SMWS 71.80 “Powershake”
SMWS 71.80 “Powershake”
One of the great things about these independent bottlers is that you get to try whisky from distilleries that you otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Today is another from SMWS, 71.80 “Powershake”, a Speyside 13 year old Single Malt Scotch from Glenburgie.
Distilled on Sept. 25th, 2007 and aged in 1st Fill ex-Bourbon casks. As a light blue label, this falls under SMWS’s “Juicy, Oak & Vanilla” category.
ABV: 56.7%
How it smells….vanilla, boozy so inhale carefully, fruity, apples, herbal….with water, maltier, cinnamon buns, some floral/perfume notes.
How it tastes….vanilla sweet at the onset followed by cooling minty/menthol notes. The end is spicy and peppery with light malt on the finish….with water, more sweet vanilla at the start but the middle is more cloves, cinnamon and peppery. The end has some cherry Luden’s Cough Drops in there with the finish being a Tootsie Roll, chocolatey sweetness that is thick and rich tasting with a touch of pepper.
Price…$120
Rating...🥃🥃🥃🥃
Final thoughts…..I really liked this one but it was a difficult tasting. At times, I felt like it was a highly contested table tennis match, going from sweet to spicy to sweet to spicy. I found it difficult to consistently distinguish a progression of flavors with any specificity. While the flavors were all familiar, they were also vague, if that makes any sense whatsoever. Each time I went back for another taste, it was a different experience. I’m going to give it a 4x 🥃 just because it was a wild ride compared to others from SMWS (or other independently bottlers) that I have had, plus for the 13 year age statement is was cheaper than other SMWS releases in the 11-12 year range, which is probably due to the Glenburgie distillery being lesser-known. The best thing about a difficult tasting is that it requires more and more trips back to the bottle so no one loses, except perhaps my wife.
I don’t know much (read: anything) about Glenburgie, but the internet tells me that it is owned by Pernod Ricard and used as a blending whisky in its Ballantine’s, Teacher’s, and Old Smuggler releases in addition to some single malt releases via independent bottlers like SMWS and others. I’ll be looking for others from this distillery in the independent bottler world, that’s for sure.
