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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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February 12, 2020 |
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The Time Warp Sessions,
today Longmorn 34 years apart |
Not a name that’s constantly talked about. Sometimes everybody’s chatting about Chivas’s fruit bomb, and sometimes almost no one does, for reasons I cannot quite explain. Or is that just an impression? Or because the official bottlings aren’t really ‘pushed’? We’re expecting quite some orchard fruits today… |
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Longmorn 10 yo 2008/2019 (52.8%, Claxton’s, bourbon, cask # 1960-1223, 275 bottles) 
Claxton’s came with the new wave of British indie bottlers. The Ultravoxes of whisky, if you like. To each his references! Colour: pale white wine. Nose: raw, almost brutal, all on apples, plums, green pears and cider. Litres of cider, literally, as well as pear cider (e call that poire in France). With water: mud, grist, crushed barley, ale, and almost no fruits this time. Where did they go? Mouth (neat): total cider and apple juice, peppered with some crushed chalk and, well, some white pepper. You cannot not think of some young Calvados (they’re usually not sold in this state). Touch of salt. With water: nots of Gueuze, I would say. And again, a touch of salt. Finish: long, leafier, a little yeastier. Very gristy for sure. Comments: a raw baby that’s still in its infancy, I would say. Very good for documenting the evolution of malt whisky over time, which reminds me of Samaroli’s ‘Aging Monography’, remember? Except that this is not quite Springbank.
SGP:561 - 82 points. |
So an older one… Maybe this that just came in a few days ago… |
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Longmorn 33 yo 1974/2007 (43.7%, Gordon & MacPhail for David Le Cornu, sherry butt, cask #007685) 
This one was bottled for Australian whisky pioneer David Le Cornu, of Earls of Zetland fame (and other fames). Colour: deep amber. Older connoisseurs would have written ‘Cognac’. Nose: fantastic, well in line with G&M’s other best sherried Longmorns of the ‘fresher’ category. There is a little cider once again, fresh almonds, moderate raisins and figs, this Calvadossy side yet again, then marmalade and touches of mango jam. In the background, wonderful notes of old amontillado – rather than just ‘sherry cask’. Was it a refill solera butt? In any case, it’s very elegant, civilised, and certainly not a sherry monster. Oh and hints of passion fruits. Oh and wait, also some old-school tobacco. Untipped Senior Service? Craven A? Mouth: I must be having something with Calvados today, since I’m finding Calvados again. Then a drop of Chartreuse and one of fig wine, raisins in appropriate amounts, perhaps roasted pecans or pistachios, plain dried figs, tarte Tatin, and then oranges as well as those mangos that are not always to be found in Longmorn, in my experience. Impeccable. Finish: medium, pretty fresh and lively given the age here. Some additional menthol and liquorice in the aftertaste, with a lovely – and unexpected – bitterness. Quinine wine, perhaps. Comments: a very elegant old Longmorn and a perfect bridge between G&M’s darker sherry monsters and some fresher, fruitier similarly aged ex-refill Longmorns by the same excellent house. Oh and did you like this one, Craig Daniels?
SGP:651 - 91 points. |
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