Longrow Red 11 Fresh Port Cask

Thanks to /u/Devoz for the bottle split on this one.

I may have too much whisky. I also may need to review a lot of it, and have been super busy. I also may be going to a whisky tasting soon, so that’ll slow me down.

I may have the hardest first world problem. Ever.

Enter Longrow Red 11 Fresh Port Cask. I procured a third of a bottle in a split. I trade two people samples of it. I was sure I had reviewed it, so sure I reviewed a different version, ready to compare it.

So sure I was ready to base my score off the old one.

I was stoopid. With extra 0s.

Longrow Red 11 Fresh Port Cask is matured in Port casks for 11 years. No bourbon here, compared to some of the previous releases. If you haven’t heard by now, the Red limited series has a different wine cask each year.

Personally I’m waiting for an insane red ice wine cask, however I have a sweet tooth that could be used by a cave bear, so I may be alone in that.

Oh well, let’s see how this tastes (for reals this time).

Price: N/A

Region: Campbeltown

Abv: 51.8%

Colour: 7.5YR 6/8

Nose: Tart strawberry, fennel, roaring fireplace, herbes de provence, plum, allspice

Quite tart on the nose. There’s a good amount of spice and really hometime memory (though not quite memory) inducing smoke elements.

Good amount of plum too. Reminds me of Xmas. And given’t it’s 28 C here, I kinda want winter to hurry up.

Lousy climate change.

Taste: Allspice, plum, pine, red licorice, eucalyptus, grape

Big hit of allspice and plum. A bit of pine/mentholated elements as well as lots of other things from the port.

Honestly I’d have a hard time pointing to any Longrow element to this, save for the allspice.

Finish: Pine, sea salt, apple, smoke, peppered bacon

More menthol, and now the Longrow elements show up to beat me up for the last line. Very tasty. Red pepper bacon – Something I need to make at some point.

Conclusion: I think if this wasn’t as strong as it was, the Longrow elements would have been completely lost after 10 years. And luckily they weren’t; it’s tasty, as a good profile, and jives very well together.

I’d say the taste has lost some of the “scotch” elements I enjoy, which is too bad, however it’s still a tasty dram.

Now if I could only find the other ones (Pinot Noir, Australian Shiraz) and forget to review them as well..

84/100

Scotch review #349, Campbeltown #18, Whisky Network review #533