's a nice delicate spirit, and something I can just drink with good company and not care. Simple. This is more of the same. Tasty pour, kinda in that wheelhouse of stuff I've tasted before but no wow factor. If I brought this to my uncles house for Christmas. I think he’d enjoy it but not be blown away by it either.
A cracking lineup from Watt Whisky, and I enjoyed my time with each of these samples. Big thank you to Kate from Watt Whisky, and Wally for hooking me up with this flight.
I’ll keep an eye out for bottles from this interesting indie bottler and let you know my thoughts on future reviews.
Oh, and my personal Whisky of the Year? One of last year’s actually: Tomatin’s amazing Cù Bòcan 15yo 2022 Release. Incredible, I absolutely loved it.
Thanks to Kate and Mark of Watt Whisky for the samples.
These two sets of samples were prepared and sent, free of charge, by Campbeltwon Whisky Co. without obligation.
We don’t typically review samples on Dramface. However, we review these sample sets as we feel they give readers an overview of contemporary outturns, and it’s not feasible for the team to purchase all, or even most of, these outturns themselves.
Tried these? Share your thoughts in the comments below. EA