Belgian Owl Passion – haunted by Caperdonich

Look guys, if you are a regular reader here, you probably already noticed I am an incredible snob. My passion for whisky is almost solely limited to Scotch. I can appreciate an occasional Irish, and dibbing my nose in something American is also not too bad. The Japanese malts are perfect but so utterly unreachable because of ridiculous pricing. And then there is the rest. For which I do not care too much. Only the Dutch producer Zuidam made it on here with their Millstone single malt. I should broaden my horizon, obviously, but I have only one liver, and keep finding myself back at Scotch. And don’t even get me started on Malternatives.

Today we add Belgian single malt to our ultra short list of “world whisky”, but I have to say, this one comes with a strong tie to Scotland. The Belgian Owl distillery appeared on my radar years ago because they bought the stills of the demolished and beloved Caperdonich Distillery. Even though that Speyside distillery was, by all intents and purposes, an exact copy of Glen Grant Distillery, it still has a reputation all its own. Especially thanks to 1972 vintages that hit the market via independent bottler Duncan Taylor, where Mark Watt plundered all stock of that fruity nectar.

The Belgian Owl bottles an expression under the name Passion, and advertises this especially as being distilled in the old Caperdonich copper stills. While I write this blog, I already poured a glass, and the ghost of the now demolished distillery definitely starts haunting the living room. I got by this bottle on holiday in the quaint Belgian city of Dinant, where it got recommended to me by Matthias of specialist beer retailer A c’t heure Dinant. A nicer guy you will not quickly meet, and taking home this Belgian whisky was just one of his successes that day, because well, when there, you cannot not take Belgian beer with you (and a delicious white wine actually).

Belgian Owl “Passion”, bottled at 46 % abv

Makeup: Belgian Owl Passion is always a single cask, matured for 42 to 47 months in a bourbon cask, and bottled at 46 % abv. The Whiskybase link is to a different bottle, my expression mentions the cask number 389.

General impressions: Exuberant nose riddled with a fruit basket of smells. We pick up mango and pineapple juice from a tin can. There is also a signature of overripe pears and bright yellow apples. Talking about apples, the idea of an apple pie straight from the oven is not that far-fetched. You could sell a house with this whisky if you secretly leave a bottle open somewhere. Taking a sip, one cannot miss how gently soft this liquid is, despite a rather young age. The tasting notes are drenched in yellow fruit, lychee, melon, a hint of lemon but not that sour, and this all based on a good basis of malted barley. A overlaying dose of vanilla notes is the glue that keeps it all in balance. With water, some wood spices come out, but it takes away some complexity. The diluting of this bottling to 46 % is just perfect.

Conclusion: Impressive to lure out the fruitiness that seems to house in the soul of these stills, at such a young age. Delicious whisky, that is very firmly a single malt Scotch in all but name. But I would sell the beautiful Hesbaye region short of denying it an own soul. Go visit! .

Score: 86 points

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