I tried this Black Bottle 10 Year Old at Expensivevino’s place last summer and was allowed to bring home a sample for retasting. This seems as good an occasion as any, during my ‘Peaty Party’ – two full weeks of nothing but peated whiskies. I tried it H2H against the standard bottle.
The nose is rounder and warmer. It shows more sweet peat, but still not much. Less grainy than the younger version. Heather and a couple of drops of lemon concentrate, but also a touch of toffee.
It is somewhat oily, almost creamy, on the palate. This is more Islay than the youngling. Probably because the part of Deanston and grain whisky is less here. Who can tell? Honey, heather, but also seaweed and salted bacon, smoked sausage. Even caramelised onion (and no, Dearly Beloved is not making onion soup as I write this)!
The finish is surprisingly long and warm on spicy, sweet peat.
The 10 Year Old also contains primarily Bunnahabhain, but also malts from the other six distilleries on Islay (so not counting Kilchoman). It is only a few EUR more, but worth it in my opinion, for it shows a lot more character.
Mark, an excellent review. I just stumbled upon a bottle of 10 year old Black Bottle in the duty free village in Antigua. Black Bottle was only recently brought back to Ontario Liquor stores and it was only the newest release. I was excited to procure this bottle for my little collection and look forward to comparing it to the younger version available here in Ontario Canada.
Hello Eirikur, Well here in Belgium its not that hard to find the Black Bottle 10 years , I discovered it in a shop called Tasttoe in Kampenhout and since then have bought it also at QV.ID. who has also a fantastic range of whiskies , and they are situated in Huldenberg. I guess all this means very little to you, I checked the internet place where I sometimes buy online, being The Whisky Exchange , but this particular bottle is out of stock, right now.Also at Single Malts Direct.com is it out of stock.... Keep checking those particular sites, or any others if known by you. Next time I go to a whisky store, which will be after the x-mas holiday season, I will have a look to see if they still have any.... X-Mas greetings to you.... Marc