Whisky Online Blog

Another straight tasting today and in celebration of the fact that it is a beautifully hazy and sunny spring day here in Glasgow I’ll be unashamedly tasting some utterly lovely whiskies. Namely four old Longmorn from the the glory years of the late 60s/early 70s. No further dithering, lets dive into the fruity fracas.

Longmorn 1964-2010. 46yo. G&M ‘Book Of Kells’. Cask number 1539. 53%. 70cl. 

Colour: Ruby/Mahogany

Nose: The sherry does all the talking up front but it’s one of these unctuous, pristine and super-polished sherry aromas that is just brimming with notes of leather, ancient balsamico, cured meats, candied peels, glazed fruits, wild strawberries, tar, roasted coffee beans and celery bitters. A stunning and direct nose that walks a perfect tightrope between the rich intensity of the sherry but also the lusciousness of the fruit components and never becomes too intense. Develops some glorious notes of green peppercorns, carbolic soap, turmeric, nutmeg and crystalised ginger. The freshness and liveliness is quite wonderful, the great age is apparent but it is worn very gracefully. With water: now it becomes greener and fresher, more notes of wet earth, guavas, ripe pears, more green peppercorns and some fragile notes of sandalwood, violets and strawberry liqueur. Lovely stuff.

Palate: The sherry is again the big talker initially, big, chewy, dark tannins dominate with a wonderful earthy, mulchy, forest flora flavour along with big notes of cocoa, dark chocolate, molasses and warming spices such as cloves and cinnamon. The sherry is maybe a bit too heavy on the palate but there are some wonderfully concentrated fruit notes in the form of many different kinds of jam and compote, fruit cordials, syrups, lemon oil, old cognac, brown sugar and more of these fantastic balsamico notes. With water: the bitterness of the tannins is still there but it is considerably tamed by the water which brings out a lot more spices, warmth, jammy fruit notes, eucalyptus oil and mulled wine with spiced oranges. Another christmasy old sherry cask.

Finish: Long, heavy, oily and mouth-coating. Like a thick fug of chocolate, wood spices, tannins and dark fruits stewed in old cognac. Lovely.

Comments: The fruitiness of the Longmorn was undeniably dominated by the sherry cask but it was a stunner of a cask, one that doesn’t over power too much. Although I probably couldn’t do more than one of these at a time. One for late at night in winter. A beast of a Longmorn, if you like big, clean, potent sherry then this will make your hair stand on end.

Score: 91/100

Longmorn 1968-1988. Samaroli 20th Anniversary series. 50%. 75cl. 

Colour: Deep bronze

Nose: This is a different beast entirely. You can tell the sherry is on a similar level of potency but its comparative youth is also immediately apparent. Huge notes of concentrated strawberry liqueur, marmalade, coriander seeds, caraway liqueur, fresh, buttery croissant and prune juice. Quite a big whisky but it seems a little lacking in the fruit department considering its provenance. Goes on with marzipan, kumquats, pencil shavings, wet earth, wild mushrooms, wholegrain mustard and raspberry jam. A very curious Longmorn. With water: Wow! With water it’s as if the cask type has changed to refill wood, the fruit is all over the place now. Bags of these typically luscious and fat, green and tropical fruits. Apples, pears, bananas, melons, grapefruit, preserved lemons and hints of herbs as well. Water almost inverts this whisky, in a good way.

Palate: A big attack, all on clean sherry, earth, molasses, tar, wine gums, blackcurrant cordial and some quite lavish flavours of stewed dark fruits and dark rum. A heavy and boisterous Longmorn with bags of flavour, one that definitely feels bigger than 50% in the mouth. Lets try it with water: it’s not quite the same transformation as on the nose, instead it becomes slightly calmer, more delicately spiced and biscuity with notes of digestive, ginger, icing sugar, geraniums and juniper. Quite an unusual whisky this one, delicious but unusual.

Finish: Long and rich, all on spices, tea, camphor, tannins, green fruits, apple skins and boiled sweeties.

Comments: It’s hard to know what to make of this dram. On one hand it’s a very straight, heavily sherried Longmorn that hides it’s instinctual fruitiness very well, while on the other it’s quite a schizophrenic creature. Water sends it off in all kinds of directions. It’s a lot of fun and very tasty stuff but I must say I was hoping for a bit more. The thing that strikes me most is that it feels a bit more modern than it should considering when it was distilled and bottled. A curious one, well worth trying if you can.

