Little Trios, today Strathmill


June 16, 2022

Little Trios, today Strathmill
We need more love for Strathmill! Because speculative brands are boring us to death. We'll first have a young one by the honourable SMWS (with a French nickname!), then two indies, one middle-aged, the other one of good age and from good old Germany our Nachbarn.

Strathmill 13 yo 2007/2021 (58.8%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, bourbon hogshead, #100.25, 'La Pomme Qui Chante', 270 bottles)

Really, not too sure about that poetic nickname, a singing apple is something that we've never seen or heard, even in France. Something may have been lost in translation… Having said that, this baby was also finished in a 1st fill ex-rye hogshead. Colour: straw. Nose: barley, grist, vanilla, caramel cream, nougat and turon. No bad things – but no singing apple in sight. With water: softer, more on vanilla, pancakes, nougat indeed and butterscotch. Mouth (neat): superb fresh deep potent and pungent maltiness. I would suppose this is what you'd get, should you decide to distil Guinness (don't tell me they're already doing that!) With water: oh excellent! Pure malty and fruity combo, with a little coffee, plum jam, Ovaltine and Nescafé. Finish: long, still very malty, with tighter oranges coming out. Some kind of heavy-duty curaçao. Lemon in the aftertaste. Comments: just love it. I didn't exactly get the rye but I would suppose it did its part of the job. Never underestimate these Distilleries, it's just that no one's pouring dozens of millions of pounds into their marketing.
SGP:651 - 87 points.

Strathmill 24 yo 1990/2015 (55.8%, Chapter 7, sherry butt, cask #5224)
No picture available for this older one that I should have tried a long time ago. Colour: white wine. Nose: fully on barley and apples, gooseberries, ripe kiwis, hints of iron, old tin box, then rather cappuccino and nocino. The only thing that's better than nocino is two nocinos. With water: butter beans, white asparagus, malt extract… It would tend to lose itself a wee bit. Mouth (neat): all-natural barleyness, with apples and pears, cherries, some pepper and some nutmeg. With water: no actual changes. Finish: rather long, perhaps a tad too peppery for me. Comments: we're actually a little far from the fabtastic – yet younger - SMWS, but it still is a pretty fine dram.
SGP:451 - 80 points.

Strathmill 30 yo 1991/2021 (51.3%, Whisky-Doris, bourbon hogshead)

The lovely and ever-young ;-) Whisky-Doris from Germany back on Whiskyfun, let's celebrate! Colour: straw. Nose: kicks things off with a little coffee and a little rum, then some average (in the best sense of that word) maltiness, then scones, pancakes, muffins and shortbreads. With water: more pancakes, crêpes, biscuits, overripe apples and perhaps a few drops of calvados. Mouth (neat): big malt and wholegrain bread, touches of varnish, almost a little acetone, and once again a feeling of averageness (again, in the best sense of that word). With water: to the core of the barley. Spearmint, peppers, cinnamon, barley syrup, a touch of mint. Finish: rather medium, malty, a little grassier. Peppery aftertaste, a tad gritty. Comments: a totally un-doped old Speysider, close to nature and to barley. Perhaps a little intellectual, having said, but it's true that German philosophy has nothing to prove.
SGP:461 - 86 points.

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