Something, at last, to blow out the cobwebs.
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 125.67 Clean and Innocent (Glenmorangie)
14 Years Old (Distilled 1999) 58.7%
Nose: Immediately, lush tropical fruits - lots of mango, passionfruit - and vanilla leap from the glass and swell in the nose. These, though, very quickly recede a little as a (skin-on) peanut maltiness emerges and takes over.
Palate: Very fiery initially, particularly on the back palate, but those same descriptors from the nose prove true enough on the palate, albeit masked by all that booze.
Finish: The finish is, still, fruity and fiery. And then rather bitter. This needs water.
With water:
Nose: Those beautiful fruits and spices that quickly faded when neat are released and blend in and overlap with the vanilla and nuttiness. This is instantly, irrefutably, recognisable as Glenmorangie. Think the 10 Year Old on steroids. Or better yet, (a slightly drier) Astar.
Palate: Again, a pretty steady progression of flavours to the palate but without, obviously, that initial blast of warmth. Now, it's a lively, tingly palate courtesy of wood tannins and the still evident but now somewhat tamed alcohol presence. There's vanilla, some milk chocolate, and some juicy stonefruit.
Finish: It's a dry finish, but that initial fruit continues to announce itself in that mouth-coating prickliness. The wood remains, but the bitterness is now more evenly spread out across the palate - not so tightly focused and astringent as it was neat - serving to give structure and length rather than dominating proceedings entirely.
A really nice malt this, particularly so if you're fan of the house style. Not super complex, but what it lacks in interest it makes up for in drinkability.
No comments:
Post a Comment