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Green Spot Single Pot Still

Can We Pretend That Airplanes...

0 673

@OJKReview by @OJK

15th Apr 2011

0

Green Spot Single Pot Still
  • Nose
    21
  • Taste
    16
  • Finish
    19
  • Balance
    17
  • Overall
    73

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Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

Nose: Well, at first not much at all, so much so that one has check that the glass isn't on mute. However after some persistence and a bit of patience, finally some aubergine and cooked courgette come to the fore to put the green into the Green Spot. After the greens we move onto the fruits, principally in the shape of cherries and bananas. The persistence now seems really to be paying off, as the nose slowly evolves and grows into something quite interesting. Ginger and vanilla blend gently into honeycomb and milk chocolate, while a somewhat bitter note of Pritt-Stick glue eases out into a more affable strawberry mousse.

Taste: Once again, quite thin and watery upon entry, however after the experience on the nose one is tempted to be patient and await similar reward. Sadly however the reward never seems to come. Only a few fading silhouettes of honey, and a flickering shortbread hologram can be noted. The soft wind seems to carry a faint and distant cry of toffee and cherry, however one can't tell if it's just the mind playing tricks or not.

Finish: Finally a gust of flavour comes back in to break this sense of desolation. This refreshing eucalyptus breeze carries with it some fine black pepper corns coated in honey, however as the brief wind passes one is left with just a faint trace of burnt oak and tired charcoal on the palate, causing a mild tingling sensation that at least assures us it wasn't just a trick of the mind.

Balance: Well, blink and you'll miss it as the expression goes. Patience certainly pays off on the nose, however no such joy is to be found on the palate. It's a little as if staring expectantly up at the night sky, waiting for a shooting star, only to lie there in vain, slowly falling asleep. Not that the nose is a supernova or anything, however there were at least one or two shooting stars to make a wish from. And on the finish although I wouldn't go so far as to say there were any shooting stars, there were at least the blinking lights of an airplane passing overhead. That all said there are no off-notes, and perhaps with a bit of development there could be a fine whiskey in there somewhere. For the moment though it feels a little like a faint pencil sketch of something that might one day be a painting of note.

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6 comments

@AboutChoice
AboutChoice commented

Hi @OJK, welcome back! Wow, refined eggplant & zuchini, cherries & bananas, and ginger & vanilla ... I was mesmerized, and was pondering as to how I was going to find this bottle ... before discovering that we hadn't even gotten to the Palate yet :)

In spite of the anti-climatic taste and finish notes, I can't get over that I still want this. But I might hope that you would possibly re-check the palate, and perhaps compare Green Spot to Redbreast 12, etc ? All in all, that was an engaging and fun review !

13 years ago 0

@dbk
dbk commented

Sorry the Green Spot disappointed you, @OJK! Commenting on my review (connosr.com/reviews/mitchell-and-son/…), you said it was one of your favourites! What do you think happened? Has the expression—or your palate—changed?

13 years ago 0

@OJK
OJK commented

Hi @dbk, thanks for your comment, indeed well done for pointing that out, I had in fact forgotten I had commented that! It's a strange one, I first bought my Green Spot bottle just over two years ago and tried it on the day of buying it, and remember very much liking it and became curious about Pot Still whisky in general. I then got on to the Redbreast 12 and fell in love with that (that very much still is a whiskey I'm fond of!), and I think I always remembered the Green Spot in association with that, as I never drank it again since (as unfortunately sometimes happens with some bottles in my collection). To be completely honest I also quite liked the idea of the whiskey, being a hard-to-find Pot Still and with such a memorable bottle and name. So when it came down to trying it again last night for reviewing purposes, I was in fact really looking forward to sitting down with it again. I really sat with it for a while and wanted to give it as much chance as possible, however perhaps what I now expect from a whisky has indeed now changed over the past two years. As I said in the review, there are no off-notes and there's the outline of something potentially very fine, however it didn't quite deliver for me. I'm very much a fan of subtlety and restraint, however this was slightly beyond that for me. Perhaps like with a film that you watch once and remember as being good, and you watch again and it fails to live up to that memory, you're more disappointed than you would otherwise be. This may have contributed to my low-score, however I tried to be as objective as possible when assessing my thoughts on the Green Spot.

Hi @AboutChoice, many thanks! Indeed the nose is the best part of this whiskey, and given its popularity (and as you can see from above my first impressions of it a few years ago!) I would still recommend trying it. I will certainly try and review the Redbreast 12 as soon as possible as it would be interesting to analyse it in light of the discussion above.

13 years ago 0

@OJK
OJK commented

@dbk, I should also add as an aside that of course the debate comes into it about how much the profile of a whisky changes in the bottle over time once opened, however in this case I don't think it would apply with the bottle nearly entirely full, and therefore with little oxygen to affect, if at all.

13 years ago 0

@dbk
dbk commented

What a thoughtful response, @OJK. Cheers! I hope in time it reveals itself better to you, but I do think your assessment is perfectly fair.

13 years ago 0

@LeFrog
LeFrog commented

"I could really use a wish right now (wish right now, wish right now)..."

13 years ago 0