Mortlach 15 Duncan Taylor Dimensions

Thanks to /u/boyd86 for this sample

Oddly enough, at one tasting I ended up is the first Duncan Taylor that I’ve ever had. And I started off the review by getting it mixed with the Laing family. Granted I had a few.

Mortlach 15 Duncan Taylor Dimensions is, as you can figure out, selected by Duncan Taylor for the Dimensions lineup. The Dimensions lineup is all cask strength, unfiltered, and chosen to show off the Dimensions that can make up the drams that they select.

Glad they don’t have one called shit fest, personally.

Oh, and just to add, this line ranges from 10 years to 39 years, so they really mean Dimensions.

Mortlach I’ve had quite a few times. It’s a main key ingredient in Johnnie Walker. And somehow, oddly, there’s no young versions of it. There’s NAS, and I was able to find a 12 year IB one that was released, however otherwise the youngest I’ve found and drank is 15 years old.

Maybe the young stuff goes into blends. Or maybe, just maybe, they know it tastes good after 15 years. Or maybe it’s the opposite of fiddle heads and you can’t have it young or it’s poison.

Who knows. Let’s see how this one tastes, shall we?

Price: No longer available

Region: Speyside

Distilled: 07.1996

Bottled: 06.2012

Cask No. 262

Bottle No. 173 / 317

Abv: 53.8%

Colour: 5Y 9/6

Nose: Nectarine, hay, red licorice, butter, cloves, lemon pie

Nice amount of stone fruit on the nose. Good spice, nice grassy notes, and really sweet. A diabetics horrible happy dream on the nose.

Taste: Cashew, butter, floral, peach

Bit nutty. Which is what happens before a yelp in a porno.

It’s somewhat floral, the butter is nice, and it’s still pumping out that stone fruit, however that’s about it. It’s receded into itself like the gent I mentioned one sentence above.

Finish: Ham, butter, lemon, crispy pig skin, black pepper

The meat note that Mortlach is well known for decides it’ll show up at the end. Really makes up for the taste, the finish does.

Why the fuck would I write that last sentence like that?

The finish almost tastes like a completely different dram. It’s very pig incluenced. Flavour wise, not that a pig worked on this, of course.

Conclusion: It’s not an amazing dram. However it certainly is unique on the nose and the finish. The finish really shows off the Mortlach profile, and the nose reminds me of a cask strength Lowland.

The taste is a let down. Honestly this should be as good as the last two drams I had, but the bottom falls out. Or rather the middle. I expect most drams to have a lesser taste than the nose, but this is not working as well as it could.

Makes me want to try more of the Dimensions though, so there’s that.

78/100

Scotch review #538, Speyside review #164, Whisky Network review #897