
May 11, 2016

An understated new 50 years old

I’m asking you, who could throw a new Glen Mhor 1965 (one nine six five) into the market just like that, as if it was just another shirt by Urban Outfitters? You’re right, Signatory Vintage. True class indeed. But first, a little apéritif from the very same house…

Millburn 16 yo 1979/1993 (60.1%, Signatory Vintage, butt, cask #1102, 308 bottles)

I agree, an apéritif at 60% vol. is a strange idea, but you see, I had thought it would be best to have one from the three long closed Inverness distilleries. Which were… Hey, can you name them?... Colour: straw. Nose: some kind of citric minerality, if you see what I mean. Aspirin tablets, fizzy lemon juices, fresh concrete, old clothes, gravel after the rain, yoghurt, the sharpest muscadets, chalk… In short, a style that’s nowhere to be seen anymore. Give this to anyone used to modern NAS Glenmo (for example), and they’d tell you it’s not Scotch whisky. I mean, this Millburn. With water: more of the same, plus bandages and, perhaps, brake fluid. Mouth (neat): pure lemon juice aged in stoneware and infused with chalk and clay. A knife! With water: glorious minerality and citrusness. I’m not sure I had previously noticed that Millburn could be this lemony. I’m sure it cuts the thinnest paper sheet, as Uma Thurman would have said in Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Finish: long, totally lemony, mineral, and, well, blade-y. Comments: perhaps for well-trained samurais only. No, it’s really great. SGP:471 - 90 points. Which leads us to…

Glen Mhor 50 yo 1965/2016 (47.1%, Signatory Vintage, 88 months oloroso finish, cask #3934, 353 bottles)

A fifty-years-old Glen Mhor! And they didn’t even put it into a Lalique-Baccarat-Daum-Whatever decanter with golden angels and hand-carved silver stags heads! How classy and understated is that? Now, they did a finishing on it, which may suggest that it had been a little lazy before those 88 last months… Let’s see… Colour: deep amber. Nose: if you’re into old cars and/or motorbikes, this is whisky for you. An old can of Veedol forgotten in an old garage, next to a Velocette and a Norton (like it, Ralfy?) There are also walnuts from the oloroso, as well as roasted chestnuts, then plenty of earth (an old dunnage warehouse), drops of soy sauce, most certainly umami, and a superb beef bouillon enhanced with bone marrow and wee bits of black truffles. After five minutes, some menthol and some Vicks Vaporub arising. This would cure any cold. Mouth: it’s a little shaky, with these ‘funny’ notes of cumin and aniseed, but there’s also a complexity that’s hard to find in younger whiskies. Many spices, many oils, many meat bits, many terpenic/mentholy touches, and quite a few mushrooms, covered with some kind of chocolate sauce (mole) and little pieces of black tobacco. As if Gauloise had ever made some menthol cigarettes – which, to my knowledge, never happened. Finish: long, with touches of paraffin and other waxes. The bouillon is back in the aftertaste, and it’s quite salty, at that. Comments: respect, that the first word I could think of. Mind you, a 50 yo Glen Mhor! My score will be deferential. SGP:472 - 90 points.

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

Check the index of all Glen Mhor I've tasted so far