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Friday, February 7, 2020

Mortlach 19 year old 1991 Signatory UCF, cask 7710

Mortlach Week ends with an indie. Signatory seems to have (or have had) quite the stash of Mort casks in their Pitlochry warehouses, and today's whisky was dispatched from one of those wooden receptacles, then bottled in the respected Unchillfiltered series. Though it was a from sherry butt, the whisky's color is very light (as you may or may not be able to glean from the photo below) so I doubt this was a first fill.

I paired this whisky with Wednesday's official 16yo. The 16 was example of decent blending, so I though it would be fun to pit it against a single cask. Who would win......


Distillery: Mortlach
Owner: Diageo
Region: Speyside (Dufftown)
Independent Bottler: Signatory
Age: 19 years (1 October 1991 - 21 October 2010)
Maturation: Sherry Butt
Cask#: 7710
Outturn: 769
Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Colorant Added? No
(sample from My Annoying Opinions)

NEAT
The nose has a bit of a brothy meaty note. Then some nuts and mint. Snickerdoodles and golden raisins. It reads sort of like several casks mushed into one. The palate is hot and narrow. There's some tangy citrus, vanilla and flat stale raisins. A copper/blood note lingers in the background, then comes to the front of the finish, which is otherwise grainy, salty and ashy.

DILUTED TO ~43.4%abv, or ⅓ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Golden raisins, vanilla, caramel and a hint of honeydew on the nose. The palate is very JW Black Label. Caramel, sugar, pepper, a dash of ash and a little bit of sour apple candy. More sugar and acid in the finish, with a little bit of black pepper.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
The UCF range is far from perfect, and this is one of those *shrug* kind of casks that would probably be right at home in the old G&M Connoisseurs Choice series. My brain really kept flashing JW Black Label sign with every sip. No, not the '70s stuff. Nor the '90s. The current JWBL. That's not a compliment, but it does speak to the whisky's mid-shelf-blend style. My Annoying Opinions did seem to like this Mortlach better than I did, but not by much. A couple of whiskybase readers liked it even more.

I'm not sure to whom I'd recommend this whisky. It won't excite bourbon cask Mortlach fans. It'll disappoint Meaty Sherry Bomb fans. Maybe it's for Johnnie Walker Black fans!?

Availability - Sold out a long ol' time ago
Pricing - from $90 to $110
Rating - 77