SMWS G9.5 “Cargo Floating By A Varnished Boat”
SMWS G9.5 Cargo Floating By A Varnished Boat Single Grain Scotch Whisky
Next up we will revisit another bottle from Scotch Malt Whisky Society, an independent bottler who I have done a few reviews on in the past. From all of my purchases, this one was a ginormous leap of faith on my part given the price point and the fact that it is a Single Grain Scotch Whisky, not a Single Malt. Let’s see how it went….
This is bottle G9.5 called “Cargo Floating by a Varnished Boat”, a Highland 20 year old Single Grain. The “code” on this tells us that the barrel was procured from Loch Lomond. I have had plenty of Loch Lomond Single Malt whisky, but nothing on the grain side.
….quick nerd sidebar….so what is the difference between single malt and single grain? Thank you for asking! For a very simplified breakdown, malting is when some water is added to the barley grain and it is allowed to germinate for a few days and then the process is stopped. Now the barley grain has been transformed to malted barley. Single grain references that it is produced from a single distillery but the raw material can be any type of grain, usually wheat, unmalted barley, corn, rye, etc. These can also be distilled in continuous stills versus the pot stills in single malt scotch…..end of sidebar.
Other fun facts on this bottle….Distilled on July 25, 2000, and aged for 20 years in 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon casks. If you’re interested, I did a review on the Loch Lomond 12 and provided some additional details on Loch Lomond (found here).
ABV: 63.1%
How it smells….smells Irish (and by that, I mean Irish Whiskey). Green apples, cotton candy, caramel, marshmallow. Very strong at 63.1%!....adding a bit of water and you get more malt on the nose with some bright sweetness but the green apple diminishes a bit.
How it tastes….sweet at the start with a malty middle and peppery spice at the end, finishing with a tingly tongue and some cinnamon on the linger….with some water, it is spicier throughout the tasting, but with some sweet vanilla and marshmallow in the middle and apple cinnamon at the end. The spice on the finish really turns up the cayenne heat…with ICE (bonus)...see Final thoughts….
Price…$160
Rating...🥃🥃🥃🥃(🥃)
Final thoughts….Wow…this was quite the ride. I think most (if not all) of my SMWS reviews have given respectable 3x 🥃 ratings thus far. As I have said, it’s tough to ascribe value as they are a bit more expensive but you are getting barrel proof whiskies that are truly unique. That said, this one really surprised me, in a great way. My only struggle is whether it is a 4x 🥃 or a 5x 🥃 because I don’t really know what the value level is for aged single grain scotch. At $160 for a 63% ABV single malt scotch, $160 is quite attractive. Single grains tend to be cheaper though, so I don’t know what the best answer is. What I do know is that Cargo Floating by a Varnished Boat packed a mean punch. It really reminded me of Irish Whiskey, which is not surprising given that a lot of Irish is single grain or blends in a lot of single grain. But I haven’t had any super aged Irish yet (>15 years) so I don’t have a baseline to compare it to.
It is definitely better with water, but it’s remarkably smooth at full throttle. Proofing it down to probably a 50%ish ABV will let you get more nuanced flavors, otherwise the spice is too much and it drowns out the apple, cinnamon, vanilla and marshmallow notes. That said, the water does amplify the spice, creating cayenne heat with some cinnamon, but overall this is balanced with those darker malt flavors and bright green apple notes.
As an added bonus, I went back and poured another dram and this time added one medium sized ice cube in lieu of water (an Aged and Ore Clear Facet cube to be precise) and the sip became super sweet with honey and rock candy, a full 180° from the cayenne spice grenade from before.
This is a really interesting bottle and I’m looking forward to what else I’ll be able to unlock from it as I dip back in from time to time.
