Napoleon Brandy VSOP ‘aged 3 years’ (40%, ‘Blended exclusively for Marks & Spencer’)
The rear label lists the ingredients as ‘Water, wine spirit, sugar. Colour: plain caramel’. Sounds reassuringly awful. Colour: amber. Nose: some kind of sweetened varnish, a slight heat of alcohol, some burnt sugar. Otherwise totally empty. Mouth: harsh, bitter, rotten orange peels, slightly sour and dusty and some rather chemical notes of glue. Not good. Finish: disapparates like a stale old wizard. More burnt notes in the aftertaste. Comments: As predicted, this is bad.
SGP: 730 - 28 points.

Remy Martin ‘1738 Accord Royal’ (40%, OB, cognac, -/+ 2019)
Apparently this sits between the VSOP and the XO, which theoretically means older than four years and younger than 10. Although, of course, in a composition like this there can be varying ages deployed in the vatting. It’s around £40 a bottle in the UK but this tasting note comes from a miniature. Colour: orange/amber. Nose: actually very nice, lots of sultanas, raisins, dried apricots, peaches in syrup and little Seville orange marmalade. Although the ‘smells like Cognac’ thing does spring to mind. Mouth: a tad flat but also nicely bready, stewed dark fruits, more sultanas, oranges, some sweet dessert wines, dried apples. Also slightly leafy. All perfectly easy and pleasant, if simplistic. Finish: short-medium in length, with caramelising brown sugar, fennel seed, bitter citrus pith and some golden syrup. Comments: Given the price and ‘bracket’ I suppose this is pretty much to be expected. Easy, simple and rather direct Cognac that you could quite happily flambée a Christmas pudding with while also sipping a glass of at the same time.
SGP: 740 - 75 points.

Chort-Mutel 'Belle Epoque' (41%, OB, Très Vieux Calvados, +/-1980s)
I know less about Calvados than I do about Cognac and Armagnac - which is almost equivalent to ‘negative knowledge’. So probably best to take my score with a generous serving of salt. Colour: dark amber / brown. Nose: a beautifully concentrated and pure apple aroma with a kind of leathery quality and these notes that bring to mind actual apple pips. Despite the obvious age there’s still a sharpness and freshness which is impressive - almost like the tart acidity of cut cider apples. Beyond this you also get hints of dark mint chocolate, pipe tobacco and walnut oil. Really beautiful from the viewpoint of these nostrils. Mouth: wonderful arrival and surprisingly powerful. All on brown apples, apple peelings, pear cider and bitter mints. Tobaccos, black coffee with a single teaspoon of sugar and this lovely combination of leathery and earthy depth. There’s also quite a lot of dark fruits such as dates, figs, prunes and sultana, all muddled with chopped walnuts and hazelnut puree. Finish: good length and beautifully warming. Leafy earthiness, more tobacco, more walnuts, more chocolate and now some pretty concentrated stewed apples. Comments: I need to be drinking more Calvados it would appear. Although, not sure they’re all up there at this level of quality. I adored the way this one effortlessly displayed easy charm alongside deceptive levels of complexity and depth while retaining impressive power in the mouth.
SGP: 650 - 88 (ish) points. 

Bas Armagnac 25 yo 1994/2020 (55.1%, Adelphi, French oak barrique)
This is another new Adelphi single cask bottling that I’m tasting from the miniature which came with the Royal Mile Whiskies online tasting pack the other day. I am assuming it’s the same liquid which will go into the full size bottles. I’m also assuming there will be full size bottles. Colour: orange / amber. Nose: it’s an Armagnac that’s dressing up as a Cognac. Which is to say: a lighter, more elegant and refined style. You don’t immediately get these more ‘rustic’ vibes that you would from most Armagnacs. This is more on various fruit preserves, plum wine, nectars, yellow flowers, brioche, runny honey and some lighter cooking oils. It’s actually unsurprising that Adelphi would select such a cask as it’s a style that very much appeals to the whisky drinker in me. I would add it’s also very approachable and easy at full strength. With water: drier, leafier, more bready and showing a nice aroma of flower honey. Mouth: more punchy and rustic than on the nose, so more ‘Armaganacy’ for sure. Brown bread, stewed dark fruits, peach stones, nectarines, menthol tobacco, sack cloth, orange cocktail bitters and cloves. With water: gets rather spicy now, lots of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. You certainly start to feel the oak talking more freely. Still some fruity marmalade notes though. Finish: good length, getting more herbal, nicely bitter, slightly peppery and with more of these notes of peach stone and honey. Comments: A very fine drop that should appeal to whisky drinkers. So a pretty smart selection, even if it isn’t a very classical Armagnac to my taste.
SGP: 651 - 85 points.

