Two New K&L Single Malt Pre-Orders!
See that guy in the above photo? That's David Stirk. He's a friend of ours in Scotland that continues to hunt down delicious single malt barrels on our behalf. Having just secured pricing on more of the casks we were interested in, we're ready to start making more announcements about our deal with David and his Exclusive Malt label. We've got two new value-priced whiskies that we're going to start offering on a pre-order basis, beginning right now! Check out David OG's notes below:
2000 Aberlour 12 Year Old K&L Exclusive "Exclusive Malts" Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky $59.99 - After the success of last years 21 year Aberlour, we weren't planning to buy a repeat from this lovely little distillery. That all changed in David Stirk's little warehouse south of Glasgow. This lovely hogshead was just singing to us. Its rich and warming style will delight any lover of Speyside whisky. On the nose we get powerful toasted grains, biscuits, honey (some exotic type, tilleuil?) and pears. The palate is super soft and rich, which more of the oak spice evident than on the nose, but the similar blend of sweet floral and grainy flavors. On the end those spices come back with heavy dose of that biscuit (I'm thinking Walkers). Maybe this is not the most exciting whisky on paper, but it will certainly be several peoples' favorite this year. (David Othenin-Girard, K&L Spirits Buyer)
2006 Island Distillery 7 Year Old K&L Exclusive "Exclusive Malts" Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky $54.99 - This little mystery malt was a favorite of ours from the moment the bung popped out of the cask. Both David and I are huge fans of young smoky whisky and this is one of the best under-10 year olds that we've found. It's vibrant, salty, supple, with all the intense that you'd want out of the best young peaters, but beautifully restrained as well. Now this whisky was distilled on one of Scotland's numerous Isles, that's about all I can tell you regarding the specifics of the distillery. I can tell you that, it is not from the Island of Islay, I can tell you that this blows the young Caol Ila that we loved out of the water and I can tell you that our price for this whisky is well below what we'd expected to pay, not to mention well below the cost of that Caol Ila. One thing that struck us about this cask was how different it was from others that we'd seen from this distillery. This whisky is powerful, but with a great deal of nuance at this age. A subtle fresh rubber quality transitions to subtle fruit (maybe light red berries). Altogether a wonderfully idiosyncratic whisky and the first of what we hope to be several young peaty mystery malts to come. (David Othenin-Girard, K&L Spirits Buyer)
These are due to arrive later this Fall!
-David Driscoll