I'm proud to say I only finished one bottle during lockdown, and it was a small 200ml bottle. This either says I was very restrained, or I have a lot of bottles.
The tasting was looking at lighter style drams from Dramfest (which I also missed). Eight of them. Our usual drinking team was there...
Mortlach : Gordon & MacPhail 15yo 43%
Nose: sweet, citrus, apple, vanilla, custard, banana
Palate: fizzy sherbert, sweet, salt, apple
Finish: short-medium, apple.
I didn't pick this as a Mortlach as they're usually meatier than this which was delicate. Nose was superb, the rest was a bit weak.
7/10 (came 5th on the night)
Miltonduff : Gordon & MacPhail 'Discovery' 10yo 43%
N: bit flat, chocolate, sweet, moist leather, suppurating wound (leather-richard; wound-me)
P: honey, aniseed, salt, liquorice, sour
F: medium, aniseed
Didn't really grab me, it's good (well it is G&M) but nothing interesting.
6.5/10 (came 6th)
Benriach: Dark Rum Barrel Finish 22yo 46%
N: putty, apples, grass, elderflower, honey
P: boring, spicy pepper, floral
F: med spicy
Real disappointment from Benriach. not much happening at all (for me anyway).
6/10 (although it came 4th in group values)
Tullibardine: Cadenhead's 1993 26yo 43.9%
N: floral, grass, mushrooms, astringent cleaner
P: smokey light, salty
F: salt, butter dry, medium length
Again, not much really happening. Perfectly adequate, but not rushing to drink again.
6/10 (came 8th, so no-one else liked it either)
Amrut Greedy Angel 8yo 50%
N: chocolate, golden syrup, leather books, cricket box, ginger, raisins
P: sweet, coffee, chocolate, stunning
F: long, coffee
Ok this was superb. It's not cheap tho'. Really complex, didn't taste like a Scottish 8yo as you'd expect, the maturation is quicker in India. I think they said it was a blend of a couple of casks?
9/10 (came 1st), possibly not worth the money, but it is very very good
Wolfburn 46%, oak matured ex Laphroaig casks, NAS
N: wine, sauv blanc, honey, low alc, grass
P: not a lot of anything
F: nothing
I failed this one, nothing happening in it.
4/10 [came 7th]
Port Askaig 10th Anniversary 10yo 55.85%
N: rubber, bacon, gunpowder, bbq sauce
P: rubber, bacon, pepper, medicinal
F: long
This was very good, if I didn't have a 'number' of Islay's I'd have wandered home with this. Complex, warming, interesting.
8/10
Springbank 10yo Local Barley 56.2%
N: body odour of a teenage boy, wet cardboard, boring, mandarin
P: dusty, soapy
F: medium
WTF Springbank, how did you fuck this up so badly? it's not even abysmal, it's nothing.
4/10
We have the darker drams in a couple of weeks.
Slainte, B
