The dynamic duo Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley (of Caskstrength.net) seems always to be busy with new whisky ventures, after they have released a few bottlings in their whisky A-Z project (some very nice stuff), they have now created a new brand named ‘Exile Casks’. This project is created to ‘Liberate’ forgotten malt casks, that are destined to go into blends, and as such they will be liberated and bottled as Single Casks Single Malt, but as we see, without revealing too much about their origin… The whiskies will be bottled in 50 ml bottles (as to make them cheaper , or seem cheaper), the first of which is a 25 year old Speyside single cask by the name of “Trojan”, bottled from a re-fill cask, at 57,1% and priced at a modest £65 (per 0,5 liter), and sold online on their site. I am a bit late to the ball here, having posted my notes only now when all bottles seem to have sold out. At any rate, let’s take a look at this first ,and interesting interesting bottling.
The Trojan 25 yo 1990,57,1%, Exile Casks 2016, refill hogshead, 50 cl, 306 bottles
Nose : lovely sweet notes of syrup and wood varnish, lacquer and spice. Old library benches and shelves as well as a melange of fruit ; mainly red apple, ripe plum and date honey (what we call silane). A terrific combo in my book. Luscious and elegant at the same time. Love the wood influence here and the sherry interaction.