Saltire Rare Malt is a new bottler from Scotland, grown from a long partnership between founders Nigel Heywood and Keith Rennie. They seem to focus on whisky between 10 and 20 years of age and they work with the Offringa couple to curate their selections. It seems to work as they were recently crowned Best Newcomer at the 2025 Scottish Whisky Awards.
In Spring 2025 they launched the first release from a Cigar Malt Series. It is an 18 year old single malt from Speyside distillery, which recently became a ‘lost distillery’ since they will relocate to a new Highland estate (and choose a new name).
Speyside 18 yo 2006 (48,8%, Saltire ‘Cigar Malt Series’ 2025, first-fill Ximénez-Spínola PX hogshead #0000001/279, 336 btl.)
Nose: excellent sherry. Dark treacle notes and raisins, but also much brighter hints of redcurrants and even some tinned pineapple. Juicy cherries. Then there’s also a layer of tobacco leaves and some dunnage notes, which work wonders. Subtle charred vanilla and black peppercorns. Even some smoky echoes.
Mouth: great mix of sweeter and drier notes. Plenty of raisins, along with prune jam and cherries. Caramelized peanuts. Flashes of cranberries. At the same time there are dried herbal notes, milk chocolate and light hints of molasses. Black pepper again. Then some sweet liquorice and candied ginger too.
Finish: long, still juicy, with tobacco coming back, along with chocolate and some oak spice.
A characterful spirit, a lovely style of sherry and even a hint of smoke in this unpeated whisky. Damn it, I should have discovered this sooner (and I should have bought a bottle). Not sure whether you can still find it. Thanks Wine4You for flagging this one.