Single Malt
Scotland
1 May 2013
1 Jun 2025
Mmmmmmm! A meaty Mortlach for our Master of Malt Single Cask collection! Distilled in 2013, this single malt spent a dozen years maturing in a refill hogshead, and we squeezed precisely 300 bottles from that cask in 2025 (as always, without added colour or chill filtration). Mortlach still uses a brilliant bit of old school kit called a worm tub condenser. While not as efficient as the modern-day condensers that have replaced them in most distilleries, worm tubs are prized for the heavy, robust flavour profiles that they can achieve, as you'll see demonstrated magnificently in this single malt.
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Funky and tropical from the get-go, with creamy grist and overripe fruit, candied pineapple, almond butter, and buttered oatcakes with marmalade.
Big, bold, juicy barley, a lick of toffee, browned butter, and syrupy sponge cake lead to vibrant notes of yellow plum, buttery pastry, hazelnut cream, and oaken vanilla. Super bright and funky.
Meaty malt develops for the finish, with dense caramel sweetness, candied walnut, drying oak, salted papaya, and a smidge of chilli chocolate.
It's all sold out now so this just for any other Mortlach lovers who have taken a punt on this and are wondering what others make of it. Well, dissapointed in word. A lot of cask strength whiskies remarkably defy their high ABV with complex flavour profiles and well intergrated alcohol. This does neither sadly. Perhaps another 8-10 years would tame it but, for now, it's intensely hot and there seems no amount of water can temper it and unlock any of the flavours describe in the tasting notes (these are so often spot on btw but, in this case, they're so far off the mark that I reckon Trading Standards would have something to say!) Oh well, you live and you learn. The majority of MoM Indie bottlings are fantastic and this one blip won't put me off buying them.
