Description

Campbeltown Malt 10 Year Old 2014 Australian Exclusive Malt Scotch Whisky – The Cooper’s Choice (700ml)

Volume: 700ml           ABV: 54.5%           Age: 10 Years Old           Country: Scotland

Cask Number(s): #1132
Date of Distilling: April 2014
Date of Bottling: 2024
Matured In: refill American Oak barrel then a French ex-muscat cask for an 18 month finish.
Un-Chillfiltered

The Coopers Choice range of single cask whiskies from Scotland’s finest distilleries is our homage to these fine craftsmen and their important role in the Scotch Whisky industry. Owned by The Vintage Malt Whisky Company which was founded in 1992 by Brian Cook who was the export manager for the Auchentoshan and Bowmore Distilleries. Brian’s aim was to produce a range of malt whiskies from his country’s finest distilleries and make them available to independent wine and spirit importers throughout the world.  Now the Vintage Malt Whisky Company is certainly a family-run business with Andrew Crook (Brian’s Son) taking on the mantle as Managing Director. The company has now exported over 5 million bottles worldwide.

Teaspooning is a term used in the whisky industry to explain a situation where a distillery adds a “teaspoon” of another whisky into a cask so that it cannot be bottled as a single malt from this distillery. This protects their brand and is very important for distilleries, and teaspooning is a response to the whole cask brokerage system. Teaspooning means that on most occasions the whisky is bottled under an well known brand name. Westport is most often a whisky from the Glenmorangie Distillery that has been teaspooned with a whisky from Glen Moray Distillery. Burnside is for instance known as being Balvenie – with a small percentage of Glenfiddich. A great way to pick up an amazing whisky but at a reduced price. Williamson is named after a former female distillery manager at Laphroaig, which should give us a hint of where this whisky could be from.

This Australian exclusive bottling of a ‘teaspooned’ Campbeltown malt whisky came about after conversations with Andrew Crook (MD of The Vintage Malt Whisky Company) about bottling something special exclusively for the Australian market to showcase what Cooper’s Choice is about. The distillate came from ‘a famous distillery in Campbeltown’ (make of that what you will), and spent close to bang on 8.5 years in a refill American Oak barrel before transferring to a French ex-muscat cask for a long 18 month finish. The result is a sublime and intriguing whisky. Bottled at 54.5% alc/vol with no chill filtration or colour additions. Only 295 bottles were produced, (the label states 312 based on a pre-bottling cask dip).

Tasting Notes

Nose: Sweet and floral with a grapey element sitting comfortably alongside dried orange rind, ginger and some earthy dampness

Palate: Fresh grape sweetness at the front that mellows into oranges, cooked peaches, ginger with a subtle saltiness and leathery, earthy notes.

Finish: Really quite long with grape and orange fruits slowly drying over time as the oak spice and tannin notes remain.