Thanks to /u/ScotchGuyTO for sharing this dram
“Hey, I got something you should try”
When someone with more whisky under his/her built says this to you, you feign respect but secretly get excited and say “oh yes”. Somehow the song Oh Yeah by Yello (Google that) starts playing out of nowhere.
What am I offered? Why a Lochside, of course, because I’m lacking in reviews I’ve had of this distillery. Specifically Lochside 47 1965 Adelphi. Oh, goody, Adelphi, that company that tells me the bare minimum on the bottle and expects the whisky to speak for itself. Wonderful. I love basing my thoughts on the merit of the whisky and not judging.
Wait, am I the bad guy here? Before I attempt to date your father, let’s see how this tastes, shall we?
Price: € 1100
Region: Highland
Vintage: 1965
Bottled: 2012
Cask Type: Refill Ex-Sherry Butt
Cask number: 6779
Number of bottles: 552
Abv: 54.6%
Colour: 2.5Y 6/8
Nose: Sunflowers, almond butter, plum, perfume, seaside air
Good seed/floral note, lovely nuttiness and fattiness, some floral notes getting strong but with less complexity and some really well-developed salt.
It dances really close to being complex but then backs away. Really need to take your time. You know, like you weren’t with a nearly 50-year-old Scotch. You were considering shooting the first half and then mixing the next with RC cola.
Taste: Safflower, peanut, hard candy/Nerds candy (one of the mixed fruit ones), plum extract
More of that sunflower note. Somewhere between the seeds and smelling the flowers. Some rougher candy notes that slowly get some fruit and some really strong plum notes.
Again, this is dancing near complexity and hitting some fun notes, but also being kinda raw. Like I’m not used to the sheer strength of plum in here but it’s also kinda rough like that’s all there was.
Finish: Violets, dry, peanut butter, soil, grapefruit, lemongrass, birch sap
Simular at the end, though there’re more bitter notes, more grassy flavours, and this acidity that clears your palate.
And again, it’s not hitting an extreme complexity but there’s a lot of simpler notes to dissect.
Conclusion: A floral, layered, interesting garden dram that’s hard to explain. It never quite lives up to the age or quality, but it’s very good. I like this. I have no issue with this existing. It’s very tasty. I’m not complaining I got to try yet another hard to find Lochside or almost 50-year-old whisky or something from the 60s which we just don’t get.
But I guess I’ve now had others that were a similar age, or half the age, that were more complex. I shouldn’t be complaining. But I am. I wanted it to keep going. More of it. More complexity.
God, I’m jaded.
End thought: This is a floral, nutty, sweet, and bitter-finishing dram that deserved the age and is interesting. I don’t think it quite hits the highs that other Scotches can, but it’s a fun ride.
86/100
tomoderawhisky.ca 