The Selkie

Photo copyright by Thomas Speller

Erik from Kintra was kind enough to share the Selkie batch #001 to have a closer look at. This is a blended malt bottled at 50% and made out of a blend of Highland and Islay malts, predominantly from ex-bourbon casks as the label tells us. I am a sucker for artwork like this on bottles I can tell you that! But what is a Selkie? Lets read a bit more of the bottle then...

"the mythical Selkie shifts its shape from seal to human by shedding its sea pelt and is said to be so beautiful in human form that any mortal would desire to have one for a partner"

So lets have a look at this blend that carries the name of a mythical attractive creature and see if it lives up to its name. On the nose I find notes of soft smoky cereal, dried apricots, banana, apples, caramel, hint of coffee, thyme and some soft lemon notes. The palate and nose are balanced and shows ripe fruit notes with a waxy honeycomb edge to it. A good bunch of raisins, dried cranberry, oranges and dry heather earthy notes combined with vanilla.

Light hint of a wood note mixed with sweet fruit cake, Turkish fruit and lemon candied fruit on the medium length finish. A gentle easy drinking fruity, cereal and lightly smoky dram. Scoring me an 8/10 for an balanced enjoyable dram. Thanks for sharing Erik!

p.s. did you know Erik also has some lovely Wagging Finger Gin and independent bottlings from Kintra and the Golden cask in his portfolio? Curious to read more on the new distillery? Read all about it in WhiskySpeller's article No Guts, No Glory