Fruit notes come in different ways and it's always a matter of taste, which kind of fruity notes you like. Fruity whiskies can be dark or dry, they can be ripe or tropical, or raw, fresh or crispy. Usually it's easy to determine, whether the fruity notes are green or red, or some other fruity tone. Citrus fruit notes are quite common. What makes whisky so great is its versatility: even a strong peaty whisky can offer fruity notes. And there are lots of different fruity notes, completely different from each other. Read more about whiskey tasting.
Fruit notes can be:
- Green fruits such as pears, apples, green grapefruits
- Dark fruits like plums, red grapefruits, prunes, figs, raisins
- Dried fruits like prunes, raisins
- Bananas or other exotic/tropical fruits like apricot, peaches, mangos, kiwis etc.
- Red fruits like apples, red grapefruits, cherries etc.
- Raw or ripe fruits
- Citrus fruits
- Strawberries (yes, it is a fruit)
Few good fruity drams:
- Bowmore Tempest 10YO Batch 6 is very peaty but tropical
- Kavalan Solist Ex-Bourbon is full of tropical fruits
- Black Bull Deluxe 12YO is fruity dark
- Bushmills 21YO offers a taste of fruit candy
- Balblair 1997 is full of green fruits – pears and grapefruits for example
- Glenlivet Nadurra 16YO has apricot and apples
- Edradour 2003 Ruby Port has notes of strawberry
Listed below are some categories, which tend to offer fruity drams.
I am trying to help a friend find a whiskey she fell in love with. She said it has notes of Raisin, dark cherry and possibly anise? Any suggestions on where to start?
Hi Amber,
Apologies for my late response! One that comes to mind is Aberlour A’Bunadh, quite a legend in sherry matured whiskies. The link will send you to batch 47, in which I found some cherry notes. Even though raisins aren’t included in my tasting notes on batch 47, Aberlour A’Bunadh has been matured in Oloroso sherry butts which will usually add raisin notes. So there’s a chance you’ll detect cherry and raisins on one of those. I must add that batch variations will occur and batch 47 is most likely out of stock everywhere because of high demand. But they release 1-5 batches per year, maybe you’ll find what you’re looking for in batch 66 which is the newest release.
Raisin notes are quite common with sherry matured whiskies but notes of cherry can be hard to find. Depending on taster’s palate too, of course. Distilleries such as Aberlour and GlenDronach might give you what you’re searching for. Those distilleries offer quality sherried whiskies. If you want to broaden your search, check out the whole region of Speyside distilleries. The region is famous for producing sherry matured whiskies.
regards, Johannes
Thank you!