Old Pulteney 17 Year Old

I first tasted Old Pulteney 17 a few years ago, back when I was first starting out on my whisky trip. I think I'd been experimenting with heavily sherried malts at the time, before turning to a bottle of this (perhaps being drawn in by the somewhat strange bottle shape and striking gold colour of the spirit) and it's fair to say that I really enjoyed it, the bottle lasting an obscenely short amount of time.

Would I still enjoy it now?, I found myself wondering the other day whilst ordering some other booze.

[Incidentally, my most recent encounter with Pulteney (after a couple of other versions since that first bottle, including a fantastic G&M Cask Strength bottling) was in the form of the OP 12 Year Old. I was at Heathrow with my partner and our son, at the beginning of our looooong journey back home after visiting her family in the UK, and thought I'd better get some whisky to get me through our stopover in Singapore (Our stowed luggage was of course already heavily laden - within the strict parameters of Australian customs, naturally - with Scotch that I was taking home to Australia. The UK, to an antipodean whisky drinker, is a dangerous place - such amazingly cheap booze, and so much variety. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we here in Oz probably only see about 5-10% of the whisky that is seen in UK and Europe. And what we do see is very, very heavily taxed). A very handsome little half-bottle of the OP 12 immediately stood out as being attractively priced, packaged and sized. (This begs the question, of course, as to exactly how much whisky is enough when travelling with an 18 month old child. The correct answer is probably 'none' or 'not enough', but on this occasion I settled on 350ml for our 3 days (of sleepless hell) in our luxurious suite). It was pleasant enough as a drink (and to be honest my partner and I have sworn to never talk of or think about those 3 long, long days ever again so I can't pass fair comment here), but as a relaxant it was also more than adequate.]

Old Pulteney 17 Year Old 46%

Colour: Gold.

Nose: Tropical fruits mingle with clean vanilla aromas. Later, green jelly babies develop, along with the faintest hint of salinity.

Palate:  It slips into the mouth softly, all sweet, juicy fruit, before the salty elements begin to take hold.

Finish: An expansive finish. It really fans out and envelops the mouth, gripping the palate with it's salty spiciness. There's a sense of power here. The finish is essentially dry, but those fruity vanilla notes echo throughout, leaving you with a sense of sweetness.

 A delicious whisky really. At once powerful, refreshing and dangerously moreish. A great OB OP, and one of the better "standard bottlings" available in Australia.