Raer Blended Scotch Whisky 'Oloroso Expression' (40%, OB, -/+ 2022)
A blended Scotch brand from the folks behind Jackton Distillery in the Lowlands south of Glasgow. Colour: bright amber. Nose: there is a definite 'modern' sherry spin on this with immediate notes of milk chocolate and orange peel. Some gingery and appley notes behind that along with a little caramelising brown sugar - all of which feels a little more to do with the grain component than the malt side. But overall a very easy and pleasant nose. Mouth: the sherry aspect is clear again but here I feel the grain a little too upfront in the mix. Milk chocolate Brazil nuts, simple fudge and some vanilla ice cream. I would say the sweetness becomes a tad too cloying over time. Finish: medium and gets increasingly peppery and gingery, some Jamaica cake and white pepper with a little marmalade. Comments: I was quite a fan of the nose but the palate is a bit jarring in places. Pour one copita glass to nose, while sipping another as part of a highball?
SGP: 431 - 72 points.

The Broody Hen Blended Scotch Whisky (40%, OB, -/+ 2022)
Another 'cashflow' special by a new distillery, this one is by Summerhall Distillery in Edinburgh. Yes, yes, I'm also loosing track… Colour: gold. Nose: rather sweet and malty and easy. Green tea, a few orchard fruits and a dollop of honey. Very nice so far I have to say, feels rather 'full' in body. Mouth: this is the trouble for sooooo many blends in my experience, they fall quite far and quite flat on the palate even after enticing noses. Having said that, although this one is indeed a bit mashy and grainy up front, it does recover a little with a nice mix of plain breads, ales and again a wee thread of honey. Finish: short-medium in length, again a little on cooked grains but also ales and barley sugars. Comments: good nose, a wobble on the palate and a recovery by the finish. I could sip this one easily with an ice cube involved.
SGP: 551 - 75 points.

Woven Blended Scotch Whisky 'Experience N.2' (45.2%, OB, -/+ 2021, 395 bottles)
This by a newish whisky company in Leith (it's rather cool that my recent stomping ground of Leith is becoming something of a whisky port once again) that I don't know too much about. Although, their website says the heart of this blend is a Campbeltown malt and says this was married in an old Cognac cask for 108 days. Colour: light gold. Nose: young and rather gingery at first nosing, although some baked apples and simple orchard fruits nod towards some Cognac vibes. Simple, but certainly feels like it benefits from a punchier bottling strength. Mouth: a little hot up front, pink peppercorn, chilli oil, mashed grains and barley sugar. Still a few stray apples too. It's all very fine but a tad wild and imbalanced I would say. Finish: pretty short but with some honey and more apple notes. Comments: the apples make me think more of Calvados than Cognac in the end, but overall it's a decent blend that feels more like a chunky and functional mixer than a sipper.
SGP: 541 - 74 points.

Inverness Blended Scotch Whisky (??%, Mackinlay, Munro & Co, 1960s)
An old blend containing whiskies 'produced in distilleries located in the heart of the famous Highland region', good to know. Also: 'has a soft and mellow flavour which can only be obtained through age'. Innocent times. Colour: gold. Nose: hey hey! An old school blend with a clearly higher malt content. Lots of greases, embrocations, old coins, dried herbs, marrow fat, hessian and toolboxes. Imperfect, but the kind of utterly charming profile that screams 'old school'. Now, the palate could tell a different story… Mouth: stands up well. Fatty, greasy, metal polish, soot, anthracite, natural tar and gentle touches of phenols, peat smoke and bandages. This vegetal aspect that comes with old blends and old bottle effect, but it's relatively restrained here and rather complex in fact. Finish: good length, sooty, minty, medicinal, herbal and with a drying, rooty peat note. Comments: my kind of blend, just kills the modern ones stone dead I'm afraid. One to sip and wonder at the kind of malts that must have been tipped into this. Or, just throw the capsule away and go to Drumnadrochit to get drunk at Fiddler's… 
SGP: 463 - 87 points.

Old Inverness 'Aged Scotch Whisky' (40%, J G Thomson & Co, -/+ 2000)
Barcode on the front label, always classy. Our hopes are suitably restrained here… Colour: bright straw. Nose: mashy and grainy but also with some nice notes of baked apple, banana and a little custard. So actually perfectly fine. Mouth: ok, we've struck cardboard, it was only a matter of time. Concrete, flat lager, wet musty cardboard and a kind of rancid honey thing. Finish: mercifully flat, brief and empty. Comments: harmless, empty juice designed to be drunk from paper cups in Scottish tenement flat parties by people who muted their tastebuds with lashings of Tennent's lager over multiple preceding hours. Yes, guilty.
SGP: 430 - 50 points. 

