Photo Credit: Golan Heights Distillery
Golan Heights Distillery Golani Black Whisky Live Tel-Aviv 2018, Cask 24, Distilled 9.2.2015, Bottled March 2018 (61.9% ABV, NCF, NC)
Appearance: Copper, very sturdy necklace with slow moving legs.
Nose: Toffee and butterscotch, vanilla and hints of citrus blossom. There’s a hint of the char from the cask on the nose, with a freshness.
Water: A few drops of water bring out more of the honey, together with a dried orange peel and a hint of balsamic vinegar.
Palate: Bitter at first and spicy, with pepper and grapefruit rind, then a wash of a mild sweetness comes over the tongue. On the pallate, you can get the signature licorice the Golani has, but it’s much milder here than in the other casks I’ve tasted.
Water: Strangely, water seems to thicken the whisky and make it more viscous in the mouth feel, it also lessens the sweetness.
Linger: Spicy and sweet, with a long and somewhat dry linger. The spice settles around the gullet, leaving a soft sweetness in the mouth.
Water leaves a creamy, almost dulce de leche sweetness in the back of the mouth.
Conclusion
This single cask has a very nice balance between the spice and the sweetness, with this dram not swinging too far in either direction. This cask was chosen very well, and shows a milder side of the single cask bottlings of Golani, without losing David’s thumbprint on the liquid.