Verklaar mij maar voor gek, maar zojuist de stoute schoenen aangetrokken en een 3cl sample van een 60yo Speyside besteld. Unieke kans om zoiets een keer te kunnen proeven, daar ik niet de middelen heb of een netwerk waarbij het vaak zal voorkomen dat ik zoiets tegen het lijf loop.
http://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/master-of-malt/master-of-malt-60-year-old-speyside-whisky/Notes van Serge:
Speyside 60 yo (42.5%, Master of Malt, First Edition, single malt, 2014) The distillery’s not disclosed, which doesn’t obligatorily mean it’s Glenfarclas. Hold on, does what you just wrote make any sense, Serge?
Colour: amber with bronze hues.
Nose: it’s drier, more humussy, more musty than the Glen Grant. I find more hay, more bark, more dried mushrooms, as well as several kinds of nuts. Walnuts, almonds, perhaps chestnuts… Then a little menthol again, as well as various herbal teas. Thyme, for example, or fennel. Then more and more tea, from earthy ones pu-erh style to complex green ones such as, say Longjing. These herbal notes may imply that the palate will be quite, err, green and tannic, but not sure, let’s see…
Mouth: it is a little tannic, but we’re way, way below the limits. What’s more, the fruity part is big enough to make the oak almost trivial. There is some orange liqueur or curaçao, drops of crème de menthe, a good spoonful of apricot jam, tarte tatin and caramelised apples, then more Demerara sugar (but it’s no big candied whisky), cinnamon cake, orange marmalade… The spices are becoming a little more boisterous after half a minute, especially the peppery side, some caraway too, but it remains a smooth dram globally.
Finish: medium length. Some peppermint sauce on orange zests and white pepper. A drop of cough syrup.
Comments: not that I have tried many dozens of 60yo+ whiskies, but they usually tend to be a little fragile and kind of shaky/too drying. Not quite the case here, which is a kind of miracle in my opinion. So great whisky, all it’s lacking is a name – but then it would be much more expensive, wouldn’t it. I guess you cannot have it both ways.
SGP:561 - 90 points.