By Julien Willems
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Incognito
The Society’s latest small-batch ‘Heresy’ bottling Batch 41: Incognito is a unique example of what can happen when the Whisky Team go from cask custodians to trying their hand at distilling, says Julien Willems
‘Heresy’ bottling Batch 41: Incognito is the result of the Whisky Team’s custom distillation
Some of you may remember fondly our bottling G16 Dark ‘n’ Stormy Crème Brûlée, a festivals special from 2023 that was the result of a custom distillation we carried out at distillery 156 back in April 2016. That bottling was from a special project to distil our own bourbon-style mashbill, and was greeted rapturously by members at the time.
Here’s the good news – our new small-batch ‘Heresy’ release, Batch 41: Incognito, comes from the very same batch of casks produced from that distillation.
Like its predecessor, Incognito is a grain whisky inspired by the US but with its feet firmly planted in Scotland.
Incognito is closely related to our festivals release from 2023, G16 Dark ‘n’ Stormy Crème Brûlée
Scotch grain whiskies are almost exclusively produced in column stills, even the quirkier ones like G15 which is distilled from 100 per cent malted barley. Indeed, even there a “short” (everything is relative) copper column still is used.
Not so for Batch 41 though, as it was double distilled in a pot still in Western Scotland, which is quite unusual for Scotch grain whisky. In any case, that process allowed us to obtain a wider cut than most grains would get, resulting in a fattier, more complex and rich textural spirit with exceptional potential for development in cask.
The mashbill, or in layman’s terms the cereal mix that went into the mash used to create this whisky, takes a page from the US whiskey distillers’ book. Firstly, its dominant ingredient is corn, at a 58 per cent ratio, supplying smooth and rounded flavours to the spirit.
The inspiration here is the bourbon mashbill, which must by US law contain at least 51 per cent corn. Add to this 21 per cent of malted barley, which we all know and love for its fruity potential in whisky. And finally, 21 per cent un-malted rye, providing a spicy backbone and hints of rosewater.
“We took a bit of trans-Atlantic inspiration for this one,” says head of whisky, Euan Campbell. “We used some different grains to create our mashbill and carried out a custom distillation in a pot still, which is unusual for a grain whisky! It was also matured in heavily charred 24-month air-seasoned new oak barrels from Kelvin Cooperage in the US, with toasted heads added to the casks to create even more flavour.”
SMWS head of whisky Euan Campbell back in 2016, overseeing the custom distillation of what would become Incognito
Indeed, if you look across to bourbon producers, they are once again bound by law and must use charred new oak to mature their whiskey. But there had to be a Society twist so we decided to go for toasted heads in our casks. This helps to get more wood extractives while not compromising too much on the amount of charred oak surface inside the cask. In rough terms, this means 70 per cent of the cask has undergone a heavy char, while 30 per cent is toasted oak.
For the benefit of those happy souls more interested in flavour than technical details, char acts as a sort of carbon filter, helping to pull out some “immature” flavours and rough edges from a whisky, while toasted oak has no char, but a lot of heat-treated oak exposed, allowing for excellent flavour extraction.
So, no, this is not bourbon, it is most definitely Scotch grain whisky, but drawing its ingredients, methods and maturation style from a good bit of fun trans-Atlantic inspiration.
These were our very last casks from this experiment, which to some extent makes me a little sad, as I would have loved to see those mature and evolve further for many more years. But upon control tasting them at 9-year-old, the Whisky Team was left intrigued by the flavours we found in each cask and the level of consistency on display for our noses and palates.
So, we made a batch out of our four remaining casks and submitted it to the same scrutiny as all our whiskies. Unsurprisingly, the Tasting Panel was in unanimous and vocal agreement with us: too good not to be bottled. So, while this certainly marks the end of this project, what an end it is!
Incognito is a grain whisky with its feet firmly planted in Scotland
I cannot recommend enough that you try this grain whisky if you get the chance, certainly for curiosity’s sake at first, but before you know you’ll find yourself sipping it as the great whisky it is.
But if anything, it’s worth having this on your shelf as a unique example of what can happen when we go from cask custodians to trying our hand at distilling. Borrowed ideas and a lot of help some will no doubt say. And that’s fine, let them, I’ll take it as an admission that this Batch 41: Incognito tastes fantastic!
You can shop our entire Heresy range here, or check your local website outside of the UK