Tag Archives: Deanston

2025 Whisky Show – Decadent Drams Highland, Speyside + Orkney

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Decadent Drinks has become a favourite at whisky shows for great conversations, a fabulous range of new and rare whiskies. The 2025 London Whisky Show experience was no exception. Our first day began with them, and our last day closed there too.

Between the start and finish, we had a couple of pit stops. During one, we explored some of their non-dream dram “Decadent Dram” expressions with :

  • Highland (Deanston) 27 year (1997/2025) Refill Hogshead 50.4% (Decadent Drams) 2025 Whisky Show GBP 278
  • Speyside (Glen Moray) 10 year (2014/2025) 57.1% (Decadent Drams) 2025 Whisky Show GBP 95
  • Old Orkney (Highland Park) 25 year (1999 / 2025) 50.3% (Decadent Drinks) 2025 Whisky Show GBP 345

Without further ado, let’s get on with the whiskies, shall we?

Highland (Deanston) 27 year (1997 / 2025) Refill hogshead 50.4% 

  • Nose – A clear classic, all those lovely Highland notes, a real beauty!
  • Palate – Well-rounded, fruity, and balanced… everything in harmony
  • Finish – Nice with a gentle spice

Whilst I’m not always a Deanston fan, this expression was spectacular. Narry a hint of that slightly industrial element I sometimes find with Deanston. This was elegant, exceptional, and such a treat to taste!

Speyside (Glen Moray) 10 year (2014/2025) 57.1% 

  • Nose – Fruity, full yet not too much
  • Palate – Bold but not forceful, complex, juicy, rich, stewed fruits, sweet yet not cloying, creamy milk chocolate
  • Finish – Salty, sweet, with a bit of gentle, fragrant leaves

Again, whilst we aren’t always Glen Moray fans, this was way beyond expectations. For a distillery that pumps out the (relatively) cheap stuff, this was top shelf.

This wasn’t our first Old Orkney expression. We tried their 20-year-old expression at the 2024 Whisky Show, so we were curious to see what their 4th bottling in this series was all about!

Old Orkney (Highland Park) 25 year (1999 / 2025) 50.3% 

  • Nose – Heather, light leather, peat, and sweet with dark fruits
  • Palate – Yummy! Lovely rich sherry, backed by a gentle peat
  • Finish – Lovely and lingers

Practically in unison, we shared our impression that this was what Highland Park used to be!

What more do we know? This 25-year-old was mostly matured in refill wood, then its final six years, it was matured in a very old 1st fill, ex-bodega, oloroso sherry butt. 

And there you have it – another delicious trio from Decadent Drinks!

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Chorlton’s Deanston 14 year 52.6%

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Out there in the world, one can find a die-hard Deanston fan here and there. One of our original whisky-tasting groups in Mumbai was one. As for me? I will fully admit to not being one of them. I tend to find Deanston a bit uninspiring, even a tad industrial in profile, and overall quite average.  However, I am a fan of the independent bottler Chorlton, so when this bottle from his April 2023 release became available, I thought why not try?

When I settled on a chancy theme in January 2024 to focus on distilleries that have NOT tended to capture my fancy, it seemed the perfect opportunity to give this Deanston its due consideration. Even better, I had two sets of tasting groups try it back to back: our Bombay Malt & Cigar lads and the Mumbai Whisky Ladies! Between the two groups, and different settings, I had high hopes for a fair evaluation.

Deanston 14 year (2023) Bourbon Barrel 52.6% 610 Bottles

  • Colour: Bright gold
  • Nose:
    • Day 1: Lemony, soap water, cashew nuts, Marie Claire digestive biscuits, some sweetness, joined by sawdust, and was that a bit of apricot fruit leather? Or mango papad? Vascilates between being slightly tangy and slightly sweet.
    • Day 2: Completely missed some of the initial elements – no citrus at all. Instead, there were bananas and peach pie, and we still found the digestive biscuits. Overall, it was quite mild, with some vanilla
  • Palate:
    • Day 1: It began with grapefuit, water sweetened with honey, some pudding, soft and balanced, good mouthfeel
    • Day 2: Much more buttery or oily than expected, and yet curiously there was a crackling chocolate, slightly metallic or fuel-like element, aniseed
  • Finish: Descriptions veered from having a “thick air finish” to butter to bitter to candy
  • Water: Simply muddles the combination
  • Revisit after sampling other whiskies
    • Day 1: None of the fruits remained though the digestive biscuits element continued
    • Day 2: Furniture wax and burnt popcorn on the nose, mineral on the palate

