Another Good Spirits pickup bottle this wet Friday morning. From another independent bottler as well. Although, its not quite as simple as that because they are also a micro distillery of gin and have their own on-site warehouse for maturing spirits including their whiskies. Recently they have also moved into the Rum category with single casks and the “Wee Mongrel” brand of blended Rum. The Rum is produced with the same central mission as the whisky products; craft presentation, authentic and transparent marketing.

Started in 2018 and based in Aberdeenshire, on a farm owned by one of the two founders, the Little Brown Dog takes its name from the other founders dog who sadly has since passed away but she was a bonnie thing.

The Whisky

There is no Dalrymple distillery but there is a town of that name in Ayrshire. Well hamlet really because there is only 12 square miles to it not far from where I lived in the southern part of East Ayrshire. The distillery is actually Ailsa Bay which sites inside the site of Girvan grain distillery owned by William Grants.

Their used to be a constant supply of a few official bottles of Ailsa Bay and I had one which I never opened and sold at auction to help pay off some credit card bill which got out of control. I can’t see any available for sale anywhere so I guess they are just focusing on pushing the casks into blends which was the main purpose of the distillery anyway

This single cask is from a first fill Oloroso sherry butt producing 700 bottled at 56.8% ABV. Distilled in 2012 and bottled in 2023 which means its been longer than I thought since I bought it, I think I picked this up for around £50 which is stonking value but I can’t remember much from last month never mind 2 years ago so who knows.

Tasting Notes

Colour	Deep red Mahogany
Nose	Rich and powerfully alcohol stewed fruits, leather armchairs and Cognac.
Palate	Soreen bars, prunes, figs, Christmas!!
Finish	Cinnamon sweet but also drying and sappy

Final Thoughts

A fantastic single cask Sherry bomb. I would much rather spend the money on a small business like LBD and get a high quality bottle than spend 3 times as much on a similar product from Aberlour. So I think I will do more of that in the future.