I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There’s nothing wrong with a good blend! It’s a bias we still see a lot in the world of whiskies. Blends are bad and single malts is where it’s at. But you couldn’t be further from the truth. I always say that the only question when it comes to blends is with which purpose it was blended. Is it to provide a low price point? Or is it to enable unlimited creativity? The latter applies to Ally (Alisdair red.) and Steven Gordonson’s Turntable Spirits. Where they create expertly crafted blended whiskies, such as this Turntable x Starward Collaboration Drop no. 1.
I for one believe that if you give an artist a white canvas and any paint (or in the case of this artist whisky) in the world to choose from, that they can create true masterpieces. Very similar to my experience with Chichibu’s Spirits of Salud. I’m also in love with the concept of collaboration drops. Turntable is very open about the spirits they use in the first place (in fact they give you the exact recipe), with these collaboration drops they aim to highlight the profile of a single distillery. For this first collaboration drop they went for Starward. But there’s also a Dingle version out now too!
With so many great blends to choose from already (I’ve tried the Purple Haze before too and it rocks!) the first review had to be the Turntable x Starward release ofcourse. Seeing as I spend most of my days working with Starward and I’d love to find out for myself how they’ve highlighted it’s pronounced ex-Australian Wine character. With 39% Starward ex-Red Wine, 10% Caol Ila ex-Bourbon, 29% Inchgower Virgin Oak and 22% North British Virgin Oak, the Starward character should be able to shine right through. Let’s find out!
Tasting Notes: Turntable Collaboration Drop #1 – Turntable x Starward
Stats:
Age: NAS
ABV: 46%
Distillery: Starward/Caol Ila/Inchgower/North British
Bottler: Turntable Spirits
Chill-filtered: No
Natural Colour: Yes
Nose:
Sugar plums, cream-filled donuts, rum raisins and Peach Melba. The nose of this dram is like walking into an old confectionary shop from days gone by. And as a former history student with a fondness for all things nostalgic, I absolutely love it. Some faint hints of soft liquorice, caramel taffy, and sweet popcorn add a further layer of complexity.
Palate:
Strawberry shortcake, cactus lemonade, a tiny sting of pepper, and plenty of candied apples. If anything, this Turntable x Starward release boggles my palate a little bit. These are not flavours I’m used to picking up together. But isn’t that just the beauty of blends? The tiny hint of peat adds some lovely complexity to the Starward profile, while the grain whisky mellow the other two expressive components out a little bit.
Finish:
The finish is rather long and some slight tannic influences do pop up here. Which is no wonder with the trifecta of ex-wine barrels and two times Virgin Oak. But there’s a lovely sweet note that lingers as well, which hold a balance between cotton candy and strawberry marmelade. And with the tannic influences never becoming overbearing, it’s quite the pleasant experience!
Verdict:
As someone who has quite a bit of experience with Starward I have to say, it’s clearly a different DNA that I’m finding here. Don’t get me wrong, the character is still here. But it’s an entirely different body. I would almost call it rounded off. Whether that’s a good thing is in the eye of the beholder ofcourse, but personally I like the chance of pace. It needed to be differfent enough to warrant picking this over one of Starward’s own bottlings after all, and if you ask me it succeeds at that in a proper manner! Though personally I would have loved to see a touch more Caol Ila, and a touch less Inchgower. But that’s just my palate, and that’s different for everyone! All-in-all this is a stellar product to showcase just how good blends can be.
