Today is April Fool’s Day and The Whisky Exchange is launching a very special April Fool whisky bottling. Like the best jokes, it may look simple upon first glance, but once you shed a (UV) light on the label it turns out you’ve been fooled…
Under normal light, the white and gold label says Extremely Young – I wish I were older. But under ultraviolet light 30 Years Old appears with some witty text. A special effect they’ve already used for the Whisky Show 2019 bottlings, but here it’s extra appropriate and very well executed.
Apart from the age there’s little added information. It’s a Speyside single malt from an undisclosed distillery, aged in first-fill bourbon casks.
April Fool ‘Extremely Young’ 30 yo (51,7%, The Whisky Exchange 2021, first-fill bourbon casks, 869 btl.)
Nose: a natural, mature profile with a kind of mixed fruity juice character that keeps evolving, staring with juicy gooseberries and moving to pineapple jelly, white peaches, pears and oranges. Light beehive notes (pollen, acacia honey). Some biscuity vanilla notes and a little sunflower oil in the background. It also gets increasingly minty over time.
Mouth: a rather tense attack, with some white pepper and herbal notes, mixed with lemons and grapefruits, some leafy hints, white flowers and a highly integrated sweet note (maybe vanilla sponge cake). More zesty and tart than the nose suggested (some of these undisclosed Speysiders were more towards warmer, tropical notes), including a faint bitter edge. Mint tea and aniseed towards the end.
Finish: quite long, still zesty and spicy (mint, nutmeg) with creamier notes underneath.
Indeed you can never get this kind of profile in a youngster. In line with some of the other early 1990s undisclosed Speysiders. Good quality for money, and the UV ink effect is a great bonus. Now available from The Whisky Exchange, while stocks last…