Château de Gaube 53 yo 1962/2015 (45%, Darroze, Bas-Armagnac)
Love, love, love Darroze! It’s also super cool that they put these wee collar labels on their bottlings that give you details about terroir, soil type, distiller, wood origin, grape variety etc. One of the areas where whisky can learn so much from Armagnac and Cognac in my view. This one was distilled from 100% Baco grapes. Colour: amber. Nose: yes! A perfect tightrope balance between breads and pastries on one hand, with preserved fruits, earth and tobaccos on the other. Rich, elegant and super classy old Armagnac. In time you start to get some more ripe fruits - apples, banana and even pineapple - along with aged sweet wines and a wee spoonful of custard. Mouth: powerful, deeply earthy, impressively chewy tannins and plenty of dried mushrooms, bitter chocolate, dried mint, walnut liqueur and dark fruits stewed with winter spices. Emphatic, direct and impressively powerful and controlled. Finish: long, nervously spicy, still these grippy, chocolatey tannins, hints of black pepper, star anise and more tobaccos and dark fruits. Comments: Not a surprise at all, just another superbly pleasurable old selection by Darroze. Once again, you cannot help but imagine the price that whisky companies would be charging for such a cask if this were Scotch. This was a bottle I bought for as a birthday present for my Mum, cost was around £260 I think. We don’t score prices here on Whiskyfun, but I think those kinds of comparisons are powerfully illuminating.
SGP: 661 - 91 points.

Fine Champagne 50 yo (70 proof, Hedges & Butler, 1960s)
This was one of two bottles of this particular bottling of Cognac which I bought at auction a few years ago. The first one I opened soon after purchase and Serge recorded notes for at the time (WF:92). Let’s see if this second bottle measures up to such heights, I think this one was probably bottled a little later than the first one. Colour: light amber. Nose: an exquisite mix of fruit jams and preserves. Also a wonderfully exotic edge with these impressions of dried mango, fruit salad juices and guava. Then it’s moving more towards quince, apricot jam, tinned peaches and soft tobacco notes. Impressions of petrichor, hessian and old cigar boxes. The definition of elegance and class! Mouth: soft at first arrival but it really builds in layers with this beautifully structured and textural fruitiness. Fruit jellies, citrus peels, jams, orange marmalade with coriander, bouquet garni of dried herbs, cantaloupe melon and then more specific herbal notes of sage, rosemary and thyme. Finish: long but very soft, leathery, earthy and getting slightly nutty with chestnut puree, walnuts and hazelnuts. Comments: Sheer class! I love the fruitiness in this one, these wee exotic flourishes are just catnip to a whisky lover’s palate. Similar quality as the other bottle to my mind.
SGP: 651 - 91 points.

Héritage de René Rivière ‘Avant 1925’ (49%, Malternative Belgium, Borderies, 66 bottles, 2020)
A very new bottling from the cool folk at Malternative Belgium. Distilled prior to 1925 and put into glass in 1981. Colour: light amber. Nose: a delicate and impeccably balanced ‘muddle’ of preserved fruits, crystallised citrus rinds, dried exotic fruits, exotic fruit teas, syrups, cordials and rather direct notes of chamomile and bergamot. Wonderfully elegant and deeply complex. Peaches and cream, mango chutney and the most ancient of herbal liqueurs - long aged yellow Chartreuse perhaps. Quite beautiful. Mouth: tinned peaches, mango, praline, wood spices, orange liqueurs, jasmine tea, quince jelly and these wonderful notes of aged ointments and herbal extracts. All manner of tiny fruit notes as well which create in impressive level of complexity. There’s also those wonderful earthy/leathery/tobacco combinations that really sing with age in Cognacs. And the strength carries everything with such power and aplomb. Finish: long, herbal, spicy, lots of jellied fruits and various aromatic teas. Comments: Terrific, the depth of flavour and complexity and really show-stopping.
SGP: 651 - 92 points.

