Whisky Review – Hyde 10 year old

Hyde 10 year old

46% ABV

Non-Chill Filtered

A new distillery for me, Hyde 10 year old is made in west Cork, Ireland. Matured initially in first fill ex-bourbon casks and finished in vintage sherry casks. It’s quite the limited production, with only 5,000 bottles produced in this latest run. 100% malted Irish barley, non-chill filtered and at 46%. So it all sounds very interesting right from the off.

Nose.

On first pour this is a very fruity, rich, complex nose. Lots of honey sweetness, and soft fruit, peaches, overripe apple, banana, all mushed up for a pie. There’s a background of light spices, pepper and a tiny hint of clove. With some time there’s some pine needle wood aromas, touches of wood glue. Vanilla is more pronounced now with bourbon influences coming forward. After sitting it down for a few minutes and returning we now have more banana, banana foam sweeties and candy cigarettes. (Hadn’t thought of those in years, how politically incorrect my sweet based youth was compared to nowadays. Lol). I’m getting more of a cocoa powder note after a few more minutes. Very complex and changing with lots of aromas within.

Palate.

Immediately sweet, lots of thick honey sweetness. A slight bite of ABV heat, but for no time, followed by lots more chewy sweet treats. There’s a lovely coating mouthfeel, demanding to be chewed. Toffee, boiled sweets, jelly tots, blackberry/raspberry jellies. It’s quite the sweet shop dram. It quietens down in the development, some chocolate, soft fruit (apples, peaches, apricot) pie mix with creamy custard and a hint of spearmint. With more time the palate only gets more thicker and jammy, really flavoursome stuff.

Finish.

The spearmint continues into the finish, with some spicy, peppery oak nips in the finish, lots of juicy fruit jam. At the very end we get some aftermath of sucking on boiled fruit sweets, complete with the sugar coating. Warming in the chest and just plain delicious.

Adding water.

Added only a few drops as I think this dram is great at 46%. The nose is now more fruit concentrated, with some dustiness in the form of powdered sugar. The palate is also more about the fruit, it less intensive. Bubblegum elements are come through, old fashioned Anglo bubblegum! More banana now and less of the apples. Diluted this dram is very easy to drink, no harshness, no burn, just fruity goodness. The finish is again, very very fruity, sweet honey with sugar on top. Lush.

Conclusion.

A sweet tooth’s dram without a shadow of a doubt. This is a jar brimmed full of old fashioned sweets! Very much the desert whisky, or dieters whisky! This has a lot of sweet treats in the nose and palate, enough to bring the nostalgia of old sweet shops and long forgotten sweet delights of childhood back (as it did in me) to memory. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed this (it’s on my whisky wants list) and think it would make for a great session dram to sip alongside some chocolate treats!

Thanks so much to Hyde for providing the sample.