Rosebank, young and older fruitbombs


September 27, 2017

Rosebank, young and older fruitbombs

Cadenhead are still celebrating their 175th anniversary, and rightly so. Let’s join them with their latest Rosebank, but first, a young one, because young Rosebank could be just impressive. Pure limejuice at times!

Rosebank 10 yo 1989/1999 (59%, Blackadder, cask #839)

Try any young Rosebank or St Magdalene at full strength and you’ll forget anything some have been telling you about the Lowland malts. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: between overcooked coffee and kerosene. And guess what, this is nice, and certainly quite unusual. Whiffs of new plastic bags (before those were banned), funny hints of a new pack of raspberry gums, Haribo’s Tagada strawberries, and pink grapefruit juice. Pretty restless and full of youth. With water: settles down a bit, with many fruit juices. Notes of fresh concrete and plaster. Mouth (neat): do they have a distillery at Haribo’s? This is ridden with wine gums - and ethanol of course. With water: joyful fruits. Pears, apples, plums… Now it’s rather less citrusy than I had thought. Finish: medium, sweet, fruity. A feeling of sugarcane syrup. Comments: this old young Rosebank was incredibly sweet and fruity. SGP:741 - 85 points.

Rosebank 25 yo 1991/2017 (50.5%, Cadenhead, 175th Anniversary, bourbon barrel, 190 bottles)

Love it that they had some Rosebank – and that they don’t do crystal decanters and silver-plated plastic stag’s heads. Colour: straw. Nose: we’re finding these juicy fruits again, it all only got mellower and more civilised. But this is very Rosebank indeed, with pineapple sweets, liquorice allsorts, lime and green apples, and quite some acacia honey. All-vitamin fruit juice. With water: no changes, perhaps a little more cut grass, and leaves. Mouth (neat): some perfect fruit juice indeed, fruit salad, sweets and bonbons, Juicy fruit, sherbets, and once again, a little light and flowery honey. Notes of zucchini flower fritters (do you know how good that is?) and wee bananas, like they have in Cuba. Best bananas in the world. With water: delicious. I’m not using that word often, but it is delicious. Finish: medium, clean, fruity. More all-vitamin fruit juice, this will cure just anything. Send a bottle to D.J.T.! Comments: one of the fruitiest makes there ever was. This one is still young, and just very lovely. SGP:751 - 89 points.

(Thank you Tom)

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