Langatun Jacob’s Dram

• 

• 

Thanks to /u/Throzen for pouring me this dram.

What is Langatun Jacob’s Dram? This is the question I had when my buddy pulled it out at a tasting.

Langatun is a distillery with roots in brewing. Each year that pulls out a distilled spirit and has some fun. Granted in Switzerland, before 2007, that couldn’t include distilling barley, as it turns out that Switzerland hated happiness. Or something to do with clocks, I don’t really know why they’d have that on the books.

But it’s not anymore, and there are no major issues left in Switzerland that affect the world at large (that’s me saying something absurd to prove a point).

Jacob is Jacob Baumberger, the founder of the ‘dynasty’ of Langatun distilleries (as there have been many).

So we have a 6-year-old whisky from a varied distillery that pushes the envelope. Oh, and it was matured in an ex-red wine cask. Pretty cool.

But how does it taste? Let’s see, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Switzerland

Distillation Date: 27.06.2013

Bottling Date: February 2019

Cask Type: Pinot Noir #58

Lot No: L 0219

Abv: 49.12%

Colour: 7.5Y 9/6

Nose: Floral, mint, doughnut, perfume

A bit shy at first. It’s evident they are still working with it and giving it time.

Eventually, you get a floral, slightly spicy note. Very close to perfume as time goes on. Some sugar in there.

Taste: Plum, grass, donut, cinnamon/cocoa, funk/maple

Nice fruit note, more grassy now versus floral. Blind I’d think this was an ex-port cask. Different for a red wine cask.

Frankly, I used to write ex-red wine casks as an alternative for a non-descript ex-sherry, but this is different. Sweet, nice spice to it, and just a bit of a sweeter funk. Think overly sweet Kombucha maybe?

Still quite light. Good start though.

Finish: Floral, earth, orange, caramel

Short. Really short. The goodwill of the nicely developed sugar from before is gone. Some of the earth/floral is still there, so it’s not disjoint.

Conclusion: Needs more time. It’s really quite nice, let’s start there. I didn’t know what to expect. I had their Old Deer, however, that didn’t have ex-red wine casks.

This took to the Pinot Noir cask quite nicely. Took on some floral and sweet notes and was nicely balanced. However, it’s clear this needs more time. More time to develop more of a finish, more time to mix up those flavours and create something greater.

75/100

World Whisky review #365, Switzerland review #3, Whisky review #1722