For the lads, this was the 3rd whisky of four sampled. There was a clear division between one pronouncing it exceedingly average, begrudgingly admitting it was “not unpleasant” but overall thin on the nose with very little complexity. The others were a wee bit kinder, finding it better than some Deanston’s as it was less industrial and overall decent.

For the ladies, I opted to begin with the Deanston. It didn’t get huge converts to this distillery but was a better way to kick off our evening. What was surprising is that just a day later, all of the citrus disappeared – both the lemon on the nose and grapefruit on the palate.
What did David have to say? The following is an extract from his email…

The nose is fruity on first pouring (tangerine, pear juice, peach gummies) then settles down with hoppy ales, fresh baguette, sweet ciceley, woodruff and ferns. There are little touches of flinty minerality, lemon, rose petals, furniture wax and barley sugar. It’s very subtle and beautiful.

The palate has tinned pears, grapefruit syrup, aniseed (almost cough candy) and hops. It’s an appealing combination of barley and breadiness with clean and zesty fruitiness. It almost feels refreshing and palate-cleansing, with a lovely sweeter touch of honey and fruit syrup in the aftertaste.

This is one of those whiskies that feels very honest and close to the barley, with a sort of easy freshness and delicacy. The barrel produced 234 bottles at 52.6% and they are available for £79.50 each.

I purchased this directly from Chorlton in April 2023, which rested initially in London before being kindly brought to India in July 2023, to lie even longer for the right opportunity in Mumbai!

What else from Chorlton did we try together with the Deanston?

Despite it not being #1 in any of our books, folks voted with their glasses, where clearly there was a 2nd pour by some of the Deanston. Overall, it was the 2nd choice of the Chorlton’s tried that evening in terms of liquid consumed! Interesting.

What about other Deanston explorations?

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A Mix of Malts – Highland explorations

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During our Schottland Whisky Forum weekend getaway in October, everyone brought an interesting bottle. There was a remarkable mix of malts – particularly from the Highlands!

On the 1st day I spent most of my time exploring whiskies from the Single Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), an exceptional elegant Glen Grant 5-year-old from 1975, and a special release from Deanston.

On our 2nd day, I focused on a range of Highland distilleries before shifting to peaty whiskies.

  • Jura “Anam na-h Alba” 9 year (19 Oct 20009 – 08 Apr 2019) Bourbon Hogshead Cask No 700993 58.1% bottle 276 of 279
  • Glenmorangie Midwinter Night’s Dram 43%
  • Edradour 2007 18 year Cask Strength (Nov 2007 / Jan 2021) 59.2% 1,362 Bottles
  • Old Pulteney 14 year (27 May 2008 / 9 Jun 2022) Cask No 24 initial maturation Refill Botto Bourbon Hogshead, finish 24 months Fresh Sherry Butt 56.8% Bottle 404 of 663 

So.. let’s start with the Highland from the 1st day… the Deanston…

Deanston Chronicles Edition 1 46.3%

I had no idea what to expect with this one. It had been a while since I tried an “OB” (Original Bottle) Deanston – most have been from independent bottlers. So I was curious to try – especially as it was a special release. I later learned it was a mix of four casks from four decades -1977 Whisky Refill, 1994 ex-Madeira, 2004 ex-Amontillado, and 2011 ex-Bourbon – wow!  

  • Nose – Incredibly fruity, fresh orchard fruits, some apricots, baked red apples, toffee, some vanilla, sweet spices, a bit peppery
  • Palate – Is that red wine tannins? Red apple peels? Some Lebkuchen? Swirl it around and catch a variety of flavours… hmm mmm?

What a curious yet interesting malt! Absolutely marvelous on the nose, it was a bit odd on the palate. However many were quite taken with it. 

