Annandale Man O’ Sword Founders' Selection 2016

Annandale Man O’ Sword Founders' Selection 2016, NAS, 59.2 %

This single cask release from Annandale Distillery is “matured in a once used ex-bourbon cask”. What a silly thing to say. Why not use the standard terms used by everyone else in the Scotch whisky industry (and most others around the world? So what is a “once used ex-bourbon cask”? Is that a 1st fill (used once for bourbon before Scotch), or is it a 2nd fill (used once for Scotch previously, after the initial round of bourbon)? Hmpf!

Anywho… Distilled 2016, matured in cask #002. It also claims to be “Smoulderingly Smoky”.

The Annandale Man O’ Sword Founders' Selection 2016 goes on sale in Norway on Monday at NOK 2234 (14050201).

Nose: Sweet and softly peated. Ripe, red and green apples. Vanilla

Taste: Full bodied, and rather spicy. Firing on all cylinders, in fact. Very peaty, sooty, and smoky.

Finish: Medium long. Fiery and feisty all the way. Bitter-ish. Pepper and some green notes.

Comment: It’s smoky alright, on the palate at least.

Score 83/100

Sláinte!
- Thomas