Glengoyne ‘The Legacy’ Chapter One (48%, OB, 1st fill oloroso sherry and refill casks, 2019)
Just realising I cannot remember the last time I tried a Glengoyne, the shame! The website mentions “In celebration of the early days…” Hmmmm….Colour: gold. Nose: feels rather fresh and youthful at first - in a good way though. Lots of freshly baked bread, fruit scone mix, honeycomb, candied fruit peel, sultanas. There’s also a sense of acidity and sharpness - not unlike a carbolic washback tang in your nostrils. Mouth: immediately very sweet and impressively syrupy. Some prickly green pepper, more candied peel and scattered sultanas and raisins. Fig rolls, apple pie and custard, a few dried herbs and some caraway. Rather punchy and with a fair bit of crunchy maltiness providing backbone. Finish: good length, peppery, getting quite spicy with notes of cinnamon and ginger. Also some hints of fresh oak. Comments: I wouldn’t say it’s at all old style, but it’s a very well put together wee dram that ‘feels’ very Glengoyne to me.
SGP: 641 - 85 points.

Glengoyne 17 yo 1998/2015 (54.8%, OB for Taiwan, cask #2047, 1st fill European oak sherry butt, 606 bottles)
A pretty rare private cask bottling. Colour: deep reddish amber. Nose: ooh! It’s one of these top notch, beautifully aromatic, old school sherry casks. Lots of pine cones, precious hardwoods, saps, petrichor and soy sauce. Brims with quiet class and opulence. Many dried flowers, sandalwood, kirsch, Irish coffee and some rather tannic mint tea. I find it really beautiful and elegant. With water: develops this rather sublime and incredibly subtle smoky edge. Like soot, earth and roast aubergines. Also figs, old Madeira and spiced fruit chutneys. Big and powerful but without ever being unbalanced or with any lopsided component. Mouth: fantastically sappy and full of winter spices, red fruit jams, cordials and savoury meats and broths. All kinds of bouillon, mint bitters, burnt raisins, freshly brewed coffee and dark chocolate. In time it really gets close to some kind of long bottle-aged Jägermeister. With water: lots of black pepper, pu erh teas, Maggi and olive bread. Finish: long, spicy, herbal, nicely bitter and earthy with plenty dark chocolate and coffee. Comments: Superb sherry cask Glengoyne. Punchy, deep, elegant and - most importantly - balanced. Which isn’t always the case with these big sherry beasts. Really sings well with water too.
SGP: 662 - 90 points.

Mortlach 16 yo (43.4%, OB, 2019)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: wonderfully full of flowers, pollens, honeys, milk chocolate, fruit teas and things like ripe pears, yellow plums and a wee touch of waxed canvass. I have to say, I find it extremely impressive and I get why others have raved rather highly about this expression when it came out. Mouth: sweet at first then becoming more peppery, spicy and with these drying herbal and heathery touches. Sap, sandalwood, fur, dried mint, dried apple rings and some hints of melon and bitter lemon. Gets increasingly drier, oilier and slightly dusty - which I find charmingly old school in some ways. There’s also this Mortlach meatiness arising over time which is great. Finish: good length, rather warming and spicy with notes of hot toddy, dried apricot and caramelised oatmeal. Comments: It’s big and joyously ‘Mortlachy’ with these rather fat and syrupy qualities, although it retains a lightness of touch which makes it eminently quaffable. Exactly what you’d want from such a bottling and a pretty clever composition I think. Have to say, I definitely prefer this to the old, more sherry-dominated 16yo.
SGP: 561 - 87 points.

