1990 Mortlach 22 Year Old Chieftain's Cask Strength (K&L) #5160 Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 58.1%

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 87.5 points

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  7/10/2013 - numen wrote: 87 Points

  sample from a friend
  
  Before kicking this off with the usual notes, I thought that it was appropriate to say that I paid particular attention to the wood influence in it due to interest in and concern about oak in it. Having just had another 1990 Mortlach 22 Year Old from an IB, I thought that I'd have a good point of comparison. Without further delay...
  
  Nose: Dark, dry, moderately aged sherry - the whisky and the wine. Dried cherries and drying grapes (not quite raisins), toffee, caramel, and lightly salted nuts. Touch of oak. Nothing outrageous. Coffee, chocolate malt, and something vegetal and acidic. (with water) Stale dried red fruit and berries, chocolate, salty nuts in a very dry Spanish brandy. Oak is a bit more distinct here, but it's still in check.
  
  Palate: Starts out as a sherry bomb, though it quickly transitions to some tannic oak. Then there are dark strawberry chocolatey jams. It rides the oak wave and turns rather on coffee, chocolate, and some varnish. The oak here is like when you're watching tv with the volume at a comfortable level, then you suddenly push it up toward the maximum and drown out everything else, and then bring it back down so it's louder than it was at first, but you can distinguish most of the ambient noise. (with water) Much sweeter at first, and then you get some oak, which yields to fine coffee.
  
  Finish: Very dry with the typical dark sherry notes (not as heavy or big as some of those old Glenfarclas numbers, but it's also younger). Pinch of salt. The wood hides in there. I think that some of the criticism of the wood is more about the surprise of finding this amount of wood in a sherried whisky this old. I've had some old Glenfarclas and Glendronach that have far more tannic, varnishy oak than this sucker does. They're also close to twice as old. If you're sensitive to wood, your experience, starting at the midpalate, may be less than you desire. It's still better than the Rattray.
  
  More disclosure-- I also like some very big, woody cognacs and armagnacs that some find very astringent at points. For whatever that's worth.

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