Holyrood Distillery "Made by Edinburgh" New Make Spirit

Nose: Green apple skins, oily malt, dough, faint hints of thyme, cider vinegar and toasted white bread. Palate: A warm, sweet arrival with orchard fruits and mild vanilla. Roasted hazelnuts and cereal appear in the development with a little cocoa and mild supporting butterscotch. The texture is gently oily and slick. Finish: Short: cereal flavours are the lingering impression, together with a gently toasty-smoky flavour. This distillery is in its early stages. Founded in 2019, their initial whisky has matured but will not be available to taste until next year, and it was created using their initial spirit recipes. At the moment, the distillery is offering tastings of four more developed new-make spirit formulations: Chocolate Malt, Brewers x Distillers Yeast, Crystal Malt, and Made By Edinburgh. All are available in miniatures and half-litre bottles. Made By Edinburgh is the only one I'm reviewing here because, in my opinion, it is their most complete and balanced new-make so far and best represents the distillery’s potential. The Chocolate Malt struck me as oily and hot, and Brewers x Distillers Yeast was simply uninteresting. Mrs. [reviewer's spouse] enjoyed Crystal Malt the most, and I agreed until we tasted this one. It possessed the most satisfying, complex, and well-balanced profile with a crisp, fragrant lightness that was refreshing, yet it also had supporting weight. The character is fruity and mild, but there's a wisp of roasted cereal that's almost like smokiness. This is not made with peated malt, but if they had told us it was peated to 2 ppm, I would have believed them. This character comes from about 2% chocolate malt in the recipe (chocolate malt has nothing to do with cocoa; it's malted barley that has been roasted rather than dried in the malting process and consequently has a dark chocolate color). The distillery has selected this particular new make for long-term maturation and will release it as a single malt in 10 years. I can clearly imagine what it will be like then, as the heart of the whisky is all there and now it just needs time in good casks to fulfill its destiny. The chosen cask type is exclusively a variety of sherry woods, which I thought was a pity, as I can imagine this spirit could really shine if given 100% refill bourbon maturation, but oh well – what do I know. “Above Average”: 82/100 (3.25 stars)