Rouyer Guillet 1865 (42%, OB ‘AA Baker import’, bottled circa 1960)
I won’t bore you with cut and paste historical factoids from 1865 courtesy of wikipedia. Suffice to say, this was distilled almost exactly around the outset of the Phylloxera blight in France (which originated in England, which I’m sure will delight many Brexiters) so should be entirely from pre-phylloxera vines. Colour: ruby/amber. Nose: another world, really. The depth and darkness of the fruits is really astounding. Like bramble syrup, pomegranate molasses and fruity black coffee collided with the most stunning dark chocolate, aged cigar boxes and green walnut liqueur. Hyper-concentrated, dripping with rancio and showing this almost muscular earthiness. Hypnotic and otherworldly. Mouth: just beautiful! A mesmeric display of dark, exotic and dried fruits. All simmered down to their most sticky, fat, concentrated forms and infused with taut wood spices, cinnamon, cloves, dried wild flowers, incense, natural tar, rancio, walnuts, aged tobaccos, lightly salted liquorice and praline. These wee floral touches gain prominence over time and sit beautifully alongside all these superbly deep and punchy earthy and rancio qualities. Finish: wonderfully long, earthy, bitterly herbal, almost sooty and riddled with dark fruit jams and cordials. Not to mention this almost salty rancio quality that infuses everything. Comments: Of course it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer emotional force of liquid history in your glass when tasting such spirits. But this is unequivocally and by every metric an absolutely brilliant old Cognac. A masterclass in poise, elegance, depth, power, balance, control and complexity. It remains almost poetically beautiful as well.
SGP: 661 - 93 points.

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.

Ardbeg 10 yo (70 proof, OB, bottled circa 1976)
A super rare old bottling that should be just after the mid 1970s and before they transitioned to the gold and black label. Colour: gold. Nose: typically beautiful mix of seawater, diesel, drying kelp, old rope and tar. An extremely pure expression of peat - the kind that is unique to 60s and 70s Ardbeg. The 40% abv leaves you with a curiously dissonant impression of fragility and power. Yet, the overall impression remains one of evocative beauty and peaty harmonics. Mouth: as big and majestic as whisky can be at 40%. Soots, embrocations, seawater, ink, tar, TPC and an almost gelatinous peatiness. Finish: long, fat and superbly earthy, sooty and smoky. Comments: Imagine this at 80 proof. Or - dare to dream - 100 proof! Despite the strength, the elegance, control, power and sheer force of peaty personality are massive. 
SGP: 467 - 94 points. 

Ardbeg 28 yo 1972/2001 (49.5%, Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask, 222 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: seawater, kelp, smoked rubber, creel nets, tar, iodine, oysters, sheep wool… all the usual 70s Ardbeg tricks. Although, perhaps overall it errs on the lighter side of most 72s. There’s still this wonderful mix of medicines, hessian, old rope and dried seaweed with a whiff of diesel fumes in the background. Dry and chiselled. Mouth: big arrival! Hugley tarry and peppery, lots of smoked fennel, canvas, black olives, seawater mixed with olive oil, shoe polish and coal smoke. One of these Ardbegs that veers towards mechanical and slightly industrial characteristics. The palate is more boisterous and punchy than the nose suggested - which is a lovely surprise. Get’s very sooty, mineral, oily and with an almost greasy old Ardbeg peat. Finish: wonderfully long, emphatic, peaty, earthy, drying notes of seaweed, caraway, brine and slightly dirty smoke. Comments: The character and reputation of these vintages of Ardbeg is such that when you write notes, you can easily find yourself getting a tad blasé about a 94 point whisky. Let’s not forget just how incredible these casks were at the time and how influential they were on broader single malt culture. It’s great to revisit such bottlings and be blown away all over again. Stunning whisky that combines purity and power with brilliant wee dirty and mechanical touches. 
SGP: 466 - 94 points.

Ardbeg 1974/1991 (56%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society #33.11)
Needless to say, these very early SMWS Ardbegs, like the Springbanks, are both super scarce and bear an immense reputation. Colour: gold. Nose: beautifully sooty and smoky. A dank chimney with tarry embers, coal scuttles and old rope. Lots of hessian, paraffin, tar, iodine drops, dried kelp, seaweed crackers and anchovy paste. Despite the power you sense underneath everything unfolds with deft precision and control. Some beautifully elegant salinity keeps everything hyper fresh. With water: extremely pure and coastal now. Seawater, salt, brine, lemon juice, boiler smoke and kippers. Still all the while displaying this typical Ardbeg density of peat. Mouth: Waaaoooow! Pin-sharp peat, pink sea salt, black olives in brine, pure iodine, natural tar extracts, black pepper, smoked mackerel, salted liquorice and yet more tar. Totally thrilling whisky! Poise, power, balance and beautiful structure. With water: bandages, medical embrocations, antiseptic, herbal mouthwash, peat ashes, malt vinegar and camphor. Totally stunning! Herbal, smouldering, medical sooty and hugely salty. Finish: endlessly smoky, resinous, fatty, glycerol, herbal and umami. All manner of earthy, sooty, smoky and peaty complexities fizzing and popping. Comments: Effortlessly brilliant whisky! The kind of that totally dominates you from the get go and all you can do is follow it and try to keep up. The depth, power, complexity and balance are all just breathtaking! I really think these SMWS cask are amongst some of the very best 70s Ardbegs ever bottled. 
SGP: 478 - 95 points. 

