Hey There! Today we are doing a quick review of Rock Island Blended Malt Sherry edition. This bottle is produced by Douglas Laing & Co. A very successful independent bottler. They have many bottlings that include single malts, blended malts and single grains too. This whisky came as a surprise to me. Let's see if it can surprise you too. 

A little bit about Douglas Laing & Co

Douglas Laing & Co is an independent bottler of Scotch whisky. Based in Glasgow, Scotland and established in 1948, the company has a number of brands including its "Remarkable Regional Malts" range, encompassing The Epicurean, Timorous Beastie, Scallywag, Rock Island and Big Peat, as well as Old Particular, Provenance and Xtra Old Particular, which they collectively call their "Exceptional Single Casks". The firm also creates and sells King of Scots Blended Scotch Whisky, Clan Denny Single Casks and Premier Barrel. They also own a distillery that is new called the Strathearn Distillery.

• The Epicurean: First released in 2016, The Epicurean is Douglas Laing's Lowland blended malt. Bottled at 46% with packaging featuring a character said to be the "1930s cheeky chappy from Glasgow".
• Timorous Beastie: Timorous Beastie is a Highland Blended Malt, featuring a mouse on the packaging in homage to Robert Burns' famous Scots poem, To a Mouse. A blend of Highland single malts, Timorous Beastie combines spirit from Glen Garioch, Glengoyne and Blair Athol Distilleries and is bottled at 46.8%. Since its launch in 2014, Douglas Laing has released a series of aged Timorous Beastie bottlings, including Timorous Beastie 40 Years Old.  
• Scallywag: Launched in 2013, Scallywag is a blend of Speyside single malts, predominantly matured in Sherry butts and bottled at 46%. The packaging features a Fox Terrier in honour of the Douglas Laing family's long line of pets. Douglas Laing has also released some limited edition Scallywag products, including cask strength bottlings.
• Rock Island: Rock Island is an island blended malt scotch whisky, combining single malts distilled on Islay, Arran, Jura and Orkney. Formerly known as Rock Oyster.

• Big Peat: Combining only Islay Malt Whisky from the Ardbeg, Port Ellen, Bowmore and the Caol Ila distilleries, Douglas Laing's Big Peat Small Batch Islay blended malt whisky or vatted malt is bottled at 46% alcohol strength. Big Peat has received plaudits worldwide including an award for Scottish Vatted Malt of the Year in Jim Murray's Whisky Bible and Blended Scotch Malt of the Year at the World Whiskies Awards 2010. A festive themed Big Peat limited edition bottling is released annually at cask strength for extra warmth during the cold winter months.

Strathearn distillery

The distillery commenced production in 2013 under the ownership of Tony Reeman-Clark, David Land and David Wight. Initially the distillery produced gin and the first whisky was distilled in October 2013.

In 2019, the distillery was acquired by the Glasgow company Douglas Laing & Co.

Strathearn Distillery is probably Scotland's smallest distillery. They not only produce Single Malt Whisky but also a range of spirits including hand-crafted, artisan single cask by using traditional methods and ideas. 

They just release the Strathearn - Inaugural Bottling which is a NAS single malt whisky matured in Ex-Bourbon, Virgin Oak and Oloroso Sherry casks.

Rock Island Blended Malt Sherry Edition - Natural Color, Non-chill filtered, 46.8%

"Rock Island Sherry Edition is a marriage of Single Cask Single Malts distilled on the revered islands of Islay, Arran, Jura and Orkney, matured exclusively in Spanish Sherry casks. Bottled at 46.8% alcohol strength, this maritime Malt is proudly offered without colouring or chill-filtration ensuring the Whisky is as natural as it gets."

From their description we can insinuate that this blended malt consists of Jura, Highland Park, Arran or Machrie Moor and Bowmore / Caol Ila / Ardbeg (DL have connection to these companies and they buy whisky from them so it's either or.)

Nose: Sweet salty smoke. Coastal influence here. Sea spray, brine and a bit of salted fish. Peppery peat smoke. The sherry becomes evident even tho that it is quite subdued: it's mellow, but rounded, with raisin, orange, black cherry, dried apricot. Salted caramel, with some vanilla and hazelnut.

Taste: Peat smoke, sea salt, caramel, orange marmalade, ash, honey, little chocolate and forest fruits. This must be one of the most salty whiskies I've ever had. Wonderful dram.

Finish: Long, peat, caramel, sea salt, charcoal, forest fruits and chocolate.

Overall I quite like this and this shall be on my shelves always if I can get it for a reasonable price. I recommend you try this. 87 / 100 

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. To many more. Sláinte.