April 6, 2015

One Strathmill plus one

So yeah, Strathmill. I don’t quite know what to say about Strathmill. Maybe that in the olden days, the distillery was called Glenisla-Glenlivet, which had nothing to do with the whacky Glenislas that used to be distilled at Glen Keith later on. Aha.

Strathmill 21 yo 1992/2014 (46%, Coopers Choice, sherry finish, cask #9544, 350 bottles)

Why not! Colour: gold. Nose: rather buttery. Some cider, some plasticine, a touch of cassis, a kind of slightly soapy marzipan, then notes of Gueuze lambic. Young calvados. Indeed, why not! Mouth: oh well, there’s nothing to complain about. Fudge and raisins plus oak and sweet barley, with good body. Roasted chestnuts, some hazelnut liqueur and even a touch of Nutella. Raisins covered with Nutella, then sweet beer. Ale. All that isn’t unpleasant, but I find the combo a little unlikely. Finish: pretty long, with this feeling of raisiny calvados. Comments: not bad at all, but this baby may lack definition. Some 2Mio pixel malt whisky? SGP:541 - 76 points.

Strathmill 23 yo 1990/2014 (50.5%, Liquid Treasures for SYC Vino & Cigar Taiwan, hogshead, 189 bottles)

Colour: pale gold. Nose: starts with whiffs of ‘new plastic bag’, then we have cider apples, then rather very dry white wine (muscadet – no Muscat in there), chalk, wet stones, grass… I also find some dry hops, like in old-style Alsatian beer. No, forget Kronenbourg. With water: malty beer. We used to have a malty Scottish-style beer in Alsace, called Adelscott. This baby kind of reminds of that one. Mouth (neat): oh, this has nothing to do with the nose. Malty bars, dry caramel, roasted nuts, marzipan… I like this. Sweet brown ale. With water: very, very malty, plus a little tobacco. Finish: relatively long, malty. Malted apples (what?) Comments: malt whisky as Nature intended, I’d say. Not sure I’ll remember this one forever, but I enjoyed the fact that we were so close to the raw materials. SGP:551 - 82 points.

Check the index of all Strathmill I've tasted so far

Pete McPeat and Jack Washback


(this one just to please all our good friends in the whisky industry ;-))