Ardbeg 1975/1987 (55.7%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society #33.5)
Colour: gold. Nose: what strikes first are the more sooty and cereal tones. Like fresh kiln air tinged with blue peat smoke. Then you start to get these wee whiffs of menthol tobacco, black olive, kelp, brine and bonfire ash. Extremely pure and with a big but brittle austerity. Malt vinegar, camphor, vapour rubs, bandages and seawater. Whereas the 74 was a little easier and more restrained, this is rather more beastly. Immense! With water: the power remains but what is so striking is the freshness. Really pure sea air in a glass! Sandalwood, gorse, sand, crushed shells, white fish and simmering stock full of many different herbs. Mouth: Powerful but restrained arrival that then unfolds into the most immense salinity! Pure seawater, wet seaweed, oysters, sea urchin, mercurochrome, aspirin, petrol, natural tar and antiseptic. The kind of gunk you could stand a spoon in and disinfect whole hospitals with a single measure. Also profoundly peppery, sooty, oily and still wonderfully tarry. With water: the power is still dazzling but everything is even more fat, precise and generous now. More black pepper, more olives, more brine, more smoked sea salt, more olive oil, more medicine, more herbs and more peat. Just MORE! Finish: endlessly fat, greasy, salty and medical. A big, fat, slithering peatiness. Comments: Quite flabbergasting whisky. These SMWS bottlings are so precious because they show this immense distillate in its comparative youth and without any sherry to dress it up. Just uncompromising, naked and un-diluted raw 70s Ardbeg, bouncing around the glass and quivering with peaty power. This one is a tad more raw and guttural than the 1974 but the overall quality is almost identical. These two SMWS casks make Octomore feel like Speyburn.
SGP: 468 - 95 points.

Ardbeg 10 yo 1978/1988 (57.8%, The Syndicate, 240 bottles)
A rather rare example from Sir John MacTaggart’s private stash of casks. This label series is more commonly associated with Lagavulin, Caol Ila and Laphroaig, but Bowmore and Bruichladdich have both also featured - and of course this wee Ardbeg. Colour: pale gold. Nose: deeply ashy, petrolic and saline. An assertive and almost brutal minerality along with these notes of boiler smoke, dried kelp, black pepper and smoked olive oil. There’s also some rather earthy notes of black tea and vegetal things like baked cauliflower, caraway, antiseptic and asparagus. Given time you also get something almost cheesy - unlikely, but in a good way. With water: gets very smoky, earthy and drying. Lots of smoked canvass, fabrics and coal dust. Really a beast of an Ardbeg!  Mouth: big, fatty, oily, salty and drying. Lots of dried smoked herbs, peat, frying bacon, seawater, tarry rope, anthracite embers and mercurochrome. Whoever said 1978 Ardbegs were lighter? With water: green olives, anchovy paste, sardines, salty butter with chives. On the whole it’s hugely gutsy, greasy and full of fatty and rather industrial-accented peat smoke. Also brilliantly salty, this is the answer to the question: ‘how many ways can the flavour of salt manifest in Scotch Whisky?’ Finish: endless long, salty, oily and full of greasy boiler smoke, black pepper, gentian eau de vie, tar and TCP. Comments: We’re not in the same league as the SMWS pair (not much is really) but this is still an immensely impressive Ardbeg. It manages to be both monolithic and playful at the same time; brutality and tomfoolery in the same glass. Goes to show that Ardbeg was still making some rather incredible whisky in the late 1970s. 
SGP: 477 - 93 points. 