Score: 88/100

Longmorn 1969-2008. G&M for LMDW. Cask 5295. 50%. 70cl. 

Colour: Amber

Nose: Ahhh, now we’re talking. At last a straight, old, fruit bomb of a Longmorn, exactly as nature intended. Immediately there is a whole beehive of honey, fragile wood lignins and armfuls of fruits. Lots of greengages, pomegranates, apricots, nectarines and banana skins. It grows more aromatic and luscious with time as it opens up, the oak is perfectly poised and provides a great platform for the fruitier aspects. The thing that strikes you most is the wonderful composure. Goes on with dried herbs, orange liqueur, spices, notes of old fashioned cocktails, some bitter chocolate and even floral hints such as dandelions. With water: much softer and gentler with notes of plum compote, freshly cut grass, muesli and blood oranges. Still gorgeous.

Palate: A big, rich delivery all on spicy wood and fruit jams with lots of brittle oak, honeycomb, cereals, sharp pink grapefruit, mead, buttered toast and tiny hints of lavender. Not as fruity as I had hoped considering the wonder of the nose but that is so often the case with these old whiskies. The palate becomes more and more menthol with time, developing notes of freshly chopped mint and eucalyptus lozenges. More notes of oranges, milk chocolate now, camphor and sunflower seeds. With water: similarly with the nose it is much calmer and the oak dies away quite a bit leaving behind some wonderful notes of fresh brown bread, nutmeg, rice pudding, orange juice, roasted cereals, walnut oil and red fruits.

Finish: Long and gentle, full of little flourishes of oak, dried herbs, caraway and fennel seeds, all kinds of these orange notes and soft spices.

Comments: It feels like this one might have been just a notch too old. You can see utter greatness lurking in there but I can’t help but feel it might have been properly spectacular if bottled a few years earlier. But I’m nitpicking, it’s still a fabulous old whisky.

Score: 90/100

Longmorn 1971-2009. Spirito Divinos. 56 bottles. 57.3%. 70cl.

Colour: Straw

Nose: This one is quite different again, much more naked and virtually devoid of overt wood notes by comparison to the others. And all the better for it because in place we have a tidal wave of lemons, limes, grapefruits and mangos. A little fruit monster in a glass. Wonderfully fresh and vivid with bags of honey and fruit on top of subtler notes of lemon grass, thyme, gingerbread, sage, butter and marmalade. With water: not much change. It becomes a bit more savory and throws out some lovely notes of biscuit and dried fruits but it’s otherwise still a complete fruit bomb.

Palate: That bubbling fruitiness has continued perfectly onto the palate with huge, swaggering notes of grapefruit, mango, tangerine, passion fruit and melon. A true fruit cocktail, one of these Longmorns that reminds you just what a brilliant distillery this is. The strength is also hardly noticeable, in fact it tastes lighter than the previous two that were at 50%, in place of the alcohol there is just this myriad mess of oils and fruits. With water: again consistent with the nose, more drying and savory with notes of seeds and bread on top of all that honey and fruit. A stunner.

Finish: Long, sharp and alive with lemons, grapefruits, tropical notes, butter, honey, gingernut biscuits and warm spices.

Comments: This one reminds me of the legendary official 25yo and that’s really saying something. A perfect masterpiece for a perfect sunny afternoon. What a shame there are were only 56 bottles of this beauty. It seems that despite how brilliant Longmorn can be in big, slow-cooker of a sherry cask, it’s nothing compared to how wonderful it is when you just let the natural, fruit-laden glory of the distillate sing. At least that’s my two cents on the matter.

Score: 93/100

Have a fruity weekend.

It’s been a long time since my last post. This is largely due to epic quantities of work here at PSF and many ‘extra curricular ‘ activities at the weekends as well. Activities like trips to the Ocucaje desert.

The Ocucaje Desert in all its silent splendor.

The Ocucaje Desert is infamous as a fossil hunting ground for everyone from homely geologists to determined smugglers. It is essentially a forty five million year old fossilized sea floor. Parts of the desert are so startling in their oceanic qualities, with endless beds of wind worn shells and partially exposed whale skeletons, that just being there spaces you out too far to fully grasp what you are looking at.

