Origin: Speyside (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 52.1%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon hogshead first fill
Chillfiltered: No
Additional coloring: No
Owner: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Average price: € 400.00
Official website: www.smws.com
Vote: 81/100
Behind the magic fairy dust hides a whisky with quite an important ageing. As always, made from a single cask, like most of Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottlings, from a Speyside distillery that is so satisfying in its independent versions.
Code 7.242 (you can find the distillery of origin in this guide) for a whisky distilled on 20 May 1993 and poured into 224 bottles in 2020, a good twenty-six years later. Not so easy to find anymore, and at prices that are now inhuman.
Tasting notes
Gold in the glass.
A very lively and jaunty nose, proudly speysider, which on spicy notes of cinnamon and nutmeg brings out a mixture of vanilla, honey, peach, cooked pear, yellow orange juice, shortcrust pastry, lemon zest. Baking powder. You’d almost think it’s younger than its 26 years, were it not for a woody base along the length that betrays its age.
More composed and refined on the palate, the flavours are less direct but not fatuous, with a vein of rhubarb creeping in among the nose’ spices over fruit (pineapple, peach, pear), vanilla, icing sugar and lemon. Rather simple in its composition, it doesn’t show much evolution, remaining static and somewhat algid.
The finish is of medium length, bitterish, with pear, lemon, vanilla and sugar icing.
A very attractive nose is not matched by an equally lively palate, which remains on basic tones without offering any particular emotion or complexity. A solid but essentially boring whisky, excellent if you are looking for a reassuring and relaxing dram.