Lagavulin 12 yo (43%, OB ‘White Horse’, Jardine Matheson & Co Japan import, 1970s)
This is a super rare version of this old White Horse series for Japan. As with most of these old white label Lagas, this should be pretty serious stuff! Colour: orangey amber. Nose: Old Lagavulin + sherry = beauty! You have this mix of oily, almost syrupy and luxurious peat fused with dry, leafy and salty sherry. Amongst it all there’s bitter marmalade, smoked dark chocolate with sea salt, hessian, wet leaves, wine cellar must, black truffle oil, smoked mint, iodine drops and natural tar. Given the time the peat becomes more elevated and pronounced. You are unmistakably on Islay! Get’s more peppery, more oily, drier and more towards seaweed and gloopy old medicines. Stunning and rather emotional due to the sheer force of old style charisma about it. A little more time and it starts to reveal lots of raisins, dates and dried tropical fruits. Just beautiful. Mouth: Stunning! Leather, many different old tobaccos, long-aged Cuban cigars, smoked dates, raisins, tar, camphor, putty, smoked olive oil, hessian, bitter orange marmalade again, tannic black teas, paprika, dark chocolate with chilli and old school, herbal-infused dry peat smoke. All wrapped up in this very leathery and salty old school sherry. Finish: long, salty, gamey, leathery and full of deep, bass-like peat and dried seaweed. Comments: Just magnificent! To think that these bottles used to be given away if you bought a case of gin or some such other nonsense. This is everything you seek in great whisky: balance, depth, complexity and stunningly intertwined flavours. Not to mention these bottlings are the absolute epitome of old school peat and sherry in perfect harmony. 
SGP: 565 - 94 points. 

Lagavulin 40 yo 1979/2019 (49.1%, The Syndicate, cask #112, 188 bottles)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: a fragrant and beautifully honeyed kind of peat. Gives this great impression of oiliness and viscosity. You also get these beautifully complex notes of toasted black pepper, smoked green tea, natural tar extracts, lamp oil, hessian and candied citrus peels. Hints of smoked paprika, petrol, embrocations and old ink. Like some other older official Lagavulins (thinkings the 30 and 37yo Special Releases) this has the same quality of deep and wayward complexity that leads you down many tangential and tertiary paths. There’s olives, gentian root, many herbal and medical notes and a beautiful array of coastal incursions. All the while this very mature, honeyed profile - which wouldn’t be out of place in a very old Glen Grant for example - is ever-present. Mouth: dry, tautly structured, herbaceous and stunningly complex. Many herbal and smoked teas, cured meats, salted liquorice, precious hardwood resins, eucalyptus, tea tree oil, camphor, vapour rubs, iodine, more of these natural tar notes and smoked mineral oil. Still immensely fresh, vibrant and ‘together’. There’s no sense of diminishment from the age or wood. In fact the wood stays a respectable distance throughout, just delivering this perfect nibble of spice round the edges. Finish: very long, full of hessian and this rather textural, ropey, leathery kind of peat. Lots of black olive, dried seaweed, smoked mint and eucalyptus oil. Comments: Impeccable and rather special old Lagavulin. It’s commonly thought that most Islay whiskies (apart from Bowmore and possibly Bunnahabhain) run out of steam after about 35 years. But this Lagavulin is still fresh, vivid, coastal and bursting with complexity and life. Hugely pleasurable old Lagavulin that still reeks of distillery character. What a cask! 
SGP 465 - 93 points.

Lagavulin 27 yo 1991/2018 (51.8%, OB ‘Casks of Distinction’, cask #0016, sherry puncheon, 432 bottles)
Another from this often excellent but still rather silly series by Diageo. Colour: deep copper. Nose: smouldering wet leaves, chocolate, hessian, damp dunnage warehouse, tar, caraway and metal polish. What’s interesting is that you get the impression of a similar fusion of sherry and peat as you do in these old official 12yo White Horse bottlings, however, here you feel the modernity of the distillate making things a little sharper and more jagged. It’s still excellent stuff though, no doubt. More aggressive smokiness, more jams, dark fruits, plum sauce, seaweed and black olives in brine. With water: beautiful, classy and very elegant development along the lines of tobaccos, unlit cigars, sandalwood, dried seaweed, cured meats and touches of old balsamic and rancio. Mouth: big, brusque, tarry, hugely peppery and very salty. Lots of cured game meats, beef stock, dried seaweed in hot ramen broth, Maggi and other umami and savoury liquid seasonings. Gets increasingly salty and very punchy. Technically brilliant and impressive, but after some of these older style examples you kind of feel it lacks a little soul and class in some ways. Gets increasingly sooty, dry and with a rather burnt aspect emerging. With water: again water works wonders. Brings everything together around this core of sooty peat smoke, dried seaweed, dried dark fruits, mint, eucalyptus and earthy, meaty notes. Finish: long, leathery, sooty, peaty and with lots of spices, salinity and medical aspects. Comments: Water really helped this one by bringing out a more cohesive and classical profile dominated by distillery character and a greater harmony between cask and distillate. Bring a pipette and spend some quiet time with this one. 
SGP: 556 - 92 points. 

