Friday, February 15, 2008

Malt Mission 2008 #250

Smokehead
Smokehead Extra Rare
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
40% abv

£34


Another week come and gone on the Malt Mission. 250 drams later and I am still loving it. Hope you are. Thanks to The Scotch Blog for posting THIS this week(look forward to Drammies results next week, Wednesday), thanks to YOU whiskynerds for reading, and thanks to you youtubeturds who have helped this video we made get over 15,000 views. Have a great weekend.

I have quite literally had no time for Dr. Whisky this week. Sorry for thin posts as of late, will be back on form soon. We had the original Smokehead back at Malt Mission #72. This "Extra Rare" version is an exclusive for World Duty Free (for now) and we can assume the contents are a little more, um... rare. For more info on Smokehead Extra Rare see Whisky Grotto.

TASTING NOTES:

Yum and wow. Active and exhilarating. Sweet with booziness. Burnt and cheesy. Saganaki (Greek Flaming Cheese)! Very winey, salty, some fresh raw salmon, celeriac, all trapped in a musty closet of peat smoke.

Candied, kind of soapy, and quite smoky. Wine gums, lemon scent dishwashing detergent, green jelly beans, Nesquick. Late nuttiness with smoke persisting among sweet, synthetic orange juice; Sunny D?

SUMMARY:

A departure from the original release of Smokehead, and I would love to know what element in this release makes it "extra rare". Distillery source? Age? Type of cask? Marketing decision? It doesn't, and shouldn't really matter. It is about flavour. I enjoyed the nose, but for me, while certainly smoky and heady, this relies too much on the cleaning-agent characteristics with the cocoa, fruit, and smoke being overpowered by a "lemon fresh" janitor's closet.

Malt Mission #246
Malt Mission #247
Malt Mission #248
Malt Mission #249

Malt Mission HOME

No comments: