North Star Spirits is a bottler that is a little underrepresented on this blog. They seem to focus on certain markets, or maybe our networks are just different. I just don’t come accross their bottlings often, which is a shame as their Vega 40 Year Old and Glen Keith 1993 were pretty excellent.
Here are two whiskies that I picked up in Holland, a 2011 Glenfarclas and 2012 Bunnahabhain.
Glenfarclas 11 yo 2011 (56,5%, North Star Spirits 2023, Oloroso sherry butt, 402 btl.)
Nose: nicely aromatic sherry, reminding us of the Glenfarclas 105 style some fifteen years ago. Caramelized pecans, raisins, red apples and some raspberry jam. Some dark coffee in the background, but also a more modern hint of oak varnish and green wood. Then honeyed malt and hints of gingerbread.
Mouth: quite punchy, mixing cherries and blackberries with ginger and nutmeg. This moves towards dark chocolate, roasted nuts, raisins and coffee beans. Then also walnuts and brown sugar with a leafy element. Mild clove with some oak char in the end.
Finish: fairly long, with black pepper, mocha and ginger coming out, along with red fruits.
Really good. These are the kind of casks we’d like to see from Glenfarclas, but in the past few years they seem to be harder to find. Especially with the actual distillery name on the label – although I’ve heard the distillery has taken action against NSS for this particular bottling and even against retailers selling it… Still available from Whiskysite.nl.
Bunnahabhain 10 yo 2012 (58,2%, North Star Spirits 2023, bourbon barrel, 227 btl.)
Nose: plenty of salty leather and extinguished bonfire. Nice hints of fisherman’s nets and light menthol in the distance. Then seaweed, hints of tar and smoked / glazed bacon, along with espresso and burnt grasses.
Mouth: now a good dose of bright citrus flavours to counter the bonfire smoke, tarry notes and roasted nuts. A good balance between sweet and savoury notes, with plenty of grilled elements. The official tasting notes seem to mention marihuana as well – okay then.
Finish: long, with more black pepper coming out. Chocolate and smoke too, with some caramel sweetness.
Also really good. Perhaps not the most complex whisky (still young) but it offers a lot of Islay warmth. It would have been nice if the spirit style were mentioned on the label (Moine perhaps?), just to set clear expectations for a distillery that has several profiles. This one is available from TyndrumWhisky for instance. Score: 86/100