Today Banff 1975


May 1, 2020

The Confined Sessions
Day 45
Little duos,
today Banff 1975

Who remembers Banff? I certainly do, what a fabulous malt! The story’s quite interesting too, between fires and bombings by the Luftwaffe. At Banff, mothballed in 1983, life has never been a bed of roses.

Banff 29 yo 1975/2004 !46%, Berry Bros & Rudd, cask #3323)

Banff 29 yo 1975/2004 !46%, Berry Bros & Rudd, cask #3323)
Not the first time I’m trying this one, but for once I’ll try a whisky a second time. It’s my ‘blog’, I do what I want, capisce? But I promise we’ll keep this short. Colour: white wine. Nose: old school metal polish, humus, beeswax and old humidor, then quince jelly and earthy teas. Was that short enough? Mouth: mandarins, more beeswax, paraffin, tangerines, other citrus fruits and then some mineral notes, chalk, limestone… Finish: rather long, bright, but with some orange honey now and quite some earl grey tea. Comments: I’m re-reading my older notes (2007) and I cannot not notice that this baby got rather waxier and rounder over the years in its bottle. As if it had moved towards Clynelish, up north…
SGP:552 - 90 points.

And so another 1975, much more recent…

Banff 1975/2017 (41.1%, Malts of Scotland, bourbon hogshead, cask #MoS17045, 185 bottles)Banff 1975/2017 (41.1%, Malts of Scotland, bourbon hogshead, cask #MoS17045, 185 bottles)

Banff 1975/2017 (41.1%, Malts of Scotland, bourbon hogshead, cask #MoS17045, 185 bottles)
It’s very cool that our friends in Paderborn would have still owned a cask of Banff just two or three years ago. How old is this baby? 42? Now the low strength is a bit scary, but there, let’s check it… Colour: gold. Nose: no! I mean, how could anyone resist a blend of quince and apricot juices? And with whiffs of hot roasted chestnuts, plus a glass of Trockenbeerenaulsese from good old Schloss Vollrads? One day I’ll tell you a story about this guy bringing home half a bottle of such nectar from Bad-Godesberg and leaving it in the kitchen, and finding the pineapple chicken cooked by his wife absolutely stunning just two days later. Indeed, it is a sad story, but the nose of this Banff is glorious. Mouth: good, the oak’s taken over, so you need to intellectualise it a wee bit and to tidy things up. In that case, provided you manage to focus on all this, you’ll still find mango juice, papayas, avocado juice, crushed bananas and guavas. In a way, it’s a bit like when you’re watching a very old yet fantastic black-and-white movie, some context is in order. Finish: short. Comments: this won’t be a proper ‘organoleptical score’. Now, what a nose!
SGP:331 - 88 points.

Check the index of all Banff we've tasted so far

April 2020

Serge's favourite recent bottling this month:
Lagavulin 40 yo 1979/2019 (49.1%, The Syndicate, cask #112, 188 bottles) - WF93

Serge's favourite older bottling this month:
Macallan 25 yo 1975 (54%, Casa De Vinos, Australia, sherry butt, cask #17112, +/-2000) - WF93

Serge's favourite bang for your buck this month:
Benriach-Glenlivet 11 yo 2008/2020 (55.9%, Cadenhead, Sherry Cask, sherry hogshead, 270 bottles) - WF88

Serge's favourite malternative this month:
Héritage de René Rivière ‘Avant 1925’ (49%, Malternative Belgium, Borderies, 66 bottles, 2020) - WF91

Serge's Lemon Prize this month:
Ransom WhipperSnapper (42%, OB, USA, Oregon spirit, +/- 2019) - WF40