Description
Nose : Light, well balanced and nuanced throughout. Delicate at first with the light fruity aroma of fresh green apples, or is it a hard goat’s cheese with a light hay note behind? This soon disappears in a well-paced development to reveal a supple and savoury Mortlach core suffused with candied sweetness: a heady mix of blackcurrant, roast chestnut and treacle toffee. Suggestions of peat with a slightly citric tang meld into oaky notes, then spent match and polished furniture with a cooling hint of peppermint. With water, it opens slowly with spicy notes of cedar and pencil shavings, then caramelised fruit sugars and wood ash.
Palate : Cooling, thick and smooth overall. Cautious and creamy at first, with flashes of intense sweetness before an espresso coffee note develops. This is Mortlach at its most robust; rich and muscular, with a mid-palate in which tannins bring out cocoa, damson and a real earthiness to compete with a rich honey sweetness. Later, faint notes of balsam introduce a growing sandalwood spiciness.
Finish : Coating, with a sparkling bitter-sweetness as found in a traditional cloudy lemonade or perfectly ripe raspberries. Ultimately drying and warming, with wood smoke or dried lavender and re-emerging cocoa nibs.
“Deep amber in color with the green glints of first-fill sherry, this has bosky notes and meat—mutton and venison—plus graphite, bitter chocolate, and wet rock before layers of dried stone fruits and date. This is the most savory and Bovril-like of the new range. The palate is feral and earthy; think mushroom with game pie, and rowan berries. Deep, but with more dimensions than the previous 16 year old which, in comparison, seems like a blunt instrument.”
(Dave Broom, 2014, Whisky Advocate Summer 2014)
“The nose is beefy, thick, and demands your attention, but also has subtleties that become apparent with careful observation. There are hints of dried flowers and spearmint, along with cocoa, green apples, shaving cream, and subtle hints of peaches and pears. The taste has notes of cinnamon-rich apple pie, nutmeg, banana, coconut, burnt vanilla, and touches of oak and ashiness. The finish is long and smooth, but still powerful and strong as the spices fade with a touch of beefiness and earthy notes of garden soil, beeswax, and fresh mushroom.”
(whiskycast.com, November 2013)
