Ryst-Dupeyron is a French wine and armagnac dealer with quite a long relationship with Scotland’s Gordon & MacPhail. They have been bottling whisky for a very long time under the Captain Burn’s brand, but they seem to be rather low-key as I must admit I had never heard of them.
When I was at the Epicure store at Brussels airport the other day (a rather interesting store by the way), I saw they had a series of 5cl whisky tubes (a French concept by LMdW) with Captain Burn’s expressions. I decided to take home the youngest and oldest whiskies: this Auchroisk 1999 and a Glen Elgin 1975.
Auchroisk 1999
(46%, Captain Burn’s 2010)
Auchroisk 1999Nose: very malty: barley notes, grist, some beer. Vanilla. Quite youngish, with some pear notes and coconut. Lemon. A light distillate that’s quite simple and even then not entirely smooth. Meh.
Mouth: sweet and grainy. Cereals. Grapefruit. Slowly drifts towards bitter notes (ginger tonic, aspirin) and nutty notes (walnuts). A little astringent and resinous.
Finish: medium length, quite chemical and too biting.
Grainy and simple is alright, but with the chemical edge it would be crazy to choose this over a well-made blend. Now that wasn’t the best blind buy ever. Around € 60 for a full bottle, or € 8 for this 5 cl sample.
Score: 68/100