Sometimes we have certain prejudices – I will admit that Jura just hasn’t been my kind of distillery dram. This is exactly why I thought – time to test if THIS would be the expression that changes my mind! Spoiler alert – it wasn’t!

Jura “Anam na-h Alba” 9 year (19 Oct 20009 – 08 Apr 2019) Bourbon Hogshead Cask No 700993 58.1%

  • Nose – VERY maritime, lots of fresh sea spray, some waxy elements, forest
  • Palate – The prick of a cask strength, direct with no depth
  • Finish – Some spice and that’s it 

Overall it did not impress and reminded me why I’m not such a Jura fan. 

After our recent reminder that Glenmorangie IS much more my style, I was curious to try one of their NAS expressions.

Glenmorangie Midwinter Night’s Dram 43%

  • Nose – Exactly as expected – a lovely light sherry dram, some orange joined by plum cake, with some nutty notes too
  • Palate – Soft, sweet, and creamy milk chocolate
  • Finish – A light spice with some ginger

It wasn’t a “stand-out” dram, instead just a proper palate pleaser. A nice transition from the disappointing Jura to even more interesting drams to come.

What more do we know? It was 1st released as a Limited Edition in 2015 and again for Christmas 2017, using Bourbon and Oloroso casks, partially finished in PX Sherry casks. 

My tasting companions were raving about the Edradour – so I simply had to join their experience! Edradour is known as a small distillery, devoted to traditional methods and producing some mighty fine results with some firm fans out there. 

Edradour 2007 18 year Cask Strength (Nov 2007 / Jan 2021) 59.2% 1,362 Bottles

  • Nose – Light fruit, loads of ripe plums, blossoms, honey, vanilla, shortbread, lemon sponge cake, 
  • Palate – Starts with a nice spice, some fruits – even tropical like papaya, waxy, red currents, nuts, a truly lovely balance, smooth
  • Finish – Light cinnamon and ginger, very soft and comforting til the end

This is one beautiful whisky – restrained and elegant. Well worth trying – classic and quality hand-in-hand. My scribbles also described this as a “snuggly whisky” which cues up a comfort dram. Fabulous!

After such an enjoyable experience, it was a tough dram to follow. Being a bit of an Old Pulteney fan, my eye was drawn to this Signatory bottle…

Old Pulteney 14 year (27 May 2008 / 9 Jun 2022) Cask No 24 initial maturation Refill Bourbon Hogshead, finish 24 months Fresh Sherry Butt 56.8% Bottle 404 of 663 

  • Nose – Quite pronounced sherry! That 2 years in Sherry Butts really came through in the aromas! With Sherry influence came all the “usual suspects” – Christmas pudding, lots of prunes, sweet spices, and more
  • Palate – Heavy and rounded
  • Finish – Full and long, closing on ginger snaps!

What a marvelous and powerful dram. I have a funny feeling this one could do with a drop or two of water too! 

Lest you think I was being a complete lush – the drops you see in the photos were all that was consumed. Literally, a small splash in the glass to tease out some impressions. With some, I also lingered, taking my time – like the lovely Edradour! All in all, I’m very appreciative both of the opportunity to meet fellow whisky explorers and spend a weekend discovering a dram or two together.

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The Whisky Warehouse No. 8 – Deanston 10 year 57.3%

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It was a full year ago that I picked up this Whisky Warehouse No 8 Regions set. My virtual tasting companies from London and Paris suggested we start with the Highland Deanston – which turned out to be a capital idea!

So what did we think?

Deanston 10 year (Sep 2009 – Oct 2019) WW8 108 Bourbon Barrel 57.3%

  • Nose – Mmmmm…. apple pastry – like a sweet cinnamon baked apple crisp topped with brown sugar and oats, mellowed into apple sauce then shifted into something a bit more tart – reminded us more of crabapple or guava….
  • Palate – Equally yummy! More of that delicoius pastry, some toffee, super smooth with lovely body and depth, nice spice
  • Finish – Quite a decent finish – lingers with a bit of that light spice
  • Water – Didn’t even occur to us – surprising given this was our 1st dram of the evening at 57.3%!

