Roger’s Hidden Treasures
Secret Speyside 8 Year Old Ex-Bourbon Cask Matured
My third release is the first in a new series, Roger’s Hidden Treasures. These are all single cask limited edition whiskies of high quality Scottish distilleries, of which the name must remain a secret… 🤫First in this series is an 8 year old from a renowned Speyside distillery, with a very limited outturn of just 285 bottles.
Available at retailers
The story of this whisky
The label
The label is a true work of art designed by my friend Andrew (@whiskyhobo on insta) and is inspired by my love for ancient civilizations and old ruins. I visited the old Maya cities in the jungle of Mexico 3 years ago and wanted to recreate the feeling of uncovering a long lost treasure when holding this bottle in your hand. What do you think, did we nail it?
There’s a clue hidden in the label to the origins of the label, can you find it?
The whisky
This whisky was distilled at one of the older and very renowned Speyside distilleries on April 1st 2013, and laid to mature in ex-bourbon cask with number 5254.
It was bottled at an age of exactly 8 years on the 1st of april 2021, and the outturn was 285 bottles. Each bottle is hand numbered. Of course the whisky is non-chill filtered and not coloured.
The whisky is bottled at a strength of 56.1%, at which it is a blast of flavour and complexity.
What others are saying….
Thijs Klaverstijn
Words of whisky
Different and not your average young bourbon-forward, vanilla'd single malt.
Nose: Floral with touches of candle wax and melted butter, but also a slight lactic note and some Greek yoghurt. A whiff of tinned pineapple and cured lemons followed by galia melons. Somewhat metallic and sour at times, but it's mostly kept in check. Pretty singular and fairly enticing.
Taste: Notes of pineapple as well as apricots and jackfruit. Then a big hit of cloves and chili heat, followed by candied orange peel and orange blossom water.
Finish: Lingering cloves and some drying tannins. Lychees and lemon yoghurt. Medium in length.
Score: 85 points
Amir Ellutiv
@Whiskyrabbi
This bottle is different to Roger’s previous bottlings, the bottle and the whisky is lighter, and where as the previous bottlings were an Islay and a Highland, this one is a lighter Speyside. It isn’t a heavy sherry cask, but a flavour packed bourbon cask.
Nose: a lighter toffee flavour, with vanilla and apples, very fruity, subtle spiciness, it’s nose is like his previous bottling but without the peat, very sweet.
Taste: pineapple and a fruity hit, cloves, orange peels, with some vanilla afternotes. Add some water and the sweetness goes up a notch, but so does the spice levels, suddenly you have a chilli Cointreau whisky.
The whisky packs loads of flavour, it has a great price point below £50 and worth getting your hands on a bottle.
Noortje Baselmans
Whiskylifestyle
Nose: Oats and vanilla. Quite some pears. Green bananas. A touch of caramel fudge, which is followed by fresh lemons. Slightly mineral-like too. Later also nougat and a touch of ginger. Sprite (the soft drink) and a hint of apricots.
Taste: lemons and lots of pears here as well. Green apples and apricots. Nougat too. Vanilla. A hint of barley sugar. And then Sprite again. Topping it off with quite a bit of heat from red chilli peppers.
Finish: mid-long with pears again, unripe bananas and a touch of liquorice.
I think it’s rather nice. The nose offers just a little more than the taste. The chilli pepper heat takes over a bit there near the end, although it has completely disappeared again in the finish. But not bad at all and quite affordable too. It actually reminded me a bit of Linkwood at some points. However, that is not the Speyside distillery where this single malt was distilled…. (Have you found the hint yet?) 🙂
Score: 84 points
Roger’s tasting notes:
Colour:
Light gold.
Nose:
Quite buttery, butterscotch, then alternating with fresh citrus, oranges and orange zest.
Palate:
Smooth and sweet, nice rounded, white grapes, jasmin tea.
Finish:
Medium long and just a little bit drying.