Invergordon 'Capella' North Star Spirits Cask Series 024 & Campbeltown 4 Year Old 2014 North Star Spirits

Invergordon 'Capella' North Star Spirits Cask Series 024

Region: Highlands

ABV: 50.0%

Price: £99.95 

his release is a blend of two refill hogsheads distilled in 1994 and bottled at a natural strength of 50% ABV. A total of 470 bottles were produced.

Nose

The nose opens with vanilla essence, butterscotch, cold butter, simple white sugar, a little green apple, overcooked muffin batter, whipped cream and a little furniture polish. It’s very cask driven with lots of bourbon sweetness coming through which compliments the older grain spirit. The alcohol is in good balance and wet re getting some old wooden furniture aromas appearing as it opens up in the glass.

Palate

The palate opens with more sweet vanilla frosting, buttercream, white pepper, simple vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of toffee sauce, and limoncello. The mouthfeel is relatively thick, but the finish falls quite short for us, leaving lingering candyfloss sweetness and peppery spice. Speaking of the spice, the alcohol feels a bit overpowering in places, we expected a softer, more rounded integration based off the nose. Going back, we’re finding wafer cones and a little gooseberry right in the background.

Nose (with water)

The reduced nose mirrors the unreduced version pretty closely, however some of that industrial grain varnish/polish aromas seem to make themselves known more prominently. Saying that, there’s still lots of vanilla, fudge, whipped cream and cakeiness hanging around.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate maintains the creamy, viscous mouthfeel but some of the peppery spice comes to the forefront, and there’s a slightly bitter oak note appearing for us on the finish. We’re also getting rice paper and apple jelly. We don’t that find water really helps much here.

Conclusion

A classic grain with more cask influence than some of the other comparable bottlings we’ve had. This helps to balance some of the industrial grain spirit in a positive way. The biggest flaw for us is the finish, it falls away too quickly however it’s a solid grain whisky that we’d happy sip on.

Score: 7/10

Value

You wont get 30 year old grain anywhere for much less than £100.

Campbeltown 4 Year Old 2014 North Star Spirits

Region: Campbeltown

ABV: 57.0%

Price: £45.00 

This release is a blend of bourbon hogsheads distilled in April 2014 and bottled in May 2018. All the casks used were sourced from Campbeltown. A total of 726 bottles were produced.

Nose

The nose opens with some lemon peel, synthetic vanilla, a little salted caramel, musty warehouses, and pear skin. It’s a fairly light nose, none of the aforementioned aromas are jumping out of the glass. As we go back, there’s also some peach, floral eucalyptus aromas, yeasty bread dough and a little hazelnut make an appearance. The alcohol is present and a little peppery but we can get past that as it melds quite well with the spirit and cask.

Palate

The palate opens with a handful of boiled sweeties, apple mainly, moving into flaky filo pastry, soft vanilla cream, black pepper, hazelnut butter, simple sugar syrup and a bit of lime zest in the background. There’s more flavour here than we expected, we were skeptical of what the cask would have done after only 4 years but were pleasantly surprised. The mouthfeel is good, fairly syrupy, and the finish lingers for a medium length with a little chocolate and mint leaf flavour.

Nose (with water)

The reduced nose has richer cask aromas coming through, more caramel, toffee and brown sugar as opposed to white sugar. There’s still some coastal salinity, and a bit of peppery spice. Water has changed the nose a bit, but whether you prefer the lighter aromas or heavier cask influence will be up to you.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate maintains a silky, oily mouthfeel, but the spice comes out first. Following this, we’re getting salted clotted cream, a bit of citrus, melon, and pear drops. There’s a bit more bitter oak on the finish, and a touch more raw spirit, but it’s still pretty good with water.

Conclusion

We were slightly hesitant coming into this as it’s bold to put a 4 year age statement on anything, however we’re pleasantly surprised. The spirit is good, the cask is good, more time might’ve given the whisky a little more complexity and a little more balance, however it’s perfectly drinkable and enjoyable.

Score: 7.5/10

Value

You can still pick this up occasionally on auction for around £45 which isn’t bad for some cask strength whisky.

• 10 - Perfection. One in a million
• 9 - Outstanding. Exceptional whisky.
• 8 - Great. Would seek this out.
• 7 - Good. Quality whisky.
• 6 - Above average. Happy to have a dram.
• 5 - Average. Drinkable whisky.
• 4 - Below average. Passable.
• 3 - Flawed. Noticeable negatives.
• 2 - Defective. Significant faults.
• 1 - Offensive. Pour it out.

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