This Secret Speyside single malt is a joint bottling by Sansibar and DeinWhisky.de. It was distilled in 1994 and matured in a sherry butt but there’s no clue for the distillery.
Secret Speyside Malt 26 yo 1994 (50,2%, Sansibar for DeinWhisky.de ‘Colourful Wildlife’ 2020, sherry butt, 245 btl.)
Nose: quite a rich, generous sherry nose. There’s some apricot jam, sourness of oranges, as well as darker berries which then lead to leather and tobacco. Hints of old attics. Also herbal honey and a waxy / resinous note. Dried flowers and chestnuts. Even a whiff of (cask) smoke in the background.
Mouth: starts quite spicy, with roasted nuts, orange peels and a light herbal bitterness of dark brew tea. After that it shows more fruity sourness with some plums and pink grapefruit. Plenty of earthy notes take over, with a charred edge, ginger and clove. Cigar leaves. At a certain point it gets quite thin and slightly austere, but beautifully so.
Finish: long, always with this tart edge, on tobacco, herbal tea and cocoa powder.
A great cask, with a nice old-school (European oak?) sherry influence and this unique sour leafy theme underneath. Not the easiest dram but one that kept me interested from the start to the finish. Still available from DeinWhisky.de