Wolfburn Hand Crafted (2016)
Talk about being late to the party… The Wolfburn Hand Crafted was the first release ever from this young distillery in the North of Scotland. Or, I should say, the first affordable whisky available to the general public, as the distillery also released about 850 bottles of their Inaugural Release. Mind you, those bottles contained the same juice as the Wolfburn Hand Crafted, except were more fancy and way more expensive.
Anyway, the Wolfburn Hand Crafted was released in early 2016. I’ve tasted it on a few occasions since, and have been sitting on a sample for a long time. I just never got around to writing tasting notes for it. Since I had already tasted it myself, there were always more pressing, or more interesting whiskies that I wanted to get to.
Until now. When perusing my sample drawer recently, I stumbled upon it once again, and this time I had no reason not to write about it. Moreover, I had an extra reason to post a Wolfburn blog, since I visited the distillery a few weeks ago. Distillery manager Shane Fraser has a good thing going on over there. No frills, simple, elegant and clean. From the outside it is barely recognizable as a distillery, to be honest.
The spirit however, is already very tasty. During my visit, I worked my way through a few of their releases, including the Wolfburn Morven, which I found very agreeable. As I understood it, there very well might be a limited/single cask release for The Netherlands in the works. I’ll surely keep my eyes peeled for that one. For now, let’s take a step back in time, and examine the Wolfburn Hand Crafted.
Wolfburn Hand Crafted (46%, OB, 2016)
Nose: Subtle orchard fruits, like apples, but also white grapes and banana. Somewhat grassy, with a hint of ash and smoke. It is plenty sweet, by the way. Think vanilla and marzipan.
Taste: I really enjoy the oily texture. The palate is a tad dry, and showcases some cracked black pepper. There’s also room for a pinch of salt, as well as a light touch of smoke. Some sweetness remains, as do the green and yellow fruits, but certainly not as pronounced as on the nose.
Finish: Spicy and nutty.
Rating: 81
Young whisky, of course. But characterful nevertheless. And no fancy wood trickery either. Kudos.
Thijs is a spirits writer and accredited liquorist from The Netherlands. He runs the blog Words of Whisky and contributes to a number of Dutch and international publications.
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