WHISKY REVIEWS, NEWS, HISTORY & FOLKLORE
St. Bridget’s Kirk
This is a wee quick-hit review and as such, I won’t be going into the same detail with the history and background of the dram in question. Suffice to say, St. Bridget’s Kirk is a blended malt Scotch whisky from Hannah Whisky Merchants, the company behind the Lady of the Glen independent bottler. It’s named after a ruined medieval church which is near to the company’s bottling hall in Dalgety, Fife.
If you’d like to read more about the church or the Saint that inspired it, you can read my review of Batch 3 here.
The whisky consists of five individual malt components from five separate distilleries. All five malts were married in a first fill ex-Amarone wine barrique for more than two years before bottling at 48.9%. Only 145 bottles were released.
Smell: I picked up some light smoke first, accompanied by some musty oak and earthy, dunnage floors. Then some dried fruits before a burst of berries brought cherryade and blackcurrant juice. Glacé cherries. Ginger and clove. Pepper. Touch of cask char.
Taste: Dry red wine. Cherry and blackcurrant. Brambles. Black pepper. Wee touch of citrus. Water released some creamy vanilla on the arrival. That was followed by a touch of maltiness and some dry oak round the sides. Subtle wee burst of smoke and ash on the finish.
Thoughts: The red wine is really running the show here. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, although maybe I’d have liked a wee bit more backbone in the spirit – it’s not too light but a bit more body would have helped it stand up to the wine. That said, water released some spirit character and the balance improved. I was trying to think of the best way to describe this dram and the word I kept coming back to, was FUN. It may not check all the boxes for the purists and it might be a little too cask dominated and even a little one-dimensional sometimes, but it’s also really, really fun to drink – and isn’t that kind of the point? The bottling strength perhaps plays a role, as it isn’t full cask strength and comes across as readily sippable from the word go. I think there’s just so much flavour on offer that it’s hard not to enjoy the experience!
Price: £54. Red wine and a wee touch of smoke at a reasonable price. What’s not to like?
For more on Lady of the Glen visit https://www.ladyoftheglen.com/
WhiskyReviews.net is a free service and always will be. However, if you would like to support the author you can do so by subscribing for just £1 per month. Alternatively, you can make a one-off donation of your choice. Thank you for your support.
________