Origin: Speyside (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 49.8%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Sherry and PX
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Valinch & Mallet Ltd.
Price: € 299.00 on Valinch & Mallet
Official website: www.valinchandmallet.com
Vote: 93/100
At the latest Milano Whisky Festival, mindful of our tasting a year earlier, and incredibly lucky in finding a few still available, we took home a bottle of a Valinch & Mallet single cask celebrating Fabio Ermoli’s 30 years of ‘bad reputation’ (as the label reads).
This is a whisky distilled at the Speyside Distillery in September 1991 and matured, based on the information released by the bottlers, first in an ex sherry cask probably third-fill and for the last four years in an ex PX.
When dear Fabio had poured it into our glass, the impression had been overwhelmingly positive. Let’s see how it goes today.
For those who believe in the meaning of numbers and their power, the bottle in our possession is No 245 of 245. Natural colour and no chill-filtration, obviously.
Tasting notes
The colour is deep amber.
On the nose, the first scents are of nuts (almonds and hazelnuts), with sweet nuances of caramel and vanilla berries, and impressions of figs and dates. In the background is a diffuse note of wood wax and a spicy ensemble of nutmeg and cinnamon. As the minutes pass, the olfactory spectrum broadens to include a memory of leavened cake, candied fruit (orange and lemon) and a vagueness somewhere between musk and wet wood. But it doesn’t end there. In fact, panettone and a touch of marron glacé first, then currant, liquorice, sage and lemon follow closely behind. The least that can be said for this nose is that it is iridescent and unpredictable.
In the mouth, after walnuts and almonds, the vagueness between musk and wet wood returns. It’s difficult to define it exactly, also because it seems to change from one sip to the next. A light note of bitter orange zest is matched by one of caramel, while the spiciness settles on an impression of black pepper. Peanuts and cashews bend again towards dried fruits, while the gradation continues to dress the whisky with absolute elegance.
The finish is really long and spicy, with hints of nutmeg and pepper, caramel, and a vivid memory of apple pie burnt at the edges.
Every whisky has a story to tell, it’s up to us to listen to it. This Speyside tells us about 30 years ago, when whisky was different, when the world was different and when we were different too. It tells us about something that was born in another time and, as it changed, has come down to us. And it does so through an aromatic palette so peculiar that it resembles no other, an unrepeatable combination of nuances, just as unrepeatable is every adventure hidden between the folds of the most generous of spirits.