As I quietly pronounced when starting doing mostly verticals were that I was still gonna have my usual tastings with mixed distilleries once in a while. Up until now I have kept those tastings outside Scotland, but lets change that. Glenlochy, Glenugie, Ladyburn and Imperial, I'm not sure if Imperial is all closed down or just mothballed, hopefully the latter. Let's start with the Imperial.
Imperial 14yo 1969-1983 40% Gordon & Macphail Connoisseurs Choice
Old vintage at only 40% and only 14yo, maybe this will differ a lot from the newer CS/SC/Older(!) bottling that are flying around nowadays. It smells really nice, distinctive caramel and creamy butter. Sweet marmalade and ginger. Impressive! The taste is very spirity and burnt at first, fairly bad-tasting. But then it turns into a sweet marzipan and licorice aftertaste. It's like the initial odors are smooth and all good, the palate a small disaster, before the good start is reincarnated in the finish. Extremely smooth, almost like a perfect blend. The palate being a small letdown however.
I guess Imperial will be missed by some, at least by me: 6.5
Ladyburn/Rare Ayrshire 34yo 1975-2009 45.2% Signatory Vintage
I know that IB's aren't allowed to name their cask from the long gone distillery Ladyburn "Ladyburn". I like that they have kept it at cask strength, a chance to taste something, if not utterly great, then at least utterly rare. I think that the single malt bottled at Ladyburn, if any of it were, were bottled at low strength. Nice golden color. Smells herbal, grassy, mashed leaves, over-ripe bananas and mint. The taste is burnt, cinnamon, again this over-ripe banana/brown banana half-nauseating sweetness. Then it gets a bit drying and it finishes of on a good note with more cinnamon and grassiness.
Good old single malt, although pretty predictable from start to finish: 6
Glenugie 29yo 1977-2006 49.6% Part Des Anges Closed Distilleries cask#360
The few ones I have tried from Glenugie up until now have all been utterly fantastic if I remember correctly. Lets hope this helps keep the score. Much bigger on the nose than the latter two, a smoky one. With time it gets even bigger, smoky, barbecue sauce, Galliano, mustard, curry, oaky, a lot happening here. The taste is sweet, brown sugar, honey, smoked pork serrano style, amazing whisky, it just lacks a bit on the palate when compared to what the nose promised. The aftertaste is also rather short, needs a small drop of water? Water makes little difference in this one.
Rich nose, beautiful palate, little to no aftertaste: 7
Glenlochy 27yo 1980-2007 58.3% btl.123/231 Closed Distilleries
Second on from Closed Distilleries, Glenlochy... I used to love Glenlochy when I started drinking whisky back then it wasn't all that expensive. But I guess that is the story with most closed distilleries nowadays. Anyway, I think Glenlochy is a whisky that is depraved of recognition compared to the produce it puts out. But its been a while since I last had a Glenlochy so lets see what this one has to offer. The much higher abv is recognizable on the nose, smells malty, oaky and burnt, bitter too. This is not what I expected, maybe it needs water, but lets taste neat first at least. The taste is dry, but shows promise of buttered corn and dried bell peppers. I'll add some h2o. Now it's much better, lots of soy sauce and pistachio flavor, red wine vinegar and dry apple cider. I wish this one was available today as I would have stopped hoarding Fettercairn and started on Glenlochy.... or maybe I'd just done a little of both. Who says you can't have two favorite distilleries?
Brings tears to my eyes: 8.5
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar