...where distraction is the main attraction.

Monday, August 22, 2022

Birthday Booze: Longmorn 43 year old 1968 Gordon & MacPhail, cask 909 for Van Wees

Allow me to recap age 43: I got divorced, caught Covid-19, was booted from one company to another, injured one rotator cuff just as the other was completing 18 months of healing, was told my left ankle has nearly no tendon left, got back to my pre-parenting weight for like 1 month, and obtained a cat whom I swear is trying to kill me in my sleep. To celebrate the close of this uneventful year, I am relieving my 1968 Longmorn sample bottle of its contents.

For those not in the know, G&M dropped a clench of outrageous Longmorn casks for Van Wees seemingly all at once, about a decade ago. Today's whisky is one of that clench. I didn't buy any of those bottles because the €500-€700 price range was out of my reach. Casks like this would go for 5x that amount nowadays and still sell out. I am not the target demographic for this delicious whisky.

pic gently lifted
from whiskybase 
Distillery: Longmorn
Ownership at time of distillation: Longmorn-Glenlivet Distillery Co
Region: Speyside (Lossie)
Bottler: Gordon & MacPhail
Range: Reserve
Age: ~43 years old (15 February 1968 - June 2011)
Maturation: first fill sherry butt
Cask #: 909
Outturn: 523 bottles
Exclusively for: van Wees
Alcohol by Volume: 55.4%
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

Nose - It reads like neither 55+%abv, nor a 1st fill sherry butt, or perhaps contemporary bottlings have conditioned my senses the wrong direction. First, fresh black plums and floral white peaches. Damp earth and toasted almonds. Lychee syrup. And then the guava, oh the guava! Madeira? Hints of dry gravel and Walker's shortbread in the background.

Palate - Oh. Oh dear. All the citrus. All the stone fruits. All the tropical fruits. I dunno, I'll try to list the things. Lots of oranges (cara caras, mandarins, bloods), figs, yellow peaches, guava, mango, dunnage, a soft earthy peat. It's tart and righteous. Massive, but never hot.

Finish - Glowingly tart. It's a citrus freakout, with Rainier cherries, mead, incense, pound cake, and a lovely bitterness also arriving in endless waves.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

As complex as the nose was, the palate was my favorite part. What a lovely thing. This fruity-fruit-fruit Longmorn era produced some of the most delicious single malts I've ever tried. If you get an opportunity to try Longmorn distilled in the 1960s, or early 1970s, seize it! There are some Longmorns even better than this specific one, but I'm perfectly happy to settle. Good bye, 43!

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - ????
Rating - 92