One of many ancient whale skeletons that the desert coughs up every few years after erosion and sand reallocation.

Our guide was a man of spectacular and commendable madness named Roberto Penny Cabrera. A native Peruvian, although a direct descendent of the conquistadors apparently, he spoke technically excellent English of which only 30% was understandable due to his own brand of passion infused, sanity starved ranting. During the four hour drive into the desert from Ica we gathered that Paleontologists and Archaeologists were the enemy, but that Geologists were acceptable. We also learned that he had forgotten it was his birthday the next day, his main interest was in brains and asteroids and that he knew of a spot on a woman that when touched would make her “…open like a flower!”

Roberto in all his glory. My friend Rupert having a bit of wander in the background.

We saw many things in the desert, we saw things so thick and fast that the one day we spent there felt like time expanded across a whole week. Whole days of experience concentrated into one pure and endless scattering of hours. We saw the fossil beds, the whale skeleton with crystallized brain tissue, a gorge cast in waves of corrugated rock walls by moulds of air over countless millennia. We saw human remains scattered across an ancient burial ground that belonged to the Paracas People, the exposed bones and fabric discarded like strewn fragments of brilliant white china, brittle, forgotten and unknown. The hands of what might have been children were draped across the desert floor, some still with mummified skin and fingernails attached. In short, we agreed it was one of the best weekends of our lives.

One of the many bones lying idle in the Ocucaje.

But of all the endless wonders we were exposed to in the desert there was one thing that struck me more than any other. It was in the darkness the night we arrived, after we pitched the tent and sat down underneath one of the most star drenched skies we ever saw, it was the silence. Not just the quiet you get in a deserted forest, not even the kind of quiet you get in the remotest parts of Scotland or another country. Here there was nothing, not a single lick of breeze, no distant breath of aircraft in the skies, no occasional flicker from a far off highway, no creatures, no life, only the fossilized sound of extinction all around us. The silence was deafening, heavy and thick. A transparent weight across the night through which you looked at magnified stars. Every patch of sky threw up a dusty splatter of milky way that you had never seen before, each new corner revealed quiet shooting stars and the infinite fizz of the universe. All filtered through the greatest absence of noise you could ever hope to hear. The only piece of music that springs to mind is this one, perhaps it would be one of the only places on earth you could truly ‘hear’ this music.

For all that this piece of music has been mocked in its time, its purpose is not really directly musical. Here at PSF there is a communal courtyard that is filled with people working during the day and at night with people relaxing, socialising, drinking and eating. The volunteers change as people come and go, the jobs change the work changes and the only constants are the tick tock of day and night, the heat of the sun and the endless carnage of music that is played from our speakers all the time. I am driven often to distraction with the kinds of music played here so endlessly, music that is not my taste at all that is rendered even more aurally poisonous when re-mixed with the whine of circular saws in the yard and the bleating traffic outside the house. One man’s music is another man’s noise and like the piece by Mr John Cage above, the desert reminded me that sometimes a true and deep love of music is reliant upon its occasional absence, sometimes silence is the missing part of life’s score. The desert was the most silent place I’ve ever been, it made our slow return to civilization a noisy one. Now I hear the cars outside my window and the shrieks of the nighttime in Pisco with a greater sensitivity than I thought possible, now the cacophony is a symphony of pain. But I wouldn’t change the experience of the desert, no matter how loud things get.

I thought quite hard about what whisky I might have chosen for this experience if I could have taken one with me. In retrospect it’s probably for the best that I didn’t. Knowing me I would have opted for something obscenely delicious, expensive and silly. The problem is that swimming in pure, liquid silence under a field of stars is something of a humbling experience, if you’re going to drink anything with it it should really be as unassuming and quietly beautiful as possible. That’s where the old official Longmorn 15 comes in. Leaving aside the olfactory beauty of these old Longmorns for a moment, it is worth remembering that for a long time this was an under-appreciated bottling, especially in its glory years of the late 80s and early 90s. So to drink one now is something of a quietly special experience, a moment when you can reflect on what a great and simply delicious drink whisky can be and so often is when it works. When all the bullshit is stripped away and you are left with only a simply put together yet beautifully crafted spirit. These old Longmorns are among the best bottlings, in my opinion, at reflecting this. It is whisky at its most honest and humbling, uncomplicated, delicious and satisfying. Not something to be precious about but something to respect, share and love. I would have loved to have had a bottle of this that night in the desert, to have shared it with Rupert, Stephen and Walter, the friends I travelled there with. I miss whisky, but at least I know there is plenty of it awaiting me upon my return home, I might never go back to that desert and to have shared it then with such great people is an experience that probably not even whisky could have improved. The silence was intoxicating enough.

ps: That spot was the big toe (apparently).

