91

Score

Hammerhead 28 year old Czech Single Malt, 51.2%

Price: $350 Issue: Summer 2018 Reviewer: Susannah Skiver Barton

Floral, resinous, almost hoppy on the nose, with dusty cedar chest, old leather chair, white pepper, licorice, and an intriguing tangy note, like pickles. The palate's intense oakiness is tempered by an herbaceous sweetness and integrated spice—cinnamon, cubeb, and allspice, with chalky minerality. There's a savory and saline quality that lingers into the finish, which is spicy and dry with oak tannins. Distilled in 1989 in what was then Czechoslovakia, using Czech peat, and matured in Czech oak casks. (300 bottles; U.S. only)