A little background
Teaninich is probably a name nobody has even heard of. Hell, I have hardly heard of it and I have had hundreds of whiskys. It’s actually a relatively large distillery that’s owned by Diageo, however, much of their spirits go into mysterious bottlings. Basically, they probably use this spirit to boost flavor profiles and alcohol content like most spirits owned by the big corporations, they use it for blended whisky. The bottle of Teaninich 12 Year PX Sherry Cask Adelphi used for this review was bottle 1 of 555 from cask No. 303666 and was bottled at 52.9% ABV.
(Tasted neat from a Halo Glass)
Color
Dark Amazon Basin Brown
Nose
Cola and earth, nuts and spices, and oil resin overwhelms. BOOM! It hits you like a ton of bricks in the best possible way. Hints of spice and fruitcake. Minerality, slight saline and smoke dominates after a few sniffs. It’s sweet yet savory.
With Water – the nose becomes sweeter, caramel, burnt sugar dominant. Cedar hints and unburnt cigars start to come out.
Palate
WOW! Scary profile here. Unique and very different – slight fire but not too much. Punchy initially and it is like taking play dough and melting it in your mouth. The mouth feel is insane. Oil, Wax, earth, and resin. It is full flavor!
With Water – Don’t do it! Just Dont. It screws it up and takes all the character away, becomes generic and uninteresting- Like Kim Kardashian.
Finish
The finish is long, involved and satisfying. Deep resin and oiliness makes you want to weep – I think i just experienced stigmata, This is divine.
In closing
Get it, get it now. Hunt it down hunger games style even if you have to stab someone or launch 1000 ships to invade new lands, a must have. Reasonably priced, it is extremely satisfying and very interesting. Water ruins it – but if you think you like sherry cask then this will be a surprise for you, it takes sherry into another level of smoke, savory meat and caramel and sweet all in one go.