Equipo Navazos La Bota 104 Malt Whisky Single Cask, Bota NO

Equipo Navazos La Bota 104 is a single-cask Spanish malt whisky finished in an old Oloroso butt.

Bottling individual butts out of the sherry soleras of Jerez, before they vanished into a blend, was the original idea behind this numbered series, and the same thinking has been carried into spirits. This malt is entirely Spanish: barley grown and distilled in Castilla la Vieja, sister cask to the Bota 66 bottled some years earlier. It is around sixteen years old, the last twelve of them in a single vessel that had previously held an excellent old dry Oloroso. The butt was emptied completely for this bottling. No cold filtration, and, following an unbreakable rule here, no added colour, sweetening or flavouring. Bottled in 2020 at 46 per cent.

Sherry-cask influence runs right through it: walnut, dried fig, orange peel and a dry, saline finish with roasted malt underneath. Drink it neat at room temperature in a small glass, with a few drops of water if you want to open it up. It does not belong in a mixer.