A Good Old-Fashioned Christmas Whisky is one of the festive bottlings from The Whisky Exchange. After the blended whisky of last year, they turned to single malt again for the 2023 edition.
The whisky comes at a generous strength and should express the Christmas character as a result of its sherry cask maturation.
A Good Old-Fashioned Christmas Whisky (52,5%, The Whisky Exchange 2023, sherry casks, 1800 btl.)
Nose: hints of toffee and poached pears, with plenty of oranges peels. Then soaked raisins, roasted malt and mild baking spice like clove and nutmeg. Ginger honey, some leathery notes and milk chocolate. Also walnuts and almonds. Too bad there’s not a lot of dark fruitiness to balance the spice (which, I admit, makes it quite wintery).
Mouth: same feeling. An oily texture while lacking a bit of weight. A classic mix of orange peels, herbal honey and abundant oak spice (cinnamon, pepper, ginger). Sweet and sour frutiness, mostly yellow apple and orange. Then a bit of oak char and bitter chocolate, alongside fruit cake, light gingerbread and cardamom. Hints of coffee beans as well.
Finish: medium length, with more cinnamon, dark chocolate with roasted nuts and citrus peels.
A proper interpretation of the Christmas feeling again, although you could argue the mild texture and gentle sherry makes it autumnal rather than truly wintery. An expression of climate change? There’s some sweetness but it’s mostly the abundant spice that makes it a festive dram. Now available from The Whisky Exchange.