Mortlach 19 yo 1999/2019 ‘Hand Fill’ (55.5%, OB for Spirit Of Speyside, cask #8564, sherry)
Colour: gold. Nose: rather restrained at first, nice notes of apricot jam, brioche, sourdough toast, chamomile and green tea. Some golden syrup, gingerbread and plain corn tortillas. There’s a kind of flinty gravelly quality along with baking powder, heather ale and dried flowers. With water: more earthy with notes of hay, menthol tobacco, aniseed, lapsing souchong and dried tarragon. Once again, this unshakeable Mortlach meatiness begins to emerge along with more pollens and honeycomb. Mouth: really opens up on the palate. Massively fat, sweet, nicely waxy, oily and peppery. Superb notes of old shilling ales, mustard powder, rye bread, ointments, putty, natural tar, leather and cannabis oil. Also strong notes of tobacco, wine must and camphor. Terrific! With water: perfect! Superbly oily - motor oil, olive oil, mineral oil - waxy, bags of dried mixed herbs, hardwood saps, pollens, toasted fennel seeds, mutton broth and metal polish. I love this! Finish: long, leathery, sappy, oily and full of soft waxes, tobaccos, crystallised citrus peels, tarragon, anthracite and animalistic tones. Comments: Quite a ride. The neat nose would have you believe it’s cruising into dock at 88 points, but the palate takes it immediately to a whole new level. And the evolution with water is hugely pleasurable and fun. Worth trying if a dram of this baby crosses your path.
SGP: 572 - 91 points.

Old Pulteney 2004/2019 (50.9%, OB for The Whisky Exchange 20th Anniversary, cask #221, barrel, 246 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: soft, sweet, heathery and distantly coastal. Pure Pulteney in my wee book. Notes of gorse, chalk, wet rock, canvass, citronella candles and some rather pulpy, ripe yellow fruits. Perfect balance and showing this rather gentle, lazy elegance. It might just be the weather outside, but this feels to me exceptionally summery whisky. With water: cream crackers, soda bread, crushed greenery, hummus and some tinned pineapple rings in syrup. Mouth: you feel the activity of the cask up front, lots of vanilla cream soda, buttermilk icing and barley sugars. Although, I like that the ‘vanilla’ aspect is more natural and integrated, not the kind of sawdusty grating you get from re-racking. Some boiled watermelon sweets, custard, cider apples and porridge with honey. With water: lighter, fruitier, slightly warmer and more peppery. More notes of cider, pear drops, honey and hints of cough medicine. Finish: good length, all on lemony cough drops, marzipan, barley water, summer fruit cordials and cooking oil. Comments: The definition of easy and pleasurable dramming; I really do get a strong summery vibe from this one. I would also say that, for me, this is a pretty textbook example of excellent modern style malt whisky. Which is to say: sweet, fruity, easy and with enough complexity to keep it entertaining. Great selection.
SGP: 551 - 88 points.

Old Pulteney 1977/1988 (63.4%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #52.1)
Love these old, early SMWS bottlings. It’s a series that still shelters many drams which remain, to this day even among stalwart whisky geeks, hidden gems. It’s also notable that many of the early bottlings were, like this Pulteney, young and at true rocket fuel strengths. Which makes them genuine time capsules of original spirit style and character, largely un-altered by time in bottle. Colour: straw. Nose: pure barley eau de vie! Chalk, aspirin, crushed malt, oatcakes, salty porridge, spearmint, mashed potatoes with horseradish and English mustard. Powerful and punchy but still yielding some very attractive, if somewhat austere, qualities. With water: yeast, baking soda, crushed seashells, ink, oats and a freshly pulled pint of stout. Evolves more notes of pollen, dried flowers and gorse. Mouth: even at this strength the palate opens relatively easily. Wonderfully gloopy and syrupy waxiness, olive oil, hessian, gorse, salty mead and lots of petrol. Emphatic and hugely textural whisky. With water: dried herbs, cocktail bitters, white pepper, mustard powder, more notes of horseradish, dried chillis and plain digestives. Extremely cereal whisky that’s dominated by many sub-iterations of malted barley and yeast. Finish: long, drying and richly malty. Full of biscuity richness, aged blanc du blanc Champagne, freshly baked breads, a scatter of dried herbs and a crisp whip of salinity. Comments: This is 100%, grade A, whisky for hyper-geeks! This fusion of power, purity, austerity and punchiness is the sort of thing that I firmly believe requires quite a bit of education and dedication to enjoy. However, once you ‘get’ this style, you’ll be a sucker for such a dram. It’s also probably the sort of thing that President Trump would suggest for direct injection. I think these early SMWS releases were really the first outing of the same kinds of stocks that would later make up the Rare Malts series, and in that sense they share a lot of that series’ DNA: austerity, power, purity and an adherence to the raw materials.
SGP: 362 - 90 points.

