Scotch Whisky Review #160: Wardhead 22 Year Old 1997 (Cask #40) – /r/Scotch Pick

Distillery: Blended Malt (Glenfiddich teaspooned with Balvenie)

Bottler: Morrison & MacKay

Region: Speyside

Price: €99.20

Cask Type: Refill Hogshead

Cask Number: #40

ABV: 54.7% Cask Strength

Age: 22 Year, Distilled on 20th of February 1997, Bottled on 7th of October 2019.

Color: 0.5, Yellow Gold. Natural Color and Non-Chill Filtered

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Nose: (according to the wife) Lots of fruit, though it isn’t super sweet. There’s a lot of orchard fruits in pears and apples up front. It’s followed by a lot of papaya and a bit of honey.

Palate: It has a really creamy and oily mouthfeel that nice. The papaya comes out really strong (well, as strong as papaya ever does). Along with it is a lot of honey and a bit of malt.

Finish: Medium in length. The orchard fruits make a comeback here in the form of a cider. There’s a bit of oak as well.

Conclusion: I’ve never had a non-official bottling of Glenfiddich so I was really excited to try this. It’s a really fun and fruity dram with all of the good bits of Glenfiddich! It’s sweet, but not overly so. The creaminess and oiliness in the mouthfeel make this really pleasant as well. Great job by /u/t8ke and the review panel on picking this out!

Final Score: 80.

Scotch Whisky Review #160, Speyside Review #67, Blended Malt Whisky Review #4, Whisky Network Review #216

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.

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