한 겨울에 가죽장갑 끼고 물건 들고 여기저기 돌아다니다가 실내 들어와서 양손에 들린 짐을 한쪽손에 몰아놓고 나머지 손의 장갑을 입에 물고 벗길 때 코와 입술,혀에 닿는 그 특유의 쿰쿰함과 쌉싸르함. 이랄까... 강렬하게 다가오는 그런 한겨울 가죽장갑같은 느낌뒤로는 약간 달달한 바닐라 향이 살짝 묻어나오고, 숙성년수 탓인지 역시 매콤함도 빠지지 않는다. 맛에서는 꿀 같은 달달함과 옅게 따라오는 시트러스, 그리고 노즈에서 느꼈던 가죽 같은 느낌의 특유의 쌉싸름함과 스파이시가 느껴진다. 전체적으로 향은 다르지만 맛에서는 요즘도 가끔 마시고 있는 글렌알라키 10년 CS 배치 7번과 유사한 부분이 있다고 느꼈다. 피니쉬는 역시 셰리벗의 캐릭터가 잘 느껴질만큼 향긋과 쿰쿰의 그언저리쯤의 셰리로 마무리되고, 여운은 꽤 긴편이다. 습하습하~ 스파이시한 부분을 어렵지 않게 받아들일 수 있다면, 10년숙성년수 치고는 아주 만족스러운 보틀이다. 다만, 10년숙성의 500ml짜리 CS 위스키 치고는 가격이 꽤 높은점과 그나마도 병입수량이 적은 라인이라 구하기가 힘들다는 점, 핵똥손들에겐 리스크가 있다는 점들이 단점일 수 있겠다.
Picture this: it's the dead of winter, you're wearing leather gloves, lugging stuff around here and there, then you come indoors, shove all the bags into one hand, and pull the glove off the other hand with your teeth - that particular musty funk and bitterness that hits your nose, lips and tongue right then. Something like that...
Behind that intense, midwinter-leather-glove feeling, a faint touch of sweet vanilla comes through, and - maybe because of the age - the spicy heat isn't missing either.
On the palate there's a honey-like sweetness with a faint citrus trailing along, plus the distinctive bitterness and spice of that leather-like character I got on the nose. Overall the nose is different, but on the palate I felt it had something in common with the GlenAllachie 10 CS Batch 7 that I still sip now and then.
The finish wraps up with sherry somewhere between fragrant and funky, showing off the sherry butt's character nicely, and it lingers quite a while. Sniff, sniff~
If you can handle the spicy side without much trouble, it's a very satisfying bottle for a 10-year-old.
That said, the downsides might be that the price is pretty high for a 10-year-old 500ml CS whisky, that it's hard to find because it's a line with small bottling runs, and that it's a risky bet for those of us cursed with terrible luck.
I think Edradour's products are the kind of whisky where every single time I buy one I'm grumbling 'What... what is this... what's with this color...' and then end up buying it as if bewitched.
It's not just the color - the powerful punch and the blunt, bold expression of flavor and aroma that Edradour's younger expressions deliver tend to really satisfy me personally, so this time too, when the chance to buy came along, I traded my blood, sweat and tears for it without much hesitation.
Edradour S.F.T.C 2012/2022 10years No.460
It's 500ml, so I'm exactly 200ml worth of sad
Just like the [Edradour 12 CS Ibisco Decanter] I bought and drank before, the [S.F.T.C] case has also switched to a black cylinder. (Looks like it got renewed in 2022...)
Personally I prefer the wooden case from before the change, but I guess they switched to this plain-looking case because of breakage in distribution or cost issues.
The bottle design is the same as their existing releases: a round 500ml bottle, a wide mouth with a cork stopper, a neck wrapped in brown twine that feels vintage for no particular reason, and, again, a very wood-ish label.
S.F.T.C (Straight From The Cask) seems to be Edradour's own way of saying cask strength (CS), and since the label also shows the specific Sherry Butt cask no. and the total number of bottles, it looks like it's both CS and a single cask.
Maybe that's why Edradour S.F.T.C only gets a limited number of bottles each year, so there isn't much of it around, and for a mere 10-year-old the price is rather cheeky, so you could say it's really hard to get hold of. (The distillery is teeny-tiny, too...)
On top of that, since it's a single cask, you could say you need a bit of lottery luck as well.
(I'm the cursed-hands type, so this part always worries me first.) Hey, everybody! Come look at the color on this little rascal who's only ten years old!
Gazing at that color in the bottle - the kind only Edradour gives you, building anticipation before you've even opened it - I pour myself a glass, glug glug, with a fluttering heart.
Yep, even in the glass, Edradour doesn't go anywhere!?
For a 10-year-old, the color is clearly different from its peers at other distilleries.
Bringing the glass to my nose and giving it a slow sweep, sniff, sniff,
it's a different texture again from the Edradour 12 CS Ibisco Decanter.
It doesn't come across as just two years younger - it comes across as something else entirely.
If the 12 CS gave me a first impression like the end of the pencil I used to chew on in elementary school, this one has an aroma seeping into my nose that I want to call leather? Yeah - leather.
Picture this: it's the dead of winter, you're wearing leather gloves, lugging stuff around here and there, then you come indoors, shove all the bags into one hand, and pull the glove off the other hand with your teeth - that particular musty funk and bitterness that hits your nose, lips and tongue right then.
Something like that...
Behind that intense, midwinter-leather-glove feeling, a faint touch of sweet vanilla comes through, and - maybe because of the age - the spicy heat isn't missing either.
On the palate there's a honey-like sweetness with a faint citrus trailing along, plus the distinctive bitterness and spice of that leather-like character I got on the nose.
Overall the nose is different, but on the palate I felt it had something in common with the GlenAllachie 10 CS Batch 7 that I still sip now and then.
The finish wraps up with sherry somewhere between fragrant and funky, showing off the sherry butt's character nicely, and it lingers quite a while. Sniff, sniff~
If you can handle the spicy side without much trouble, it's a very satisfying bottle for a 10-year-old.
That said, the downsides might be that the price is pretty high for a 10-year-old 500ml CS whisky, that it's hard to find because it's a line with small bottling runs, and that it's a risky bet for those of us cursed with terrible luck.
If only the price came down a little, I'd love to try S.F.T.C from other casks too.
Well then, let's meet again when that good day comes!??