The Real McTavish (43%, Ainslie & Heilbron Distillers Ltd, Chiano import, 1960s)
Ainslie & Heilbron of course being the custodians at the time of Clynelish, and 'Real McTavish' being one of the names that utilised said old Clynelish as a base malt… Colour: pale gold. Nose: waxes, citrons, sheep wool oils and camphor. The difference between something like this and the 1960s Inverness, is that instead of a broad impression of 'old style malt whisky', instead you get a focussed impression of a specific distillery: in this case old Clynelish. Amazingly focussed on wool, rocks, clay and aspirin with big underly fatness of waxes and olive oil. Superb! Mouth: a little tired, but you still get the idea with all these peppery notes, coal tar soap, mineral oil, lanolin and waxy, putty vibes. Also still a lot of camphor. Finish: rather long, again on hessian, watercress, dried eucalyptus and various oils and mechanical greases. Comments: if you know the old OB Clynelish 5 and 12 year olds from this era, the similarity is quite amazing. Just the slight tiredness on the palate here keeps it below the 90 mark, but some bottles can sail above that for sure. This is where old blends truly come into their own, as liquid time capsules.
SGP: 562 - 88 points.

Islay Mist (75 proof, D Johnston & Co, 1960s, miniature)
These old minis can surprise you, but they can also be cabbage water. Now, Islay Mist is famously Laphroaig's blend, and many full size old bottles are stunning… Colour: pale gold. Nose: no cabbages! But certainly a lovely and generous amount of old dry peat. Herbaceous and metallic peat with sooty and coppery touches. Shoe polish, toolbox rags, dried mint, suet and big notes of camphor, natural tar and mineral oils. Wonderful old nose so far that speaks with a Laphroaig accent! Mouth: still has good power, lots of soot coal smoke, tar buckets, pepper, dried herbs, touches of iodine and even dried fish and soy sauce. Very savoury, salty and camphory with big notes of metal polish and slightly dirty phenolics. Finish: surprisingly long, thickly sooty, peppery and smoky. Herbal peat smoke, old medical ointments and more oily hessian notes. The peat in the aftertaste really is massive and quite impressive! Comments: a whole bottle please! There is of course some OBE in here but it's held up amazingly well all things considered. The power of a high malt content and an incredible base malt.
SGP: 466 - 89 points.

Black Bottle (70 proof, Gordon Graham & Co Ltd, 1950s)
A beautiful old flask bottle with an early short metal screw capsule. I have to say, I am hopelessly in love with these old Black Bottle labels (and the glass bottles too), they are things of beauty. I am also doubly soft on them because Black Bottle was historically a 'west coaster's' blend. Growing up, this was the preferred tipple of some of great family friends of ours. And I'm not just saying all this because a certain Mr S V of Alsace may have declared himself less than excited by this wee brand on these very pages recently ;) Colour: gold. Nose: a very specifically oily kind of smoke that blends together the sootiest of fire hearths, oily engines and boiler sheds, and some smouldering peat embers. Also a lot of camphor and hessian cloth notes which is pretty typical, some aniseed and touches of natural tar and gentian. Pure old school and very much a 'slightly peaty west coaster' in profile. Mouth: once again this very old school, drying herbal peat smoke, on top of metal polishes, cough sweets, anthracite soot, camphor, herbal toothpaste and dusty old medical tinctures. Hard to know what's OBE or what's just old style malt whisky flavours that have permeated over time. What's for sure is that this feels like it has a pretty high malt content. Finish: medium, rather sweet now as well, sweeter peat, cough medicine and herbal liqueur notes. Comments: old skool! But very good and hyper drinkable as well. Little wonder this profile was so popular in its day.
SGP: 564 - 87 points.

Very Rare Old Liqueur Whisky 'warranted 15 years old' 'A blend of Glenlivet' (??%, Worksop & Retford Brewery, 1920s)
From the wording on the label I suspected this may have been a malt, but after tasting it I'm more inclined to think it's a blend. Hence inclusion here. A gorgeous old bottle either way! Colour: deep gold. Nose: whiskies from this era really do make you think of liqueurs! This deeply resinous and honeyed profile that feels syrupy sweet with aromatised sugars, herbal extracts and many roots and medical tinctures. Feels like you could be nosing some kind of very long aged fusion of Drambuie and Yellow Chartreuse. I should add some very delicate traces of peat smoke and dried mushrooms. Another world, really. Mouth: feels like the ABV is now a little below 40% as the whole is in fact rather soft, but the sugars and sweetness and these resinous qualities hold fast! Sweet herbal medicines, delicate peat smoke and very dense notes of camphor, hessian and olive oil. A style that only seems to have existed up until the second world war. Some notes of herbal teas, wormwood, lanolin and some aged mead too. Fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. Finish: medium in length with a rather bitter herbal edge now, some metal polish, coffee grounds, leaf mulch and tobaccos. A little sharpness of grain whisky remains underneath. Comments: I just deployed my electronic hydrometer on this ancient wee relic and it is currently sitting at 39.6% ABV. So, if it was bottled at 40% then that's an extremely impressive retention of ABV - unless it was done at 80 proof / 45.8% at the time of bottling, which seems more likely for the 1920s. Anyway, like almost any whisky from this era, it's extremely hard to disentangle analysis from emotion. This is undoubtedly a little frail and simple, but it's another sip inside a timewarp…
SGP: 653 - 84 (pretty meaningless) points.

