Last week I looked at the Aerstone Sea Cask 10 year old single malt whisky, and this week I explore more of the Aerstone Land Cask single malt Scotch whisky and look at the Ailsa Bay Distillery. A new distillery to my blog.
The Aerstone range has two distinct styles of whisky. The Sea Cask is a Speyside style single malt matured near the Ayrshire coast. The counterpart is the Aerstone Land Cask. These expressions from William Grant & Sons aim to capture two different flavour profiles from Scotland in an approachable aged whisky.
Ailsa Bay is in the Scottish Lowlands, on the Clyde coast, looking out towards Arran. It was built in 2007 within the Girvan grain complex where the dismantled Ladyburn distillery once stood. It has eight stills to create a wide variety of styles.
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This allows the distillery to produce a broad range of styles. This flexibility gives master blender Brian Kinsman the scope to test innovative ideas by isolating and controlling some aspects throughout the production process.
Much of the unseated malted from Ailsa Bay is used in Grant’s and Clan MacGregor blended whisky. Ailsa Bay also produce peated whisky; its first official bottling as a single malt was a NAS heavily peated whisky released in 2016.
The Aerstone Land Cask single malt Scotch whisky was peat dried malt using Highland peat and matured for 10 years at warehouses situated slightly inland. In South Africa, it retails for R360 and is widely available.
REGION: Lowlands
ABV: 43%
COLOUR: Dark gold
NOSE: Earthy mossy notes with peat, smoke and vanilla. There is a marmalade sweetness in the background mixed with crème brulee. Richer and bolder than the Sea Cask.
PALATE: Nicely balanced between sweet and smoky notes, with peat and smoke mixed with burnt sugar and dark orange chocolate. Heathery kind of peat with drying oak and warming pepper. Medium body. Not quite as sweet as the nose suggested. Bits of vanilla and cinnamon. Add water carefully; too much water drowns out the peaty goodness quite quickly.
FINISH: Bold and rich with notes of pepper, peat and brown sugar.
RATING: EXCELLENT
The Land Cask whisky is delicious, unpretentious and accessible. The peat is rich and nicely balanced, but water can easily overwhelm the flavour. It is a beautiful introduction to peat for a newbie. Both are excellent, but I enjoyed the Land Cask more.
The Aerstone Sea Cask is a summer dram. The Land Cask is perfect for a winter afternoon. It is an affordable everyday single malt whisky that hits all the right peaty notes. However, it is not a dram I would use in cocktails.
Sample disclosure: I received this whisky from William Grant. The review and tasting notes are my own honest, fair and independent thoughts about the whisky.
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I was given the "Seacask" as a Christmas present. I have been enjoying it for the last month, and here in New Zealand this is in the height of a particularly warm summer. I find it very drinkable, however I do not profess to be an expert, having whiskey tastes ranging from Grants, Bruichladdich, Teachers, through to Japanese drams such as Suntory, Black Nikka and Super Nikka. Overall, I rate the "Seacask" extremely highly, finding it very flavourful, and with no aftertaste or effects to regret. Highly recommended.
I am new to all of this. I have enjoyed wine tasting for a long time and recently started sampling whiskey. I'm starting to identify flavors and preferences. I can at least appreciate some of the lovely, if fragile, flavors in the sherry-infused highland and Speyside varieties. I then discovered Islay whiskey through Talisker 10, Ardbeg 10, Laphroig 10 and have slowly moved from just looking for a smooth mellow whiskey to looking for interesting and delicious flavors. I actually first tried Aerstone's Sea Cask, and found it delicious but less compelling than the peatier recipes. So far, I have found the Land Cask to be delicious! It has kind of a funky nose and really good smoke-sweet balance. Hunting for scents and flavors is becoming a fun hobby--as is the point, I suppose--and all that is to say (partly in response to the above poster) that I am finding this whiskey to be both interesting and delicious.
I bought this bottle in November 2022 for $29.99 which (for perspective) is less than a bottle of regular Jameson at my local liquor store. My amateur tongue enjoys the smokey sweetness with even a citrusy and tobacco quality. (I was actually looking for a delicious budget smokey single malt and started with the Benromach 10, which I didn't like as much as this one.). Contrary to the 43% in this review, my bottle says "40%" and almost wish the finish was a little less watery (seems like I wound't want to add water to this one). I wonder if the 43% has a stronger finish. But, on its own merits, I could see buying this one again; "for the money," I suspect I'll definitely be buying this one again.
to be fair, I'm very disappointed. I got the Aerstone Land Cast as a present.
when I tried the first glass, I nearly vomited. this is not a flavour "tourbed" , no, it stinks out of the glass and reminds on oold worn socks . I couldn't even try one zip.
sorry but I can't understand how one can like this taste!