What we concluded is that was a perfect start to our evening of tasting. We couldn’t imagine this was cask strength! Smooth and sweet, this whisky was an absolute delight. 

I couldn’t find any official tasting notes for this one.. however, it looks like it is still available – remarkable!

What more did we have in our WW8 Regions set:

What about prior explorations from Whisky Warehouse No. 8?

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The Nector of the Daily Drams – Deanston 19 year 51%

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After an appetizer of four whiskies from The Nector of the Daily Drams at La Maison du Whisky, I topped it off with trying their Deanston at Whisky Live.

Here is what I thought in my very brief teasing tasting at the VIP room….

Deanston 19 year (1999/2018) 51%

  • Nose – Sourdough, fruits and cream
  • Palate – Some spice, dried fruits and other elements like toast and light coffee, malty with some creamy vanilla custard too
  • Finish – There but… subtle, toffee

Overall it had that lovely malty quality one expects from Deanston.

You can currently track this dram down online from Master of Malt for GBP 145.

And here is the quartet we tried earlier from The Nector of the Daily Drams:

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Deanston 15 years (1997/2013) Cask No 1958 45.8%

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There are some whiskies that if you simply sniff, swish and move on, you may not catch what makes them enjoyable. This Deanston is one of those which initially had quite an unassuming character, yet if you didn’t give it a proper chance, would miss out on a rather companionable dram… it also just so happened to kick off our 2nd Whisky flight with a “lighter touch” at Singapore’s The Single Cask.

Deanston 15 years (1997/2013) Cask No 1958 45.8%

Here is what we found:

  • Nose – A nice honey sweetness, light touch of flowers, vanilla and a ‘green’ grass fresh quality
  • Palate – Initially the impression is of citrus sweetness, then with a bit of cheekiness, it starts to reveal much more character with a bit of light spice, raspberries and vanilla wood
  • Finish – Short, simple and slightly sweet

Overall it is simply a lovely easy drinking whisky. Not complicated, not a show-stopper but one you wouldn’t mind coming back to…

Even when revisited after sampling the other whiskies, there was something simply ‘comfortable’ and ‘comforting’ about this one… and I found myself coming back to it for a final sniff, sip, and sigh of happiness.

And here is what the folks over at the Single Cask have to say:

  • Nose: This is a very natural whisky that is added to, but not burdened, by wood influence. We have just enough vanilla pod and bruleed banana that complements the spirit’s masses of estery green fruit. It is on the whole light and exuberant, showing the freshness of green apple peels but is also anchored by malt notes and linseed oil.
  • Palate: The wood has more to say here, with a growing hot spiciness and black pepper. But look past that and find tart berries, pollen and – surprise – lots of lilies.
  • Finish: Vanilla and more charred spiciness linger on.

I certainly didn’t catch any oil or lillies but overall wouldn’t disagree… except for the finish lingering… that was not what we experienced, but you can also see there wasn’t much left in the bottle! Particularly with lighter whiskies, I find oxidation can be a factor in shifting some elements.

Other Deanston sampling experiences:

This Deanston was sampled as part of a whisky flight at The Single Cask together with:

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A lighter touch… Whisky Flight at The Single Cask

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Often when one thinks whisky, what jumps to mind are the sherry bombs, the power packed peat monsters, the salty brine maritime malt, or even a bourbon banana sweet… yet nestled amongst those bold, sometimes brash characters are a subtler lot…

One tends to associate a lighter, slightly sweeter touch with whiskies from the Highlands or  Lowlands… though not necessarily so…

On my 2nd stop to The Single Cask, we picked the featured whisky flight with:

Some of these whiskies are found primarily blends – such as Deanston in Burn Stewart’s blends, the Glentauchers or Miltonduff in Ballantines. Whereas Glen Moray, a neighbour of Glentauchers and Miltonduff, is known for affordable single malts.

What did my sampling companion and I think? Click on the whisky links above and find out!

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Whisky Archives – Auchentoshan, AnCnoc, Deanston, Tomatin

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Here’s another post from our archives, this time courtesy of another member from April 2012…

The evening was delightful with a very special malt selection comprising of Auchentoshan 12 year 40%, AnCnoc 40%, a not so common Deanston 46.3% and a Tomatin 21% received as a gift from the distiller.

