Product description
The Cooper's Choice is a range of single malt and single grain whiskies from the portfolio of The Vintage Malt Whisky Company, founded in 1992 by Brian Crook.
The Cooper’s Choice debuted a year later and pays tribute to the coopers, whose role in Scotch whisky is often underrated. Williamson 16 Year Old is a mysterious “spooned malt” from “one of Islay’s most famous distilleries.” Distilled in March 2005, it was aged in bourbon cask no. 800100, which in 2021 would have produced 204 bottles of 51% abv whisky. (Perhaps the key to unlocking the whisky’s origins lies with Bessie Williamson, Laphroaig’s manager from 1954 to 1972.)
Nose : smoky and sweet, smoked seafood, burnt rubber, tarred ropes, caramel, vanilla, lemon peel, grapefruit, coconut water, lemongrass and a pinch of pepper.
Palate: peat smoke and salty breeze, iodine, vanilla, toffee, salted caramel, apples, lemons, mirabelle plums, white pepper, traces of licorice and charred oak.
Finish: fairly long, with notes of peat smoke, sea salt, vanilla, brown sugar, citrus, pepper, ginger and oak.