Longmorn 17 yo 1974/1992 (58%, Cadenhead 150th Anniversary)
Colour: ruby/amber. Nose: as expected, this is stunning! All manner of exotic hardwoods mixed with herbal teas, wood spices and the most gorgeous exotic fruit curds and jams. Spectacularly syrupy, thick and almost gelatinous with these quivering fruit jellies, jams, syrups and cordials. Papaya, mango, passionfruit and then chocolate syrup, freshly brewed espresso, cocoa powder, furniture wax and jasmine. Just stunning! With water: as so often with such immense drams water just drops a grenade into proceedings and blows the complexity all over the place. Roots, earthen cellars, herbs, aged pinot noir, cured game meats, more coffee, bitter chocolate, herbal medicines, pitch-dark fruits in old brandy… you could go on a long time here. Mouth: a tidal surge of dark chocolate, marmite, mole sauce, strawberry wine, raspberry cordial, blackcurrants, Maggi, natural tar and all manner of syrupy medical embrocations. Layered, profoundly complex and intense. More of these simmering incense, pot pourri and wood spice notes. Do the anti-maltoporn brigade count as essential workers? With water: like the best venison pot roast drizzled with molten dark chocolate and salt baked. Also all manner of leafy tobacco, old leather-bound books, sooty embers, miso, soy sauce, damson compote and fig chutney. Once again, you could just go on listing flavours as they pop in your mouth. But I won’t. Finish: thrillingly long and settles to a gorgeous, molten warmth of chocolate, coffee, tar, medicines, herbs, bitters, earth and dark, sticky fruits. Comments: Well, that wasn’t really a surprise. But affirmation is more than a guilty pleasure in such instances I would say.
SGP: 562 - 94 points. 

Longmorn 46 yo 1964/2010 (51.3%, Gordon & MacPhail for Japan Import System, cask #1033, 1st fill sherry hogshead, 165 bottles)
Colour: deep mahogany. Nose: what’s funny is that we aren’t really that far away from the 1974. It’s still this same immense and layered density of exotic fruits, hardwoods, the most beautiful of dark chocolates and a myriad matrix of spices, game meats, earthy complexity, tobaccos and leather. Also endless amounts of salty, meaty and herbal broths and infusions. You might also add one or two litres of the greatest and saltiest VORS oloroso to the melting pot while you’re at it. This is just total gooey exquisiteness. Probably a little easier and more direct than the 1974 but then it’s also more obviously older and more concentrated on these singular fruity, spice and chocolate characteristics. With water: very focused on espresso, bitter chocolate and herbal extracts now. Verbena, wormwood, anthracite and smoked olives. Mouth: some superbly grippy and peppery tannin at first, cured meats, biltong, hessian, fruity black coffee, plum sauce and five spice. There’s also this ever-present undercurrent of dried exotic fruits. Papaya, mango, passionfruit and guava, all dried out and leathery. You feel the wood in all its spicy heft but it always remains at its bright meridian point and never quite crests into gum-tiring stickiness. With water: still walking this rather heart-stopping tightrope between tannin, dried exotic fruits, ancient cognac and bitter chocolate. The sherry component remains salty, fat, leathery, beefy and totally stunning! Finish: long, tarry, peppery, leathery, densely earthy with these obese, fudgey, gummy dark and exotic fruits. Comments: It’s amazing how close we are in many ways to the 1974 in terms of that basic but utterly brilliant DNA of fruity Longmorn distillate + perfect old school sherry cask. However, this one diverges with the added influences of age and the way that extra maturity dim some parts and elevate others. I would also add that it’s pretty woody, but that woodiness is so clean, spicy, punchy and integrated that it remains unequivocally an asset.
SGP: 462 - 92 points.

