Mortlach 23 Blackadder Raw Cask

Thanks to /u/tvraisedme for this sample.

Awhile ago I asked for Blackadder samples.

After receiving some odd quotes from Rowan Atkinson and maybe a few too many remixes, people stepped up to trade me drams from the IB. So thank you people. You know who you are, and you’re not shitty baldrics at all.

If you go to Blackadder’s website, you’ll see something that comes out of the 90s and taint slaps you so hard your grundle shivers at the thought.

If you read through, you’ll see they like the Black Adder comedy, enjoy Fatboy from Sweden, and that they believe in no chill filtering and no bright filtering. From the cask to the bottle. They even have a super secret method to add in sediment to each cask.

Pretty awesome. So today I’ll be reviewing Mortlach 23 Blackadder Raw Cask from these crazy 90s website peeps.

You don’t hear a lot about Mortlach. If you check some of my past reviews, you’ll see they are slowly creeping out of the woodwork. Some IBs, and lots of olders OBs.

I’ve had hit and miss on them (literally), so I haven’t made my mind up about Mortlach yet. Let’s see how this one tastes, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Speyside

Distillation date: 24. Nov. 1988

Bottling date: Sep. 2012

Barrel type:Refill Sherry Butt

Barrel number: 4741

Number of bottled bottles: 562 Bottles

Abv: 56.6%

Colour: 7.5YR 5/10

Nose: Violets, orange, blueberry syrup, smoke, yeast pancakes, fried cereal coating, lemon pudding

Starts out really floral. I’m talking cask strength Lowland, drinking in a botanical garden in Spring floral.

After awhile it becomes quite sweet, cereal-y, and has some yeast undertones. None of these go together, but it’s quite complex and bonkers.

Taste: Brown sugar, peanut, Tabasco, caramel, radicchio, orange blossom, anise

Again, it starts off with the initial brown sugar taking everything, and then starts hitting you with different flavours, left, right, and taint level.

Not as insane as other complex ones I’ve had. I’ll actually say that the orange blossom was one of my favourite parts. It seems to go with all of the other flavours.

Finish: Floral, caramel, pop rocks, white chocolate, cashew, cotton, cumin, chilli, bay leaf

And we’re back to a bunch of flavours that keep popping up. It’s a better balance than the nose, though only by a little bit.

It may be a little bit WAY too floral.

Conclusion: Okay, okay okay… I know I review a bunch of obscure shit and this may not hit everyone, but follow with me here:

Take Auchentoshan, right? Lowland, triple distilled, really floral. Got it? Good.

Now take whatever insane person created the Black Art series from Bruichladdich. Yeah, it was Jimbo McEwan, I know.

So take the first ones that were bonkers and all over the place, right? Tons of different notes.

That’s what this is, if it was made by Auchentoshan. And if the sherry cask wasn’t as good.

Look, I respect this malt. It’s tasty in ways that are odd. It’s a flower bomb. However I don’t like this malt. Personally. It’s a dick. Not a real one, whisky doesn’t have genitalia.

I would recommend this whisky to others. It’s well made. It’s crazy. It’s not my thing, and some of the flavours don’t work. But wow is it a fun ride.

84/100

Scotch review #431, Speyside review #132, Whisky Network review #687