Deanston 15-year-old Sauternes Finish / 57.3% / 0.7l

Deanston is a medium-sized distillery capable of producing 3 million litres of alcohol per year.

It began in 1966 in a former cotton mill. The company claims that the metre-thick walls of the maturing warehouse create excellent conditions for maturing whisky regardless of the season. Deanston is the core of the Scottish Leader blend, which sells over 6 million bottles a year, and in recent years the popularity of the local single malt has also been growing. The distillery is owned by Burn Stewart Distillers, whose assets were acquired by the South African Distell Group in 2013. After basic maturation in refill casks, the Deanston 15 year old presented here was finished in Sauternes casks, and bottled at cask strength (57.3% abv) and without chill filtration in autumn 2017 in an edition of 1,194 bottles.

Nose : fruity, apricots, pineapples, Hungarian jam, sherry-soaked raisins, milk chocolate, vanilla cream, honey, marzipan and a fleeting trace of sulfur.

Taste : slightly oily, dried apricots and plums, black cherries, quince jam, honey, milk chocolate, hazelnuts, a touch of allspice and oak.

Finish: quite long, with notes of chocolate, roasted nuts, dried fruit, oak tannins and a pinch of spices.