The Glover 4 yo Batch 5 (54.7%, OB, Chichibu & Ardnamurchan, 4 barrels, 2020)
A marriage of four barrels from Chichibu and Ardnamurchan distilleries bottled at 4 years of age. Pretty interesting! Would you call this a ‘blended world malt’? I suppose in Japan they’d call it a ‘Japanese malt’ ;) Colour: pale straw. Nose: it’s the Chichibu that sings first to my nostrils. All on crushed chalk, aspirin, very delicate antiseptics, fresh linens and a hyper-clean and wonderfully crisp cereal and malty quality. Also things like fabric softener, lemon sherbet and mineral salts. There’s this very attractive and rather brittle coastal edge which is great. With water: gets sootier and slightly vegetal. Lots of clay and a rather greasy smokiness emerges. Putty, olives and metal polish. Mouth: as often seems to happen with these younger, modern malts, the nose can really mask a profound peatiness. In this case there’s a wonderfully dense medical side with pure peat smoke and wee hints of TCP and tar. A briny / smoky combo that comes through with surprising clarity on the palate which was largely absent from the nose. Very fun! More of these medical notes such as crushed aspirin and gauze alongside lime juice and lemon barley water. With water: big, smoky, fat glycerine peatiness. Plasticine, tar, embrocations, seaweed and syrupy ointments. Finish: long, salty, slightly oily and medical. Comments: I am reliably informed the peaty component in this hails from the very same Ardnamurchan that we’re about to try next. Anyway, a fun and very fine composition. Modern, hyper-clean, impeccable malt whisky that wears its youth with canny aplomb!
SGP: 366 - 86 points.

Ardnamurchan 4 yo 2015/2020 (62.8%, OB for virtual tasting, cask #426, 1st fill barrel, 165 miniatures)
This is apparently the first officially bottled and commercially released Ardnamurchan. Evidently designed to infuriate miniature collectors. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in my view. Kudos to the guys at Adelphi for doing something understated and cool like this which means more folk are actually likely to drink these drams! Colour: pale gold. Nose: crystalline and pure peat smoke encrusted with salinity in the form of seawater and brine cut with lemon juice. Go deeper and there’s a farmyard quality that starts to emerge, a bass-like boiler smoke note with oily sheep wool and tar. Also black olives, kelp, rope and soot. Dense and extremely muscular whisky. With water: meatier, greasier, oilier and full of things like oyster sauce, canvass, rubber fishing boots, crab bisque and hot smoked salmon. Mouth: massively peaty and grisly. Oils, tar, more boiler smoke, anchovy paste, petrol, seawater and camphor. A whole sheep doused in iodine! Extremely fatty in texture, like molten bacon lardons with creosote, green olive tapenade and seaweed broth. With water: extremely powerful! Seriously, this is a wee teuchter monster. The deformed cousin of Octomore they would keep locked in the attic at dinner parties. Farmyard, peat bog and blustery shoreline all fighting for prominence. Finish: long and drenched in antiseptic, seawater, petrol and raw natural tar. Dirty diesel fumes in the aftertaste alongside aniseed, gentian eau de vie and some very rustic mezcal. Comments: Peat covers a multitude of sins. Although, despite the muscular brutality of this young Ardnamurchan, it doesn’t feel ‘sinful’ at all in the technical sense. In fact, despite this blast furnace of peat and farmyard, it still feels like a very well made, rather technical modern Scottish single malt. I say Scottish because there is a very distinct highland accent to this whisky. You cannot help but be impressed, although I suspect another few years of maturation will yield more complexity and greater distinctiveness which are probably the elements that are slightly absent currently. If they release this style more widely then today’s peat freaks will have no choice but to roll up their sleeves and re-enforce their trousers!
SGP: 478 - 88 points.