4 Pittyvaich tasted between 1.4.2008-28.5.2011

Pittyvaich 12yo 54% James MacArthur's cask#15096

Last time I tried a CS Pittyvaich I believe it was a very good OB at 21yo?This one is very light in colour, smells woody, floral, dry, intense, burnt butter, needs some time to open up, then it turns more flinty and rustic. The taste is extremely sweet, loads of bubble gum, charcoal, vanilla and kiwi fruit. I love it even though its a bit weird and wacky. The aftertaste is citrussy, very long and ends on some nice oaky notes. I've always meant that Pittyvaich at CS is a malt that talks, and this one is no other.

Wonderful Pittyvaich: 8.5



Pittyvaich 13yo 1977-1991 58.4% Cadenhead's

A sherry-matured Pittyvaich at CS, not many of them to be found on the market, at least not at this age. Smells wonderful sherry, blueberries, plums, honey, floral, guinness, leather, sweet soy and far too many other delicious odors to mention all here. The taste is slightly dry, peppery, chilli, couscous and blueberries. Needs some water because of the dryness, a personal preference of course. Even with water its very dry, but now in a good way, actually perfect dryness.

A wonderful dry sherried malt: 7



Pittyvaich 20yo 1989-2009 57.5% OB

A cask strength 20yo from Pittyvaich, I hope many other distilleries will start bottling older cask strengths at fair prices soon. It has a very anonymous odor, I'd say if it weren't for the high abv I couldn't smell anything. The taste is also much milder than what I'd expect. Something a bit off, like old dry wood. Other than that it has a sort of plum infused sweetness with some fine pepper notes as well. It's kind of dry, I'll add water. Oh yes, this is what it needs, the nose really talks now, and it tells me of pepper, salt, burnt rubber and smoked ham. The taste gets perfect, big, bold, with a nice flinty peppery style, very rustic.

Wow: 8.5



Pittyvaich 14yo 1976-90 54.5% James McArthur's

This bottling of Pittyvaich is almost completely blank. Almost like Vodka. Smells of nothing except some pine. Very sweet taste, some marcipan, but the alcohol is too intense on this one unfortunately. The finish is the big disappointment, it consists of nothing but a bit dried grass.

too mild for 54%: 4