Today I’ve decided to go through a few odds and ends in my sample cupboard that find themselves without same-still partners. In keeping with the festive theme of ridiculously delicious whiskies they should all be ridiculously delicious. (hopefully)

Glenury Royal 1966-1979. 13yo. Cadenheads Dumpy. 46%. 75cl.

Colour: Amber

Nose: Very fresh and full of old style fruitiness, tutti frutti chewing gum, kumquats, greengages, apples, ripe bananas, pineapple, apricot jam, custard, a little metallic note of steel wool and a few more flecks of very attractive OBE. It’s also slightly coastal in parts, little hints of salt here and there with minerals and hessian in the background.

Palate: Green fruits and spices with a really delicate wedge of oak in there too. Jam, sawdust, opal fruits, tea tree oil, feels older than 13 but that’s probably time in bottle that has done that. Really mouth coating and engaging whisky, not an edge on it anywhere but it still manages to speak to every part of the palate. Big warming spiciness in the back with notes of old polish, new carpet, floor wax and varnish.

Finish: Gentle and warming with woody spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Slightly gingery as well.

Comments: Lovely fruity old Glenury Royal. Another great lost distillery, another emotional treat.

Score: 89/100

Glen Elgin-Glenlivet. 1965-79. 14yo. Cadenheads for Samaroli. 360 bottles. 80 proof. 75cl.

This was one of the first ever series of Samaroli bottlings. It was opened in Alsace last month for our friend Patrick’s birthday which fell, fittingly enough, on D-Day.

Colour: Teak

Nose: Wild, potent, oily sherry. Pristine notes of stewed fruits, putty, minerals, raisins stewed in Cognac, blood oranges, tiny hints of medicine and tincture with camphor and olive oil. Wholegrain mustard, watercress, black olives, some earthy notes of mushrooms and dried fruit peel. A perfect old sherry cask as is the case with so many of these old bottlings. Walnuts, pecans, banana bread, brown sugar, lots going on here.

Palate: Very soft delivery with some musty notes of dried orange peel, old cupboards, mulling spices, Reciotto wine, dried mango, dark chocolate, a few tannins round the gums, little mineral notes and mushrooms. Quite a gentle sherry giant this, the musty notes are actually very nice, feels like a long forgotten relic in an attic somewhere. Cloves, wax, soot, nutmeg, cold black tea, rice pudding, orange muscat, orange bitters, an old fashioned cocktail, a little menthol and eucalyptus. Very pleasant sherry, not as overpowering as I remember it, given time in the glass it really softens out and becomes quite decadent.

Finish: Quite long and chocolatey with nourishing tannins and notes of balsamico, mushrooms, more mulling spices and hints of sweet red wine.

Comments: One for the decanter with all its statesmanlike olfactory swaggering. Alternatively, if you’re an anarchist, you could make an interesting seasonal variant on mulled wine. Although I don’t know any anarchists that could afford to make mulled wine with old Samaroli bottlings.

Score: 91/100

Ok so I left my picture of this bottle at home on my other hard drive. So until I can update it this one that I stole err borrowed from Whiskyfun will have to suffice. (sorry Serge)

Longmorn 1964-1992. 28yo. Cheiftan’s Choice Single Highland Malt. 50%. 70cl.

This bottling was one of the old Cheiftans series from the early nineties, it doesn’t say Longmorn on the label but we were reliably informed that it is indeed Longmorn in the bottle. There was also a rather stunning 30yo Lowlander that we tried in Harry’s Bar in Paris a couple of years back, we thought it was either Rosebank or St Magdalene but the Jury’s still out on that one.

Colour: Yellowy straw like colour ???

