A loving meeting between a Scottish highlander and an Andalusian wine cask - by rum blogger Jan Ohrt

Post by Jan Ohrt

I have been told that Deanston Distillery is well respected and widely known as a supplier of a solid, broad portfolio of Highland single malts. They see themselves as traditional without being bound by tradition, and that makes their products sought after all over the world. They work best analogue and almost step by step through every process of this fantastic craft, but they are not at all afraid of aiming a little off target in their search for a new masterpiece. That vision is driven not least by their master blender Julieann Fernandez-Thompson, who despite a Spanish father and a Scottish mother speaks with an unmistakable Scottish accent when she talks about the passion and mission of her life: making the best single malt in the world. I am still only a happy novice in this magical universe and will therefore be the last to point at the world's best whisky, but this bold attempt from Julieann surprised me very positively indeed.

With this Deanston Orange Wine Cask 17 Year Old they have managed to bring the generous warmth and sensory impressions of Andalusia into this very solid, balanced Highland single malt. Perhaps that is why many of the 7,000 bottles filled are already sold out in most places, but if you look at Whisky.dk, the only retailer in Denmark, there are still some bottles on the shelf.

The colour is a beautiful orange gold and the nose seems, just to begin with, perhaps a touch ambiguous. The first thing you meet is the familiar whisky aroma with pleasantly restrained malt, oak and vanilla, but it quickly unfolds with fresh orange peel, grandmother's marmalade, honey-roasted almonds and floral notes. Mild spices lurk pleasantly in the background and the whole thing comes together harmoniously. That bodes well.

The palate arrives oily and viscous at first, clinging well to the mouth, a little sticky, with a dry feel at the end. The impressions of flower honey and gentle spice quickly take over, along with the inevitable but charming assault of oranges. But with the robust backbone of bourbon cask in the original whisky you keep your bearings and are never in doubt about what you are drinking. And the relatively high ABV of 53.6% makes sure the whole thing is tied together properly. I naturally also tried adding a little water, but there it changed character completely and turned slightly nutty and bitter. So I definitely prefer it as a neat dram.

My conclusion is unambiguously positive. This charmer, which Julieann Fernandez-Thompson herself calls an experiment, today made me love whisky too, something I have previously been very reserved about saying. You can clearly sense the distillery's competence and their thorough, meticulous approach to their craft, and I will look forward expectantly to more experiments from that quarter. They play and test the boundaries, but they quite obviously know what they are doing.

But let us head into the kitchen and meet halfway between Scotland and Andalusia, namely in France. I cannot resist finding out what this lovely dram can do for one of my favourite desserts, crepes Suzette. If it turns out well we can call it crepes Julieann.

For eight large pancakes you need:
1 vanilla pod, 3 tbsp sugar, 3 eggs, 2.5 dl milk, a pinch of salt, 1 dl beer, 125 g plain flour plus butter for frying.

• Split the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the seeds and stir them into the sugar.
• Put the sugar, vanilla, eggs, milk, beer and salt in a bowl. Whisk together and sift in the flour. Stir the batter well and let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Heat a pan well and melt a little butter in it. Fry thin pancakes on both sides until light brown. Set them aside on a plate while the orange sauce is made.

And for the orange sauce:
45 g sugar, 45 g butter, 50 g chopped almonds, the juice of 2 organic oranges and a little finely grated zest, 4 cl Deanston Orange Wine Cask 17 Year Old plus 1 orange cut into wedges and filleted.

• Melt the sugar in a pan over medium heat. Add the butter, almonds and orange zest to the sugar and stir it together with a palette knife.
• Pour the Deanston Orange Wine Cask into the pan, set it alight and be very careful, because it can produce tall flames while the alcohol burns off.
• Pour the orange juice and orange fillets into the pan once there are no flames left, and turn off the heat. Fold the thin pancakes into triangles. Turn them in the orange sauce in the pan and arrange them on plates with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Spread the rest of the orange sauce and the orange fillets over the plates. Sprinkle generously with chopped almonds and grated orange zest.

To serve:
½ litre of good vanilla ice cream.

Cheers and enjoy.