Birthday Booze: Miltonduff 26 year old 1990 AD Rattray

After I paid for my part of a bottle split of this 26 year old Miltonduff, the honorable bottle owner reached out to me saying that he'd opened the bottle and tried the whisky, finding it to be "Just straight SOAP", and offered me a replacement pour of something else. As much as I appreciated the replacement whisky, I also requested a sample of The Soap anyway. I received it and (two years later) drank it along with Wednesday's '80s Bowmore to determine which of the two was the bubbliest, saponific single malt. Yes, I do these things to myself.

Distillery: Miltonduff
Ownership during distillation: Allied Lyons
Current Owner: Pernod Ricard
Region: Speyside (Moray)
Independent Bottler: A.D. Rattray
Age: 29 years (16 Sept 1990 - 23 February 2007)
Maturation: bourbon barrel
Alcohol by Volume: 49.1%
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

The nose has so much vanilla, caramel, pound cake, and whipped cream that it reminds me more of a Canadian blend than single malt scotch. It takes at least 45 minutes before other notes, like orange peel, lemon juice, apricot jam, and baby powder, to appear.

The palate starts off like a mouthful of Werther's Originals. Beneath that caramel candy are tangy lemons, jasmine, and tree bark, with a little bit of soap in the background. With time, the soap note expands but never breaches the background, because the citrus character also grows, and silky sticky toffee appears.

Sweet caramel, lemons, sea salt, and that hint o' soap finish things off.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I've sworn off AD Rattray on two previous blog occasions due to my experiences with too many of their wonky casks. Third time's the charm?

The good news: This is less soapy than Wednesday's Bowmore. The nose isn't bad, and it improves with time.

The bad news: Why does a 26-year-old scotch smell like an 8-year-old Canadian blend? Soap + tree bark on the palate? Not great, Bob. Soooooooo much caramel everywhere.

Though this whisky isn't broken, there was something unusual going on with the cask and not in a fun way. Again. So, yes, third time's the charm. No more AD Rattray casks for me.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - ???
Rating - 75