Thanks to my wife who brought me out for my birthday drams. I’m a very lucky guy.
Whenever I go out to have some whiskies that are old and going to be reviewed I try and get anyone else who’s with me involved. I’ve been told this is called “making it less boring” and “being less of an antisocial dick cheese”. I’m happy to have friends and family who update me on this.
As part of this particular tasting I told my wife to pick out some whiskies from a list of ones I’ve never reviewed. Originally she picked out a pair of 10 year old, 1990 Dufftowns… and then one of them wasn’t available anymore.
As such she scrambled and picked out Aultmore 18 Foggie Moss, which regular readers will note is a tad different because a)it’s not cask strength and b) it’s an original bottling.
Also earlier this year I delved into Aultmore to add to my repertoire just to find out if I should have been drinking them. The results were mixed. I did have an amazing Aultmore, and I also had the opposite to balance it all out.
But what are Aultmore doing themselves? Perhaps I should ask that more. Call them up maybe. Hang out at the same pubs. Perhaps watch them from their collective living room windows to make sure no creeps are around.
Simply put this is a mix of ex-Bourbon casks and Refill Sherry Casks that wasn’t chill filtered and had no colour added. Not only that, but in what’s sadly a rare event it’s not the lowest possible abv to maximize profits: It’s at least at 46%.
But I’ve certainly been jaded through life, and on whisky too, so did I enjoy this? Let’s see, shall we?
Price: € 95
Region: Speyside
Cask type: Bourbon casks, Refill Sherry Casks
Abv: 46%
Colour: 5Y 9/4
Nose: Grass, lemon, mineral, faint anise
It’s an Aultmore that isn’t glowing red with sherry, so immediately there’s some grass notes on it. That said it grows from there, with some spice and lemon and mineral going on.
I don’t mind the nose, but could have a bit more to it. There’s a reason why most people don’t just have a salad with a lemonade most days.
Unless that’s you, then… dammit dude, get yourself some flavour.
Taste: Schmaltz, anise, barnyard, grassy, sugar syrup
There’s an initial fatty, salty, and really tasty note that immediately makes me wonder if the salad & lemonade person I made up in the paragraph above was right. Or hiding some tasty chicken fat. I’ll take either as gospel at the moment.
Fatty, more spice, some good barnyard notes, and then it peters out a tad with generic sugar and grass. It’s hinting at an interesting whisky. You don’t get this profile normally, and I appreciate something different, even if it’s not totally got it’s shit together (like me!)
Finish: Manure, lemon, mineral, almond
Barnyard, nutty (make your own Austin Power’s joke here), lemon and mineral? It works. It’s not as interesting as the taste, and the fatty note that I loved is gone, but it’s unique. Very unique.
Conclusion: Very unique and interesting whisky. Nothing too out there, but very unique. That fatty flavour really sells it at the end of the day. The nose is pretty weak. It’s almost like the opposite to high end blends that have a great nose and then the rest is rough and you just smile at the person who wasted money buying it.
On the other hand this is an 18-year-old whisky that doesn’t really get too complex. It’s unique, and it’s a nice step up from the 12-year-old, but not enough to really warrant the extra time. I liked it: My wife loved it, which is rare for her. It’s one of those whiskies that is going to be in your whisky cabinet and you’re going to drink it daily or you have on hand to change things up or you have at the bar, or you never need to. Try a dram, see where it fits for you, go from there.
79/100
Scotch review #1470, Speyside review #411, Whisky Network review #2173
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