Winter Storm is the third entry in Glenfiddich's Experimental Series, and arguably the most genuinely experimental of the lot. The story is worth retelling because for once the cask provenance is properly specific. Malt master Brian Kinsman visited Peller Estates in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, and saw the frozen grapes being hand-picked at dawn to make Icewine — a dessert wine of almost absurd concentration, since the water in the grape is locked up as ice and only the sugary juice is pressed out. Kinsman brought Icewine casks back to Dufftown and finished 21 year old Glenfiddich in them.
The maths of it is interesting. Twenty-one years in American and European oak is long enough to give the spirit real structure; the Icewine finish then layers a sweetness on top that is entirely unlike the usual sherry or port. Bottled at 43% abv, it is not a cask-strength statement but a poised one.
On the nose there is lychee, candied lemon peel and honeysuckle — notes that read more Sauternes than sherry, though unmistakably their own thing. The palate follows through with concentrated stone fruit, crystallised ginger and a pear-drop sweetness that sits surprisingly well on the older Glenfiddich's waxy spine. The finish is long and faintly tannic, with dried apricot pulling it back from pure sweetness.
At a price that puts it firmly in gift-cabinet territory, Winter Storm is not an everyday dram. But as a piece of cask finishing it is one of the more successful experiments the series has produced, and it rewards the patient drinker who lets it sit a while in the glass.
