Finlaggan Red Wine Cask Matured / 46% / 0.7l

Finlaggan Islay Single Malt debuted in the mid-1990s as part of the offering founded in 1992 by Brian Crook of The Vintage Malt Whisky Company based in Glasgow.

The whisky is named after Finlaggan Castle, a 13th-century castle that is now a ruined residence of the rulers of Islay. The company does not reveal which distillery (or distilleries) is behind the Finlaggan brand, which has sparked heated discussions on the subject for years. Over the past two decades, this whisky has gained a large group of supporters and is considered a solid Islay malt for little money. The Finlaggan Red Wine Cask Matured presented here is a proposal from 2019, a whisky matured in red wine barrels from the Rioja region. 7,000 bottles have been released.

Nose : peat smoke, raspberries, black cherries, dried plums, vanilla, milk fudge, a touch of white pepper and oak.

Taste : smoked bacon, strawberries, orange peel, Hungarian jam, raisins, milk chocolate, a pinch of vanilla salt and a lot of smoke.

Finish : quite long, with notes of barley malt, peat smoke, red berries, a touch of vanilla and oak.