A few month’s ago Master of malt thought of a very interesting idea. let a few bloggers blend their own whisky from a few whisky building blocks, run a wee competition, and bottle the winning blend and make it a real product that will be sold on the master of malt site. A lovely idea it was. Samples were sent to a few bloggers (sadly, your humble servant was not one of them…) and after they fiddled with it, and sent the results of their blending to MoM, the winner blend has been bottled, and named St. Isidore. Why? very easy, as it seems St. Isidore was declared “patron of the internet” a few years back, hence the name. nice.
A few weeks ago I got a wee sample of this blend, and curious as I were I sat and immediately sniffed, tasted and wrote my notes. How is it? It’s really not bad, on the smoky side. You know the drill:
St Isidore (Master of Malt) , 41.4% ABV , £50
Nose : Starts Smokey with sweeter notes that balance it. Quite smoky for a blend but not unattractive, I guess most blends will not be as smoky nowadays, and more balanced but it’s nice and no complaints here.There is also Brine, Lemon and some vanilla too, in addition to some fruitier tones.
Palate : Creamy vanilla with a lot of wood smoke there which gives way to malty notes and sweeter juices. it feels a bit on the young side, and also carries some spice tang.
Finish: Smoky with bits of wood, and spices.
All in all this is a lovely blend, which is dominated by smoke, but does not lack creaminess and fruitiness too, as well as vanilla. It’s not cheap when it comes to pricing , and for that price you can get quite a few very good malts around the 12-15 year mark, but I guess this is small batch blending. Love the very colorful label btw. Again, MoM never ceased to bring out new innovative and interesting products, and they deserve a salute. Will there be a second ‘bloggers blend’?
Score: 81/100
Official sample provided my Master of Malt.