Scottish Spirit Batch 2

Description

Scottish distilled high rye spirit 2017 aged 7 years
SMALL BATCH
A Scottish Bourbon Whisky in everything but name.

When is a bourbon whisky not a bourbon whisky? When it’s a high rye spirit drink distilled in Scotland… Catchy title.
Well this requires a little explanation doesn’t it. To everyone except SDVS and the SWA this is a Scottish Bourbon. A mashbill of wheat, corn, malted barley and rye, fermented then column distilled and matured for 7 years in virgin American oak casks. It was distilled at Invergordon by an American bourbon maker who was instructed to “do everything the same as you would do in America” which they duly did. Unfortunately, from a spirit classification point of view this means we are unable to call this a bourbon or even a single grain Scotch whisky. Why? Because they pitched enzymes during fermentation. Normally in Scotch Whisky production this would not happen, it’s not permitted in the same way we’re not allowed to use cider casks or use stainless steel stills. Pitching natural enzymes increases yield by more efficiently breaking down the grains in the mash and making the sugars more accessible to the yeast during fermentation, but despite being normal practice in bourbon making, is not permitted under Scotch whisky legislation, so we’ve called this a high rye Scottish spirit drink, high rye because of the mash bill (14%rye) but this would have been a bourbon mash and not a rye whisky as it is less than 51% rye. We hint at this on the label with an incredibly subtle background image of bourbon biscuits….
Why we bottled this – We are nerds, we know, we hide it so well… We love the diversity of the world of whisky and this intriguing spirit has a great story and highlights some of the greyer areas in the legislation. We don’t think there are many bottlers out there who could bottle something like this but LBD customers are as nerdy as us and have a great understanding of the process. Fundamentally though this is just great liquid (almost called it whisky there) and at a great price, an opportunity for us to experience what a bourbon style of whisky, distilled in Scotland would taste like.

Cask strength, natural colour and not chill filtered

Colour – Mid century furniture
Nose – Kirchwasser, pumpkin spice, pencil case
Palate – Pancakes and maple syrup, candied violet petals, Soreen malt loaf
Finish – spearmint, rosemary, nutmeg

70cl 58.8%vol
300 bottles
Filled – 06/11/2017 Bottled – 29/10/2025