Teeling Whiskey – Single Cask Amarone 58,4% ABV!

Dear friends, followers and supporters alike! Finally it's time for me to review a whiskey from the guys at Teeling again! I have previously reviewed six releases from them (please click here to view them all), but now it's been a while, so it feels really good to have a go at it again! So how did it happen that I got a chance to review this whiskey before it's release?! Well, when working the Linköping Whiskyexpo I had a little chat with Johan Strand, the newly appointed swedish Brand Ambassador for Teeling Whiskey. I simply asked him if there was any possibility at all to review it, and he said: "Sure! I'll fix a sample and throw it in the mail for you". It later turned out that it was easier for him to come by my place and drop the sample off (we live in the same city), so folks, this sample was hand-delivered! 

Now, the whiskey in question is 12 years old, a Single Cask Amarone that has spent it's first 10 years in a 1st-fill bourbon cask and has then been transferred into an (american oak?) amarone cask from the wine producer Musella where it has enjoyed a 2 year finish. The cask number is 19927 and the whiskey has been bottled at 58,4% ABV which is cask strength. The cask gave 256 bottles and if I've understood it correctly this is a Sweden-exclusive release! It will be launched this thursday (the 28th of february) as a web release at the state-monopoly, and you can view the product by clicking here. Ok, let's see what we have here!

Nose:

A delicate and fruity nose for sure! In the very top layer there is first of all lots of red jelly candy (think red bassets), below that we have a slight touch of apricot jelly candy, elder flower soft drink, overripe banana, and something kind of dry and slightly tanninic. In the layer below that, the most evident thing is a very nice vanilla creamyness intermingling with leather in the very distant, and just a tad of coconut milk and actually cucumber water! The last layer manifests itself in the form of malt that smells kind of ”chewy”. The strength can hardly be felt and/or is in no way ”too much”.

Taste:

Niiice! It starts of quite simple but robust with the main focus being tanninic and dry, but this is just for half a second. Then a very, very concentrated/focused taste of peel of redcurrants and blackcurants makes a mini explosion in my mouth. This is when the strength appears; the dryness evolves and along comes dry vanilla, leather with a touch of gun powder, which quickly moves on into elderflower- and lemon juice. There are also some kind of herbs here (but I can’t really put my finger to which herbs...), something a bit vegetal and something slightly ”bitter”. Wow, all of this happens in a short amount of time, say 20-30 seconds or so. After that, roasted almond paste, leather, and the alcohol rises beautifully in my mouth, creating an aftertaste that is definitely more-ish. 

To sum up:

It may seem obvious, but this is a dram with two evident styles; the bourbon matured part, and the wine matured part. If I generalize the bourbon part is somehow most evident on the nose and the wine part is definitely most evident on the taste with its mini explosion of dryness. It’s a bit of a pity that the dry part is quite quick. On the other hand this is complemented with a beautiful aftertaste! Of the  Teelings I’ve had the pleasure to review so far, no one of them has left me dissapointed, nor does this one. And a SC for the price of 899kr at high strength and a decent age, well I’d say that this is a great ”bang for the buck”-whiskey!

Finally, big thanks to Johan and the nice folks at TOMP for the great opportunity to review this whiskey before its release! For kind of weekly updates please make sure to follow my FB-page by clicking here, my instagram by clicking here, and my twitter-page by clicking here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes and text by SamuelWhisky and pictures and videos likewise belong to SamuelWhisky, unless stated. If you would like to use any such material that belongs to SamuelWhisky or associated with SamuelWhisky, please ask by sending me an email to samuelkarlssonorebro [at] gmail [dot] com and by stating the source.

Pic belongs to Teeling Whiskey