...where distraction is the main attraction.

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Blind Tastings! Something old school

Well, I guessed Monday's mystery sample was from a Scottish island and I was right! I also spotted plenty of first-fill American oak, which was correct. Had everything else (distillery, age and strength) wrong though. I blame the aggressive cask because I'm never ever wrong about any of my blind tasting guesses ever. Soooooo, onto Monday's sparring partner, a mystery sample from Secret Agent Man.

I forgot to take a picture of the sample bottle, so here's a large question mark:

?

NOTES
Nose - Tropical fruits + industrial funk + dunnage + spent synthetic oil = !!!!  Hints of band-aids and yellow nectarines in the background.
Palate - Tart stone fruits, tobacco, butterscotch and aged cheese. Steel wool, herbal bitterness and that hint of band-aids again.
Finish - Limes, butterscotch and steel wool. Picks up some more minerals and sugar with time.

MY GUESS
Clynelish, 18-21yrs, hogshead, low 50s abv. Very old school, maybe one of my favorite Clynelishes ever.

WHAT IT WAS
Except it's not Clynelish.

It is....


WORDS WORDS WORDS
NAILED IT.

You know what part I got right? That it was delicious. It's pretty and dingy at the same time, complex yet very easy to drink very fast. Something about it felt like it was from a previous era. Having tried two of the 45.8%abv versions of Talisker 25 and one of the 45.8% 30 year olds, I can confidently say this is a different version of Talisker, a different whisky. As much as I praise Diageo's treatment of Lagavulin's single malt, I cannot do so for Talisker. One wonders what has changed other than demand.

GRADE RANGE: A-  (90-92)