From our Secret Bottlings Series
Whiskies of this age are incredibly rare, particularly those that display such deft balance and poise, this bottling is from a well-known Speyside distillery. This was also awarded a Silver Medal at the 2011 Malt Maniacs awards!
Highland 30 year old, after sample taste, i thought about it all night and end up bought a bottle. This I would not pay 200 something dollars for it. For a 40 year old I'm not impressed! This smells good, taste young, like light summer day abit sweet, abit smoke, abit dry but watery fininsh. I don't know maybe i thought too highly of its age..
A slightly astringent nose of dried fruit and green nuts. If I was to hazard a guess I would say it’s a refill-Oloroso Glen Grant. Deep and unctuous with plenty of mature honey and a touch of sawdust. The palate is soft and succulent, a touch on the tannic side but lovely and gentle. There’s plenty of mature honey and a hard, peppery middle, which leads me to believe that it’s not Glen Grant. Slightly astringent on the finish with a hint of violets and still pretty peppery. That peppery character is perplexing and making the guessing quiet difficult as I can’t say that I’ve every found that in an old Spey before. Talisker maybe but not a Spey. Of the Speyside malts that that a) age for that long and b) that are often sherry casked, I don’t think it is Macallan, Glen Grant Glenfarclas or Caperdonich….. So I’m going to plump for Strathisla, mainly because of the violety note which I have found in other bottlings from that distillery. I’m sure someone will tell me if I’m right or wrong!
