Discovery Road - "Courage" - Review

Hello, HelIo, Hello,

I know there's been a touch of neglect in my blog updates recently but you would not believe how busy I've been.  Mad times.    

I'll get straight back into it though with an update regarding another one of the new "Discovery Road" whiskies.  This, obviously, is to follow on from the general introduction I wrote a few weeks ago which can be found by clicking here. 

This update shall focus on the Discovery Road "Courage" bottling.  

This is a Dutch single malt 14 year old, matured in first fill Oloroso sherry casks, and has been bottled at 46% ABV.

It was released in December 2013 and is described on Dominic Roskrow's website http://worldwhisky.co.uk, as "a big beastie of a sherried whisky, with dark chocolate, coffee liqueur, date, dark cherry and Christmas spices"  All sounding good so far.  

Well, yet again, onto my own tasting notes:

Nose - The instant blast as it pours from the bottle, and immediately as it sits in the glass, is that of dark chocolate coffee creams / pipe tobacco.  We also have red apple, stewed seville oranges, sugary malt and freshly buttered white toast going on.  As it sits in the glass the sherry takes over with all it's might with a huge dried fruit / xmas cake explosion, fully accompanied by all the spices you would expect including nutmeg and cinnamon…..Dom was not wrong with his own description.

Palate - Sweet xmas cake, more orange and gentle spice.  This is rich, chewy and highly enjoyable.  The dark chocolate coffee creams return with some demerara sugar.

Finish - Short - medium with a beautiful sherry cask sweetness.

This is simply delicious and highly original.  It's one of the best "sherried" whiskies I've ever tasted and shows perfectly why we should all open our minds and broaden our horizons away from the traditional, safe comfort, of scotch.

As with all of the Discovery Road range this bottling can be found on Master of Malt - http://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/discovery-road/discovery-road-courage-14-year-old-whisky/

Well all that's left is to review the last in the range which is the "Smile" and having already tried it I can tell you it has certainly made me do just that.

So, until next time,

Slainte

SI