Campbell's Of Elgin 'Special Reserve' ('proof strength', Campbell, Hope & King, -/+ 1963)
'Proof' strength being 100 proof, or 57.1%, and this bottle bearing an old securo cap reliably tells us it should be bottled around 1963. And of course, Campbell, Hope & King is an old Elgin bottler that gave us many, many legendary whisky bottlings, including arguably the greatest Macallan ever bottled… Colour: straw. Nose: much bigger and fresher, indeed the most immediate impression from the higher ABV is a feeling of a whisky that's been far better insulated from the effects of time in bottle. A rich and emphatic oiliness with olive and mineral oils, gentle notes of bandages and medical embrocations, dried herbs with a little pepper and, with time, a wonderfully growing and increasingly assertive dry waxiness. Blind you could almost say you're nosing a naked old style highland malt. Terrific power and poise! With water: gets rougher, sharper, saltier and slightly more animalistic towards sweat and furs. Mouth: more evidently a blend here as you do feel the grain component, but the overall texture remains fat, oily and with terrific weight and presence in the mouth. Peppery, gently medicinal, some light natural sweetness from the barley and faint fruit notes of green apple, pears and gooseberry. A terrific old blend! With water: actually superb now! Water really seems to amplify the malt aspects, becoming very mouthfilling, juicy, sweet and with a lot of peppery waxiness, drying medical qualities, herbs, roots, earthy and salty/umami vibes. A real thrill ride! Finish: good length, still on waxes, roots, herbs and wee specific notes of tarragon, bouillon stocks, hessian and cod liver oil. Comments: you would drive yourself mad speculating about the base malt for such a potion, but this is really outstanding old blended whisky that ticks so many boxes and is hugely entertaining to dissect in a nosing glass. A testament to high bottling strengths and ageing in glass!
SGP: 473 - 89 points.

Watt Whisky 10 yo 2010/2021 'Blended Scotch Whisky' (56.5%, Watt Whisky, barrel, 232 bottles)
Back to modernity in tender hands of Kate and Mark… Colour: bright orangey gold. Nose: some kind of tinned satsumas, milk chocolate, Tunnock's coconut wafers and a spoonful of flower honey. Feels like one of these rather clever blends that's blended and then matured for a good number of years to achieve real balance. Lovely playful sweetness about the nose. With water: more floral now, also showing some butterscotch, brown bread and a few lighter teaish vibes. Mouth: lots of marmalade, crystallised orange peel, cocktail bitters and hints of liquorice, treacle and sweet heather ales. Also some richer impressions of boot polish that add a sense of body. Deathly quaffable! With water: there's some sharper, zingy grain notes now, but still a lot of persistent orangey notes. Chocolate orange, smashed up Hobnob biscuits and malted milk. Finish: medium, juicy sweet barley extract notes, lime cordial and some kind of milky spiced Chai tea? Comments: I enjoyed this far more that I should have. Be careful if you have a bottle in the house, you may inadvertently trip over something and discover you have consumed half a bottle.
SGP: 641 - 85 points.

Cream Of The Barley 21 Years Old 'Matured in Sherry Wine casks' (86.8 proof, Alexander Stewart & Co, Standard Food Products Corp USA import, 1950s)
A rather gorgeous old bottle that I opened at the Whisky Show in London last October. Colour: light amber. Nose: quite simply, exquisite! An ancient style of sherry that is sweet, resinous, deep and profoundly unctuous. Gathering together stunning rancio, grape botrytis, long-aged Sauternes and myriad notes of dark fruits stewed in old Cognac. All this being perfectly integrated with the most beautiful earthy peat aromas: sweet, rooty, herbal and organic peat that weds perfectly to the sherry. I would also add that it is not tired at all, the whole being still superbly fresh, lively and gorgeously expressive. Mouth: same feelings, stunning old style sherry fusing perfectly with beautiful old school peated malts. All this aged to the point of stunning integration, balance, focus and - even at this ABV - power! You could add many subtle notes of soot, tar, roots, herbal teas, crystallised exotic fruits and iodine. Finish: long but also soft, gentle and with a quilt of oily, lightly tarry, peppery and medical peat that just keeps unfurling. Comments: undoubtedly up there with the greatest blends I've ever tried. Although, I'll always argue that that greatness is due to the malts and the sherry casks, over and above the grain components. Anyway, enough of that. A stunning old blend that reaffirms why we adore old bottles - and Scotch Whisky!
SGP: 665 - 92 points.