Douglas Laing’s range of blended malts is pretty much unrivaled in the world of Scotch whisky. Their Remarkable Regional Malts have been around for almost as long as I’ve been drinking whisky, spanning across all official and unofficial whisky regions in Scotland. The latest addition is a Highland blended malt, so a Timorous Beastie indeed. This one has been bottled at cask strength and is dubbed “Meet the Beast”.
The Timorous Beastie “Meet the Beast” has matured in bourbon casks. Most of them first-fill. There’ll be 3600 bottles available world-wide, so it is fairly limited. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll make is more permanently available. I don’t have any inside information here, but it just sounds like a good idea to me. Finally, it was mentioned during a preview tasting with brand ambassador Stuart Baxter that the new Timorous Beastie is somewhere between 7 to 9 years old.
Timorous Beastie Cask Strength (54.9%, Douglas Laing, 2021)
Nose: Light notes of lemon zest and Greek yoghurt at first, but also vanilla and touches of butterscotch and banana custard. Somewhat meaty as well. Finally some touches of white chocolate.
Taste: Gentle notes of tinned pineapple and marzipan at first, followed by barley husks and quinces, but also some dried grass. A touch fennel, accompanied by almonds and clove.
Finish: A sprinkle of aniseed and ripe red apple. Finally white chocolate. Medium in length.
Score: 86
Extremely light but rich and flavourful as well, this doesn’t quite taste like first-fill maturation, but that’s not a negative at all. Lovely release.
Sample provided by Douglas Laing
