Review by: TOModera
Hey World Whisky fans! Didn’t see this coming, eh? I’m off in the UK, bumming around the land of Scotch and fattening (tasty) foods, and you’re all like “Gee, guess TOModera’s going to ignore the rest of the world while he has so much Scotch he has to black market a liver”.
Well you’re wrong, bitches! I’m actually buying the liver from a hobo!
If you say to someone that you’re having a whisky from Africa, they may think they heard you wrong. It’s not typically known for Whisky. Yet in South Africa you can find Three Ships 10 year old made by the Three Ships Distillery. Three Ships have been around for a long time, starting back in 1850, and have recently upgraded quite a bit. The range currently has 4 different whiskies, and I’m quite interested to try each. This is a limited edition, of which they are planning to release two more over the next two years.
Because in all seriousness, we should be trying different whisky from around the world, as each country have different flavours and different profiles that expand our understanding and give us new ways to expand things.
Also, booze makes me giggly.
Distillery: James Sedgwick Distillery.
Bottler: Distillery Bottling.
Region: South Africa.
ABV: 43%.
Age: 10 years.
Cask type: Unknown
Price: N/A.
Color: Goldenrod
Nose: Wheat field, dew, pine, jalapeno, smoke, paprika, vanilla shake
Wow, really different smell. Reminds me of a Canadian, given the pine and dew, yet there’s more here. Good smoke and sweetness, very nice nose.
Taste: Pine, cloves, cinnamon, rock salt, cream, pear, smoke
Okay, the pine is getting in there too, and I’m happy to have the salty/smoky aspects, yet we’re getting enough Pine. Let’s pair back on the Pine people, little too many combs in here.
Finish: Chocolate, bitter melon, smoke, tangerine, peat, gaminess, cloves
Faint finish on this one, hard to reach for some things, and doesn’t really mesh with the flavour that was there before.
Conclusion: Other whisky drinker in the house has noted that there’s a flavour of creosote for him, which turns him off. Don’t blame him, and while I’ve never had creosote, I can see where that would cause issues. There’s some things in here I love, like the amount of pine in the nose or the light smoke throughout. However the amount of pine in the taste or the finish have me wishing they had left this in the cask a little longer.
From what I can tell they use oak casks, which they don’t specify are used for other spirits before hand. I’d be very happy to try their Bourbon Cask version, as it may have a little more flavour than this one, as it seems to be missing something. All in all, still worth the purchase if you like these flavours.
Final Score: 78.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 