The Great Michael
Inspired by King James IV’s mighty warship, The Great Michael, once the largest in Europe, this blend mirrors her strength and ambition. A 21-year-old grain whisky married with older Campbeltown malts, finished in second-fill bourbon barrels that once held heavily peated spirit.
Bottled at cask strength without chill-filtration or colouring. Presented in a beautifully crafted gift box.
Nose: Discernibly aged but still fruity and fresh. Some candied fruit, apples, and a distant note of old dunnage warehouses, straw and maybe even malty digestive biscuits.
Palate: Fresh tobacco and sweet smoke, more candied fruit and a wonderful balance between the fruit and smoke. Diesel smoke (and that’s a good smell here!), a touch of milk chocolate and an hint of candy floss sweetness.
In memory of Scotland’s finest Great Ship and flagship of the Royal Scottish Navy, the Great Michael was known as the Black Ship. Imagined by King James IV to be the most illustrious European Battleship of the 16th century, it was too big to be built at any existing Scottish dockyard, so the Black Ship was laid down at the specially built Newhaven Dock in Fife, Scotland. She took five years to build and when launched, was indeed the largest warship in Europe, twice the size of any of her English and Spanish contemporaries.
James hoped she would be feared by all that sailed against her, and to this point the mighty Black Ship carried a formidable and unrivalled armoury that included 56 cannons, of which, Mons Meg, the largest calibre gun in history, fired 200kg cannon balls from her foredeck.
Unfortunately, a warship of this size was too costly to maintain, for Scotland and after James IV and many of the nobility of Scotland were killed at the Battle of Flodden in September 1513, Michael was sold to Louis XII of France on 2 April 1514 for the bargain price of 40,000 livres. In March 1514 Michael was reported to be docked at Honfleur because she was too big for the harbour at Dieppe and after this, the French allowed her to rot at Brest.
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