Uncharted Whisky Co, I'll Take The Low Road, Inchfad 17 Year Old

Key Facts About This Single Malt Scotch

Bottler: Uncharted Whisky Company

Founders: Jack Breslin and Dana de Vos

Release: I'll Take The Low Road

Distillery: Inchfad by Loch Lomond

Region: Highlands, Scotland

Age: 17 years

Distilled: February 2005

Bottled: April 2022

Cask Type: Single ex-bourbon hogshead

Cask Ref: UC011

Alcohol by Volume: Cask strength at 53.1%

Bottled: Natural colour and non chill filtered

Outturn: 255 bottles

Bottle Size: 700ml

Inchfad 17 Tasting Notes

Official tasting notes

Nose: Soft smoke steams from the glass laced with sugary sweet and earthen peat. Vanilla ice cream follows on with hints of boiled sweets and citrus.

Palate: A bold and heady concoction of complex flavours. First the sweetness of peat and old malt coats the mouth followed by a second deeper and richer earthy peat. As it fades, citric boiled sweets, creaminess of marshmallows and a whole rack of spices emerge.

Finish: Heady and earthy peat lingers long, mingled with sweetness and spice and all things nice. A touch of orange rind is the last to leave.

Ed's review

Colour: Medium gold, thick and viscous in the glass with tears that develop slowly.

Nose: Apples and pears next to the campfire as soft wood smoke rises through the autumnal air. Orange citrus peel with a touch of minerality.

Palate: Medium mouthfeel. Creamy with vanilla fudge. Gentle peat smoke adds an earthy quality. Malt biscuits and wood spice. Alcohol is well integrated.

Finish: Medium to long finish with sweet fruit, oak, a touch of gentle smoke, and a hint of spice.

Overall: An excellent example of the quality single malts coming from Loch Lomond. I really enjoyed the balanced complexity of this gently peated dram. A great cask pick from Uncharted.

About Uncharted's I'll Take The Low Road

This rich and earthy whisky is full-bodied, complex and bursting with smokey peat. Each bottle is drawn from an ex-bourbon hogshead, filled and individually labelled by hand. I’ll Take The Low Road, has been bottled the way the highlanders would have drunk it, cask strength. After 17 years of maturation, the natural ABV of this cask is 53.1%. And, Uncharted Whisky has kept this single malt all-natural, without colouring or chill-filtration.

But why the name, I'll Take The Low Road? Good question.

Jack and Dana at Uncharted Whisky name all their releases. The name is chosen to suit each cask they bottle. The age, taste, character, rarity and strength all contribute. This cask might as well have named itself. Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky distilled in Loch Lomond distillery, a hop skip and a jump from the bonnnie, bonnie banks. The first time Jack and Dana released a whisky distilled at Loch Lomond, they christened it “You Take The High Road”. This second Loch Lomond cask quite simply had to call “I’ll Take The Low Road”.

For those who aren’t born and bred in bonnie Scotland, there is a very famous old Scots song called Loch Lomond. It's often played, and sung along to, at the end of celebrations and ceilidhs. It goes… 

“O ye’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road,

And I’ll be in Scotland a’fore ye,

But me and my true love will never meet again,

On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond