Many months ago we were introduced to the independent bottler – Chorlton – during a quick trip home to Mumbai. The Chorlton tasting was conducted completely blind and we were floored by the pedigreed character of each whisky – Miltonduff 9 year, Orkney 9 year, Glenturret Ruadh Maor 8 year.

With the reveal, we also fell in love with the gorgeous labels!

I knew I wanted to explore more, however was in the midst of my move to Germany, finding a place to live, getting up to speed in a my new job with – shocker – whisky a low priority in my juggling act!

Fast forward to early 2020 and the COVID crises changed our world completely. During the initial phase of working from home, I decided to start selectively planning for future sessions – a mythical time  where I could either re-unite with much missed tasting groups in Mumbai, join something existing in Nurnberg or create a new community of fellow whisky explorers.

And this is where Chorlton came in… knowing their stock is in limited supply, I still took a chance to see if anything was available directly from this fabulous independent bottler and was in luck! This delightful trio was possible to order online and, even better, make its way from the UK to Germany.

Here is what I chose:

• Miltonduff 11 years, 1st fill bourbon, 62% 1 of 176 bottles
• Blair Athol 12 years, Hogshead undiluted, uncoloured, unchill filtered, 56.6% 1 of 268 bottles
• Mackmyra 12 years, bourbon barrel, undiluted, uncoloured, unchill filtered 50.2% 1 of 278 bottles

While they don’t say when they were bottled, presumably it would have been 2019/2020.

To say I was excited on their arrival was an understatement! At the time, I had no idea when I would have a chance to crack them open! I’m more of a social imbiber – what I enjoy most is the exchange and range of impressions an interesting bottle can evoke from a small group tasting together – so the whole notion of opening just for me was absurd!

After acquiring the initial beauties, when David’s email came about the Mannochmore from his new La Nouvelle Vague series, I could not resist! Both picking up the Mannochmore and acquiring the Tomintoul I’d reluctantly passed on when ordering the initial trio.

And with that, in July 2020, a trio became a quintet adding to the array:

• Mannochmore 12 year 58.7% bourbon barrel, distilled 10 Sept 2008, cask strength, natural colour, unchill filtered, 1 of 108 bottles
• Tomintoul 14 year 57.6% Sherry butt, undiluted, uncoloured, unchill filtered, 1 of 455 bottles

It took til Oct/Nov 2020 launch of our European chapter of the Whisky Ladies of Mumbai to taste these bottles… and what a treat it was! Certainly worth the wait.

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