Tasting Notes: Turntable – Bittersweet Symphony

This is the creation of brothers Gordon and Alasdair Stevenson who are looking to “create a new generation of blended scotch whisky. No shortcuts. No limits.” It is a bold statement and smacks of a verve and vigour to create new blends that still show character and style. Not just to meld flavours together to make for a wash of whisky, but something that stands out from the crowd. Indeed their tagline is “blended to stand out”.

Speaking of “verve”…

This whisky shares its name with The Verve’s 90s anthem of epic proportion [ed: nearly a billion listens on Spotify at the time of writing!]. The Turntable guys are certainly leaning into the music theme here!

For the first batch of this core release blend, we have:

22% Craigellachie (Malt) – Pedro Ximenez Puncheon (Note: Dried Fruits)
17% Blair Athol (Malt) – Virgin Oak Barrel (Note: Vanilla)
21% Craigellachie (Malt) – Oloroso Butt (Note: Bitter Dark Chocolate)
21% Balmenach (Malt) – Pedro Ximenez Puncheon (Note: Demarera Sugar)
19% North British (Grain) – Virgin Oak Barrel (Note: Toffee)

As with the other 2 core releases, this blended whisky has been bottled at 46% ABV at its natural colour and without chill-filtration. Similar to the Paradise Funk release, there is no peated barley within the base spirits’ creation.

Nose

An enjoyable opening of warming, dark, and rich influences here: proper chocolate, oranges, and cereal notes. There’s a lovely fruity character here with those little cubes of papaya from muesli and breakfast bars springing to mind.

Taste

It is all about the fruity influences here. No berries were harmed in the making of this, but we have plenty of summer fruits, orchard fruits, and jammy flavours bouncing all over the place. There is a distinct cherry taste there leading the fruity flavours, and it is also joined by chopped nuts, pomegranate seeds, boozy cream, and a fantastic warming festive spice. Sherry influences aplenty.

Finish

Festive flavours abound. A good length of finish with sweetness, fruitiness, nuttiness, and festive spice all lingering and fading in that order.

Verdict

This is a great meld of sherry cask influence. It takes quite the skill to maintain the leading notes from a whisky’s nose to finish and that has been achieved here. Cherries and dark fruits rule the roost without becoming overpowering or sickly.

That cherry note that plays throughout the drinking experience reminds me of those little cherry Bon Bons. The drinker is taken on a journey of dried fruity flavours, rich chocolate, and oak without ever being heavy or saccharine.

The overall flavours also remind me of one of my favourite foods of all time: Nigella Lawson’s Italian Christmas Pudding Cake (recipe here). Though the process of making the dessert is an absolute faff, there are so many complementary components that just make for a signature deliciousness that I will leap at the chance to eat. It also saw my introcuction to Tuaca: a flavoured brandy liqueur. What I’m saying is that this thing is delicious, and the Turntable Bittersweet Symphony blend seems to capture many of the gorgeous aspects of this thing (the boozy fruit flavours, chocolate, cream, nuts etc.) from its meld of just 5 casks.

As I’ve commented before, I really like the Turntable team leaning into the music-related theme and here they have struck on a classic. I cannot think of this song without thinking of that distinctive string section and the image of the leather-jacketed Richard Ashcroft bouncing off passers-by on London’s Hoxton Street. If the names of their future releases all lend from classic tracks, then not only is there a wealth of opportunities available, but the scope for endorsements, playlists, or sponsorships is boundless. Even if they stick to the 90s references, then a lot of us would buy into that! They are selling Nirvana sweatshirts in Next for peat’s sake. [ed: speaking of which surely a 13yo blend called “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is up for the taking! – I’ll take a small commission, a-thank you]

Here though, we have a very approachable and sessionable blend of influences that bring people back to Speyside and Sherry matured whiskies time and time again.

Sample disclosure: This sample was gratefully received as part of a promotional Tweet Tasting event run by The Whisky Wire for Turntable using #TurntableSpirits on Twitter/X. All notes here are not intended as promotion but as an honest, fair and independent review of the whisky itself. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.