Mannochmore Loch Dhu 10 Year Old The Black Whisky

Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Distillery Bottling 70cl / 40%

An old bottle of Loch Dhu 10-year-old Speyside single malt whisky, the notorious 'black' whisky created in the 1990s by Diageo forerunners United Distillers. Loch Dhu was made using 10-year-old single malt from the excellent Mannochmore distillery.

Loch Dhu was a brief experiment, with the marketing spiel claiming that the whisky's shockingly dark colour was the result of using 'double-charred' casks. The reality was that Loch Dhu's Pepsi-adjacent hue owed far more to the industrial levels of caramel colouring added to the whisky before bottling. 

This overload of E150 had the added consequence of giving Loch Dhu a very burnt, bitter note on the palate, leading many critics to label it as the worst whisky ever made. The experiment was hurriedly called off, and in sane world Loch Dhu should have disappeared and been forgotten about decades ago - but instead it found a market, becoming inexplicably popular with some whisky fans, particularly in America, and the secondary market price subsequently surged.

A bottle with a fascinating story - but remember that Loch Dhu is for collectors rather than drinkers.

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