Lagavulin 1991/2016 (52.7%, OB ‘200th Anniversary’, sherry butt, 522 bottles)
I tried this at a tasting shortly before it’s release and remember being impressed, but I never managed to take proper notes before. Colour: deep copper/amber. Nose: wonderfully fat, meaty and earthy. Lots of savoury broths, broiled seaweed, miso, tar, salty black liquorice, olive tapenades, tarry rope and TCP. If you had an old bottling of the 16yo from around the early 1990s and imagined a version at full strength then you might conjure something akin to this style. It screams ‘Lagavulin’ right out of the glass. Continues this tight rope ballet between gamey cured meats, embrocations, tar, earth and a heavy bassy peat note. I find it pretty brilliant I have to say. With water: gets more elegant and more ‘together’ and concise. Seaweed, old school peat with these rather herbal, rooty and earthy accents, seawater, preserve lemons in brine, tar and iodine drops. Utterly majestic. Mouth: gah! Pure peat bog water and petrol mixed with chilli-spiced ramen broth, salt cured fish, dried kelp, old tarry rope, creel nets and natural tar liqueur. You might also add my beloved Maggi liquid seasoning, hot smoked paprika, aged pu erh teas, eucalyptus and this extremely medical-accented sherry. I know we haven’t mentioned sherry thus far, but it pervades everything rather perfectly. Hugely leathery, gamey, meaty and riddled with various tobaccos, dried herbs, old school cough medicines and umami seasonings. The complexity is also hugely impressive, this is one of those drams you could go on picking wee flavours and aromas out of for a good couple of hours. With water: once again, water just creates cohesion and everything now coagulates around this rather resinous, fat and almost greasily peaty core. Embrocations, tobacco, wet earth, charcoal, salted liquorice, natural tar - well, you get the picture by now… Finish: thrillingly long, salty, meaty, bitterly chocolatey, full of tobacco, more tar, smoked prunes, jasmine, ointments, dried seaweed and hessian. Did I mention peat? Comments: We didn’t call the anti-maltoporn brigade but, rather evidently, we should have had them on speed dial. Anyway, what a way to celebrate a bicentenary. Terrific work Diageo and especially everyone at Lagavulin. Better late than never! I just adore the fusion of sherry and peat here, two beautiful forces that create something greater than the sum of both parts. Although, let’s not forget time is really the third key ingredient in this glorious collision. 
SGP: 577 - 94 points.

Lagavulin 1980/1995 (63.8%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society #111.2)
A pretty scarce early SMWS Lagavulin bottled at a paint-thinning natural strength. Should be fun. I recall the 111.1 being same vintage and similar strength but from a pretty active sherry cask, whereas this one looks almost certain to be refill. Colour: pale gold. Nose: grassy, fresh and sooty at first nosing. It feels quite close to some 1988 and 1990s bottlings at similar ages so we’re in familiar territory. A fairly thick and slithery peat with lots of iodine, punchy medicines, seawater and a whole bucket of petrol. What’s impressive is not the power but the restraint; you don’t really feel that vertiginous alcohol. With water: opens superbly with water. Lapsang souchong, dried herbs, seaweed in miso broth, anchovies and a kind of coiling, layered smokiness. Taut and punchy yet also controlled and beautifully structured Lagavulin. Mouth: superb delivery, like a very early Special Releases 12yo with a little more age and coconut-flecked sweetness. Smoked malt extract, TCP, smoked meats - indeed, just rather smoky all round. Lemon cough syrup, antiseptic and charred white fish over coals. With water: a collision of syrupy medicines, herbal extracts, seawater and rather savoury, umami notes. The overall salinity is increased and there’s this familiar malt vinegar and chip fat morass which once again harks back to an early OB Special Releases 12yo. Only here there’s also green peppercorns in brine and English mustard powder. Finish: long, ashy and full of BBQ embers, fragrant wood smoke, pebbles, ink and some drying tarriness. Comments: Some aspects could fairly be considered as challenging, but it’s a whisky that commands attention and rewards a little skirmishing. Beneath all this masculine bluster, there’s much beauty to be found. Cleaves very close to some later official releases while still carrying a few echoes of the past. 
SGP: 367 - 92 points.