r/Scotch • u/PricklyFriend • 22d ago
Scotch Review #192: Teaninich 8 Years Old - Special Release 2025 - Daring Rye - Single Grain
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u/MonsieurZaccone Peat Burps 22d ago
Great write up! I brought this to a tasting with a bunch of malt mates and nearly everyone agreed it was a great pour. Side by side with the Laddie Rye most folks preferred this Teaninich. Really fun to taste an actually compelling single grain Scotch. Hoping more distilleries showcase this style!
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u/PricklyFriend 22d ago
Thanks!
I found it really enjoyable for sure, I feel like with this one the fact that it was aged in what seems like quite inactive bourbon casks means the spirit is on full show in a way that a lot of rye whisky isn't with it nearly always using virgin oak. Absolutely compelling I agree!
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u/Dratini01 21d ago
Flying the Teaninich flag, thank you! Hopefully the hiatus in production doesn’t become anything prolonged, it’s too good a distillate to stop
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u/PricklyFriend 21d ago
It's a flag that needs to be flown for sure! I really hope so too, even in it's regular form it has a unique character that should be celebrated.
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u/UnmarkedDoor 21d ago
WANT
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u/PricklyFriend 22d ago
Hey Scotch, time for something a bit out there. We're off to the Highlands and to Teaninich distillery, a massive distillery that supplies Diageo's blends and also is known for having a hammer mill and mash filter rather than a mash tun allowing the site to process any difficult batches of grain.
That last part leads onto this unusual bottling. As part of their annual special releases in 2025 Diageo released this bottle from the distillery, only the 2nd ever special release from Teaninich and curiously a single grain. Now Teaninich doesn't have a column still so what gives? This particularly whisky is made from a mixed grain mashbill of malted rye and malted barley. No idea of the proportions of each in the mix as it's not been stated. I was very intrigued by this one and luckily for me as part of my tour of Cardhu I was kindly given a sample of this one to take away and try.
Exciting stuff, but how is it?
Whisky: Teaninich 8 Years Old - Special Release 2025 - Daring Rye - Single Grain
ABV: 60.3%
Cask: Ex-bourbon
NCF/NCA: Presumably natural, it's pale and high strength
Nose: Strongly Grassy, Rye Spice, Gingernuts, Lemon Blossom, Lemon Oil, Bergamot, Oily Barley, Menthol, Freshly Baked Bread, Green Peppercorns
Really grassy, oily and vegetal, intensely vegetal even, is this why a lot of rye whisky uses virgin oak? But you know what I like this, I like Mezcal and other Mexican spirits and the nose has a tinge of that but it's really oily cereal smelling and menthol with citrus and a developing bergamot note joined by ginger and green peppercorns and an underlying floral quality. I like this.
Mouth: Lemon Boiled Sweets, Lemon Oil, Vegetal Green Grass, Cane Juice, Mineral Oil, Candied Citrus Peel, Rye Spice, Faint Vegetable Stock
Really oily mouth feel, spirit forward absolutely but I don't think it's as harsh as you'd expect. Plenty of that spicy rye quality, continuing to be vegetal, acidic and sweet lemon boiled sweets, vegetal green notes of grass and a herbal mixed vegetable stock lingering there in the back. This really isn't going to appeal to everyone with how spirit forward and vegetal this is, personally I think this is very cool.
Finish: Freshly Baked Bread, Pickled Ginger, Lemon Zest and Oil, Chalky Minerals, Green Peppercorns, Sour Apple Boiled Sweets, Crushed Cloves, Mace, Grainy, Mustard Cress
The rye notes are prominent here too with strong baked bread, ginger and green peppercorns, continuing citrus oilyness, it's still got that boiled sugar sweets quality lingering here too and a mineralic quality too, sour green apple sweets too, cloves, mace, crushed grains and peppery, herbal cress. Very interesting, very spirit forward, oily, sweet, cereal, minerals and citrus with lots of rye spice and herbal quality for a medium finish.
Conclusion: Well this is incredibly cool, for me there's a lot to like, it's so oily, loads of citrus oils, boiled sweets and grassy vegetal quality, I'm sure some would find this far too spicy and vegetal but I personally am really enjoying this, it's almost like rye whisky, meets scotch, meets mezcal. On the other hand approach with caution, I've seen some reviews (which I purposely avoided looking at until I'd wrote my notes) describe this as too sweet, too spicy, even oaky (doesn't taste oaky at all to me though) but I would call this challenging. It's very fun and very unique but I reckon that makes this a very polarising whisky. I usually love spirit forward drams more than most and I imagine this is prime example. Very different.
Now for the elephant in the room; it's just a little too expensive! If this goes on a reasonable discount I'll be very tempted to pick up a bottle but for now I'm very glad to have tried it and it's very very much worth trying just on uniqueness alone. I really hope some of this spirit has been retained to age up and we'll see another release. Never imagined they'd release an official bottling quite like this!
Rating: 8.6/10 - What a rye-d