Deanston sampling in KLWe liked the bitter chocolate in Deanston and the strong, spicy mint (like pudina chutney not altoids) in Tomatin (quite complex and a great Cigar paring we think).

One found the AnCnoc was almost like Compass Box’s Spice Tree with it’s spice burst. Another loves lowland whiskies so anything from there makes a good after dinner drink for him, whereas yet another chose the Tomatin as his repeat drink.

We also discovered the dramatic difference in the overall experience of tasting the same whisky in two different glasses – a regular tumbler styled glass and the recommended nosing glass by Glencairn.

Fast forward…

While I missed sampling with our merry group, I managed to taste them at a later point… most recently the Deanston in Kuala Lumpur.

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Deanston Virgin Oak NAS 46.3%

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Our May 2015 tasting session featured whiskies from three countries – USA, Scotland and Ireland. We found the quality and appeal of this trio extreme from ‘disaster – do yourself a favour and don’t buy!’ (Hudson) to ‘decent but disappointing’ (Deanston) and utter ‘delight’ with “More! Please sir may I have some more!’ (Teeling)

The Scottish whisky was one sampled previously and earlier a favourite of our host. As always, we tasted blind so would not be influenced by anything other than the immediate whisky experience.

Deanston NAS 46.3% (Whisky Lady)

Deanston NAS 46.3% (Whisky Lady)

Deanston Virgin Oak NAS 46.3% 
  • Colour – Light straw
  • Nose – Initially quite fruity with lime and vanilla, as it warms up, has a french lemony sweet aftershave kind of quality  – think Brut! The overall sense even before the 1st sip is that of a young, fresh, delicate whisky. After the 1st sip, whiff of crunchy green apples, nutmeg, strong honey
  • Taste – A fizzy tingly on the tongue, warm yet alas narry a hint of complexity, most found it a bit bland
  • Finish – Limited and sweet
  • Water – Nope! Don’t go there. Even diluting with only a few drops makes it simply too weak and waters down the light nose
  • Immediate reactions – “OK but… maybe a good whisky for people who don’t drink whisky.” Ouch! Honestly, while there was nothing wrong with the whisky, it just somehow didn’t quite strike a strong chord. A few more descriptions bandied about were “bland” and “insipid.”
With more time to breath…
  • I used the lacklustre initial impression as an opportunity to see how it would fare after oxidating for 20 – 30 mins or so. Unlike the Nikka Takesturu 17 year or Chichibu French Oak Cask, I strongly suspected the Deanston would not improve with more time to breathe
  • Sure enough, a half hour later found the nose had dramatically changed to a pronounced sour curd – not in a pleasant way – with none of the initial fruity citrus sweet
  • On the palate? Remained decent but yes… bland

Our host shared:

“I first bought Deanston 10 years ago and it was excellent! Then my next bottle was about five years ago and it was so so. This one? (sigh)… Disappointing” 
I was curious about how this compared with our previous Deanston experiences, so I dug out our sampling records:
  • Deanston 46.3% in April 2012 – I missed this tasting session but another member noted how “We liked the bitter chocolate”
  • Deanston 12 year in June 2013 – For this one, we found “Nuanced nose with over ripe fruit, sweet and spicy on the palate, lovely finish with a hint of spice that slowly dissipated. Delightful!”

The label provides no indication of the year the whisky was bottled, so it is difficult to say whether the whisky or our tastes have changed so dramatically over the years. The only detail it does share is that it is finished in virgin oak casks and is un-chill filtered. I suspect the virgin oak element was what didn’t meet our collective palate.

Deanston up close... (Whisky Lady)

Deanston up close… (Whisky Lady)

In fairness, this isn’t such a bad dram… Unfortunately it just isn’t one that stands out. I’m a firm believer that whisky preferences are highly personal and it all depends on what appeals to your palate. Even though it clearly wasn’t the favourite of the evening, it was one whisky we could pinpoint as ‘Deanston’ even before the reveal. Which means something somewhere has registered as being distinctly ‘Deanston.’  Perhaps in a different mood, setting or a different set of expectations, it would shine more.
What others say:

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