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Autumn Whiskies: The Best Drams for Darker Nights
Rich, dried fruit, crackling smoke, the annual bounty of foraged berries – whether captured with intent in a preserve or through the alchemy of cask maturation in a whisky – all start to make a little more sense at this time of year.
Embrace the bittersweet joys of layering season with this small selection of autumnal drams.
1. The Loch Fyne Glenrothes 21 Year Old
Ah, the poignant duality of Autumn. Those crunching fallen leaves herald the beginning of the end of another year, yet also a time of richness, of fruition.
The Loch Fyne have somehow bottled the essence of harvest with their new single cask 21-year-old Glenrothes: all the heady, aromatic bounty of poached quince, ripe pears, and baked apples lent a gentle edge by oak and candied ginger. A proper autumn showstopper.
2. Ardnahoe Bholsa
The combination of peat and sherry comes into its own as the leaves begin to turn. They seem to bring out the best in each other, the richness lent by the sherry casks rounding out any harsh notes from the smoke, and the smoke weaving complexity and a compensating edge into the richness.
Ardnahoe is a young distillery, one of the most recent to open on Islay. The age of the liquid bottled for Bholsa, one of their twin flagships, averages around five, yet its depth of flavour belies its youth. Their spirit has natural weight, fruitiness, and a warming, coastal smoke, all lent a skein of toasted hazelnut, fig roll, and marmalade oomph by sherry cask maturation. One for a tattered armchair, a crackling fire, and that epic doorstop of a novel you’ve been putting off reading all summer.
3. Glendronach 12
An autumnal classic to the point of cliché, perhaps, but who could argue? With its creamy, baked-honey richness, edge of bright berries, and hints of both marzipan and musty old library books, Glendronach 12 captures the mood of the season quite beautifully.
The distillery’s offerings may get bolder, richer, and deeper, but their youngest age statement has its own particular magic. Easily one of the best ways you could spend £56, at any time of year.
4. Glen Scotia 2016 9 Year Old Single Cask
The perfect Bonfire Night whisky from underappreciated Campeltown stalwarts Glen Scotia: all lustily buttered, charred sweetcorn, slightly salty cinder toffee melting in the mouth and leaving its chewy residue, and rich, smouldering smoke winding its way through nose and palate.
There’s even a hint of tropical penny chews left over from the Halloween candy. Irresistible.
5. Glenglassaugh Sandend
Missing the long, golden days of summer? Regretting roads not taken as the long nights begin to stifle you in their chill embrace? What you need is a perversely out-of-season summer whisky! This elegant coastal dram from Glenglassaugh reminds us of wind-whipped summer days on Hebridean beaches (even though it’s from just outside Speyside).
Sinuous tropical fruits, a crack of sea salt, and a honeyed, delicately rich backnote courtesy of the discreet influence of oloroso and Manzanilla sherry casks. Beautifully complex, refined and subtle.
6. Cooper King Port-Bound
We voyage from the wild Highland coast to the rugged green fields of God’s Own Country for our final suggestion. Cooper King is an independent Yorkshire distillery inspired by the groundbreaking work of Tasmanian craft whisky-makers and their Port-Bound expression has all the indulgent flavours you could wish for from an autumn whisky.
Curiously, it was first intended to be a Christmas release but was delayed for four months to allow the small port casks chosen to mature the liquid to cast their spell.
It’s as big and bold as you’d expect, richly weighted with dark, jammy fruit, creamy coffee and chewy candied citrus – just the thing to sink into after a brisk, possibly quite drizzly walk amongst the shedding trees.
