Since my living bottle (or ‘Ampulla Vivens’ as I have pretentiously labelled it), in which I put the last dram out of every bottle,  is working quite well I figured: why not start another one.  This time however, I’m making a few changes. I’ll be logging the malts I put in so as to be able to reproduce a particularly good result (and to allow you, the reader, to follow along precisely should you want to).

I’ll also stick to a rigid regime where it comes to adding a new malt to the blend. I’m starting with two malts in a 10cl bottle, and will sample a quarter of said bottle, posting the tasting notes on this very web-space. I’ll then try and make an informed guess as to what malt would make the blend better and top up the bottle with that. Rinse and repeat. Actually, don’t rinse as that would defeat the purpose, just repeat.

I’m trying to start this one off relatively light and easygoing. I’ve therefore taken a lightly sherried subtle base-malt in Aberlour 10yo and mixed it with the fairly individual and more pronounced but still light Isle of Arran 10yo. This last malt should add some complexity to the Aberlour without overwhelming it.

The Living Bottle Iteration 1

The Nose Starts off with butterscotch, but that quickly dissapears and makes room for light sherry mixed with sea air. After a while some citrus notes come through.

The Taste starts salty then the signature laurel from the Arran shows itself. A little further on we get the sherry from the Aberlour acompanied by spicy and slightly oaky aroma’s.

The Finish is an even mix of liquorice root from the Arran and raisins from the Aberlour which lingers fairly long.

Soooo… what’s next?
I could go two ways with this one. I could add a peated whisky to the mix which would radically change the tone of the blend or I could go for breadth and add a flavour which I feel is missing and would complement the existing ones. Want to find out which way I’ve decided to go? Stay tuned and you’ll find out!

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