It’s exciting to see what Cooper King develops into when we are talking whisky. Their New Make tasted really good and it is now up to the casks whether they are chosen carefully and fits the spirits.

The choice of casks for this Maturing Malt, which I have had the pleasure of tasting, comes from MB Roland distillery in Kentucky,USA. The casks that have previously been used for Bourbon corn whiskey (1st fill bourbon, 2nd fill corn whiskey) have been used. It is slightly smaller barrels of 100 liters, of American oak and with a char Nr. 4.

Maturation on smaller barrels means that it goes faster because there is more contact between the spirit and the wood. I will write more about that at a later date.
Char No.4 means that the barrel has been burned inside. It has been burned for 55 seconds which gives a somewhat raw surface, therefore it is also called “Alligator Char”. It gives a good sweetness to the spirit. More on that later.

Back to the 15 month old “Maturing Malt”.
A lot has happened in 15 months and it gives a completely different taste experience compared to the New Make. A little alcohol has disappeared, from 60% to now 59.7% not much, but still enough to give you a different mild experience, yes of course you get the power and the taste that it is young spirits we are dealing with.

You can see the colour change from the all nutral coloured New Make on the right to the Champagne yellow Maturing Malt on the left side.

The influence of the casks has begun to take shape and we get some sweet cream caramel and a feeling of freshly cut wood. Imagine you have just cut firewood, you are standing with a piece of oak or beech wood and sniff it. It’s a lovely scent. There are also notes of pepper, lime and something reminiscent of spruce needles or resin, which I do not think I experience so often, but it leads the taste a bit to barrel-aged gin.
The tast is pleasant and surprisingly soft when we take age into account. It increases in intensity and gets nice and warm with floral notes and ginger jam in a wonderful combination of good notes of barley.

I think the cask selection has been just fine and it will be exciting to taste the next spirits and whisky comeing from Cooper King.
They have revealed that they have some exciting cask lying. Some which have contained smoked bourbon, softer Corn whiskey and Cognac casks. It will also be exciting to taste what comes from the casks that come from Tasmania – and as they write; “We Haven’t heard of others in England and Scotland who have matured on casks from that part of the world yet”. I have tasted whisky from Tasmania and if you like good whisky, that is a corner of the world at look at

𝙄 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙠𝙮: (4.5/6)
Definitely a distillery to keep an eye on. A well-made new make and with the small barrels that provide good maturation conditions, I am pretty sure it will be interesting whisky in the future.

🅼🆈 🆁🆃🅸🅽🅶 🆂🆈🆂🆃🅴🅼

– 𝙀𝙭𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙠𝙮 – 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙖 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙧
– 𝘼 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙠𝙮 – 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙛
– 𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙙 – 𝙈𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙢
– 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙖𝙙 – 𝙄’𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙤 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮
– 𝙄𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙛𝙪𝙣 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣
– 𝙇𝙚𝙩’𝙨 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙩

Is there room for a new player on the field?
In my opinion – always, and if they start out playing the good taste game they might just stay in the game for a long time.
This is how I feel about The new kid on Isle of Skye – Torabhaig.

Isle of Skye now have two distilleries operating and sending whisky on the marked. Talisker which has a special place in my heart and now Torabhaig which has made a pretty good impression with this first release.

Torabhaig 2017 The Inaugural Release is an NAS whisky, but if the distillery started distilling in 2017 and bottled late 2020 or start 2021 it will be just 3 years old. Some times peated whisky at the age of 3 can give you at hard kick in the nose and mouth but you don’t feel that with this one. It is pleasant and easy to drink and I think many would guess it to be older. You are not flipped over by complexity but you get at tasty well balanced whisky that is easy to fall in love with.

The peat level, the PPM is measured two time in this one and it is pretty cool that Torabhaig has done that. Not many go through the trouble find the actual ppm in the bottle. Usually we only get the ppm measured in the malt after it has been dried and this will show a higher ppm than the finished whisky that you will savour.
The ppm in The Inaugural Release is about 55-60 measured in the grain and ending up at 16 ppm in the bottle.

The transparentsy from Torabhaig distillery about what is used to make the whisky is high, so you are informed on the packaging that the whisky is made with Concerto malted barley and fermented with Pinnacle MG+ yeast. So if you want to be a little geeky you can be that here

For a little conclusion I will say this is a pretty good first release and I am looking forward to see what this will grow to be. I think, in time, some of the more known peated brands will have to step up their game if they don’t want to end up on the replacement bench.

𝙄 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙠𝙮: (4/6)

🅼🆈 🆁🆃🅸🅽🅶 🆂🆈🆂🆃🅴🅼

– 𝙀𝙭𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙠𝙮 – 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙖 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙧
– 𝘼 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙠𝙮 – 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙛
– 𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙙 – 𝙈𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙢
– 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙖𝙙 – 𝙄’𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙤 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮
– 𝙄𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙛𝙪𝙣 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣
– 𝙇𝙚𝙩’𝙨 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙩