Speyside.
Pale amber with a green tinge. Good bead.
Complex, light and soft. Oiled wood and leather books at first, then green bananas and Demerara sugar, melted over vanilla ice cream. Some peaty smokiness. Also, a dusty and waxy note. With water the waxy note rises, now more perfumed – soft leather, make-up compact, Parma violets, silk.
Firm. Smooth mouth-feel.
A complex of primary tastes – perfume and spice notes (vanilla), a light, malty sweetness throughout (not cloying) with a little acidity, and then a woody, smoky dryness. A deft interplay persists - none of the flavours is willing to lose the initiative. The subtlety is lost if too much water is added.
Long, dry, with a hint of hard liquorice and late pepper. Fruity aftertaste.
Distillery: MortlachTM
Age: 25 years old
Strength: 43.4% ABV
Place of Origin: Dufftown
Region: Speyside
in brief… A multi-faceted Mortlach that is all full-strength, full-on impact, with an intriguing mix of elegance and power.
in a sentence… Complex throughout and very moreish: a big and chewy dram with high complexity, mixing roasting spices and an almost animal intensity with dense layers of decadent sweetness.
Restrained, elegant and mature with tropical fruits and an initial, enigmatic sweet-savoury mix of burnt cream and game pie! Quickly develops ripe fruit; soft plums and bruised red apples or hedgerow berry fruits, with dried blossom, blueberry jam and toffee Then more sweetness, as Christmas pudding and vanilla-rich white chocolate. Well-balanced, complex and deep, with smoky, waxy hints of chestnut purée and venison. Do not add water – with all this, why would you?
Starts intense, urgent and very sweet. Very focused initially, with great energy. Softly coating with a smooth and delicate texture, then a burst of plummy fruit fools you into thinking it will get sweeter. But this massive barley-sugar richness instead develops into deep, rich, darkly malty notes then grows herbal, with a cough-candy warmth, light tannins and smoke. This is a big and chewy dram with high complexity, mixing roasting spices and a muscular, meaty nature with layers of dense sweetness.
Smooth, sweet, warming and tongue-tingling. Develops a vanilla creaminess before an aromatic, liquorice root complexity asserts itself, leading to a gently drying and appetisingly pithy conclusion.