Cask Intro
HTMC (Heavy toast, medium char) are four letters that have been well represented in the Society’s cask profile since 2016. In 2014, head of whisky creation, Euan Campbell, was debating the virtues of toasting levels in casks with a distillery manager from the Highlands. He decided to place several orders for casks with custom toasting and charring to create whiskies with deeper character, spices and a creamier texture.
Want to know more? Read all about it here.
Tasting Notes
The neat nose veritably bristled with pine wood, resinous exotic hardwoods, polished new furniture, beeswax and old library vibes. We also detected dried mint, sweet liquorice and herbal tonic wines. With water it gathered impressive complexity to give us winter mulling spices, blackcurrant liqueur, spiced winter ales and pumpernickel bread. The palate, when neat, displayed meatier notes of game broth, suet, umami liquid seasonings, cedarwood boxes full of unlit cigars and slightly salted liquorice. Reduced, we noted mole sauce, smoked chilli and black bean curds – it was suddenly rather Mexican. We also got elegant herbal bitters, dried tobacco and maple syrup. This was matured in an ex-bourbon hogshead for 11 years before being transferred to a first fill HTMC hogshead.