Origin: Speyside (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 52.2%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex sherry
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: MacGregor Thomson Whiskies Ltd
Average price: € 680.00
Official website: finnthomson.com
Vote: 91/100
I return to this young and yet old Scottish bottler with another bottle of important ageing, part of the Rare Collection, this time from Longmorn, a distillery that was the heart of the blended Beneagles created by Finn’s grandfather, several casks of which from the 1980s remain in his possession.
Distillate from December 1988 matured in a cask that yielded 215 bottles in November 2022, not easy to come by and not exactly popular in price. There is a sister cask, deemed not up to bottling.
Tasting notes
After more than thirty years, the character of Longmorn is still very clear on the nose, an explosion of very rich, pulpy fruit in which crackling peaches in syrup, white melon, passion fruit, apricot, mango, clementines… an interminable fruit salad of incredible freshness. A strong sulphurous vein permeates the aromas, gun barrel and freshly blown out candle intertwine with strokes of caramel, cinnamon, turmeric, Brazilian nut and ginseng coffee. Minerality and sweetness that marry perfectly.
Sparkling and peppery on the palate, with a punch of black pepper, ginger and sweet paprika which opens the way to fruit, turning more towards citrus fruits (tamarind and mandarin), in a crescendo of darker shades in which black cherries and blueberries appear with cocoa beans, coffee, nuts (pine nuts, pumpkin seeds), a hint of dried figs and the mineral note expressed in vegetal tones. It warms the palate lengthwise, having mocha and nuts grow.
Long finish in which the vegetal and fruity parts intersect with a marked saline hint and once again sulphurous and earthy notes of mushrooms and mould.
A spectacular nose, with a liveliness that would make young whisky envious, which anticipates a full and mutable body, rich, an integration between cask and distillate so balanced as to border on perfection.
Masterpiece.