Ballechin 2004 17 Year Old Whisky Sponge Edition No.36B Refill Fino Sherry Butt ABV 55.5% 70CL (Pre-Order 7 Days)

A 2004 17 year old Ballechin, matured full term in a refill fino sherry butt with an outturn of 623 bottles at a natural cask strength of 55.5%. 

The Spongetopia Trilogy explores three possible 'Sponge-themed' dystopian futures and presents them as old school pulp sci-fi novels with their respective 'first paragraphs' on the rear labels. It's a series that fuses whisky and sci-fi geekery to new and intoxicating levels. If you love dystopian sci-fi, label art, and uniquely charismatic aged peaty highland whisky - well, these are bottlings for you!

Part two 'The Triumph of Influencers' explores the vast and desolate wastelands of the post-Influencer pandemic... 

This one shows huge influence from the ex-fino butt, immensely salty, leathery and full of cured meats, tar and iodine. Heady and dizzyingly intense whisky. 

Nose: Sweet, nutty, slightly saline – so far so fino. Strawberry shrimps, bootlaces and Nesquik milkshake (pink naturally) sit with a subsumed smoke that derives from air-dried meats and tanned leather. Himalayan (pink – lets keen on theme here) rock salt adds seasoning. Entirely pleasant, but fairly narrow in focus. Dilution expresses nut loaf, salted peanuts, wire wool and ozone – not better, just different.

Taste: Here it is. An eruption of sweet, bituminous and voluminous smoke – that was largely masked by the fino on the nose. A punchy delivery of reduced red and black berry jams, leather sofas and roasted cashew nuts, alongside road surfacing, Serrano ham, a selection of medicinal wipes and a Salt Bae arm luge of sodium chloride. The addition of water reveals pickle juice alongside salted chips and a teaspoon of slightly metallic Andrews Liver Salts.

Finish: Long, meaty, washed with iodine and still rather salty.

PRODUCT SUMMARY