Nose: Ahhh, yesss! Big buttery, oily and fragrant old Longmorn, full of fruits and minerals, like a great old Riesling or something. Lots of lychees, honeysuckle, milk, olive oil, potpourri, dried herbs, really luscious notes of vanilla and ripe pears. Greengages, kumquats, green apples, white flowers, mint, Kummel, Advokat and spicy hints of toasted cumin. What a great old nose!

Palate: Really oily and full on fruitiness here, typical old Longmorn, gloriously lush and intense fruits of all kinds, in fact I can’t be bothered to list them. If I have to write ‘greengages’ one more time I’ll go spare. Hazelnuts, coal, olive oil, hummus, old tea, tequila, a fleck of medicine, cloves, salt and a really lean streak of perfect oak.

Finish: Long, oily, fruity and immensely satisfying.

Comments: Great old Longmorn, this really reminds me in many ways on the old 1964 Signatory bottling I tried recently only more oily. Why can’t people make this kind of whisky anymore? (A rhetorical question by the way, sadly we all know the stupid answers by now). Anyway, gorgeous, fruit bomb material it is!

Score: 92/100

Benriach 1976-2007. 30yo. OB. Port Pipe (Port Finish). 649 bottles. Cask no: 4469. 55.5%. 70cl.

Colour: Rosewood

Nose: Hessian, smoke and tropical fruits at first. Then a wonderful mix of antiseptic and raisins, lots of different fruits, little sooty and waxy notes and some really fat notes of apricots and mangoes. I love these old Benriachs, they can be so stunningly fruity and this one is no exception. Little spicy flecks with mineral notes, coal tar soap, old rope, kippers, cured ham, hospitals, TCP and germoline. With water notes of orange juice, metal, more meatiness and gentian root emerge.

Palate: Ok this is really sweet all of a sudden, excessively so in fact. God Damn finishes!!! Notes of barbeque sauce, kiwis, marmalade, chili pepper, gun flints, medicine, Ribena, Lilt. Lets see if water helps this sugarsome madness… It’s still gob-rapingly sweet! Really thick and viscus notes of molasses, cane sugar, earth, campari, cheap orange liqueurs and marsala.

Finish: Cloying, spicy and (you guessed it) sweet!

Comments: Ok the nose was fantastic for me but the palate really let it down. I’m not going to say anything too sweeping about finishes here and now except to say that they are the scourge of good whisky,the root of all evil and the vinous, crappy, wine-caked downfall of the collective human soul! But I’d better stop before I make any sweeping generalisations or over-exaggerations. Anyway I love Benriach, many of the old casks they have released have been fruity wunderkinds. I wish we could have tried this cask without finishing, the nose was really promising but the palate just felt overwhelmed. What a waste…

Score: 79/100

That feels like a bad way to end one of our supposedly festive olfactory overloads, lets see what else lurks in yonder samples cupboard…

Lets try this sample that I gleamed from the great Glasgow Whisky Show back in November. Sadly I have no picture for it as it was a sample miniature that the very generous Frances from Dewar Rattray had under the table.

Tomintoul 1967-2010. 43yo. Dewar Rattray. Cask no: 3557. 123 bottles. 44.3%. 75cl.

Colour: Rich straw

Nose: Mmmmm… fruit! This is much better, lots of stewed apples and ripe bananas with all kinds of other lovely delicate fruit aromas, the kind that only seem to come out in naturally low strength old malts, ones that have had many years of glacially slow oxidization in cask. Ripe pear flesh, satsumas, star fruit, sultanas, green tea, milk chocolate and yet more greengages.

Palate: Lovely drying oak and bags of soft fruits, great balance and poise, quite a delicate malt but one that has obviously been nurtured in a very good cask. Not the most complex beast but the flavours are all very beautiful, clean and well controlled. Hints of butter and aromatic moroccan spices with further notes of dried herbs, menthol and camphor.

Finish: Medium to long with more notes of green bananas, grapes, wild flowers, drying oak, spice and a little waxiness.

Comments: Lovely, old, unassuming Tomintoul, one of the more reliable ‘T’ distilleries. It isn’t the most earth shattering beast but it sure is drinkable and incredibly charming.

Score 89/100

Tomorrow: strap yourselves in for a Glen Grantathon!