Longrow 14 Year Old 2003 Sherry Cask Matured

Longrow is the heavily peated version of Springbank. The one I try today is the new 14 year old on refill oloroso. 9.000 bottles were produced. If you want one, it will set you back some 100 EUR. I have only just poured it and already the room fills out with a wonderul aroma. Dark and sweet, but very dirty from the peat. Some sulphur as well, but not so much that it is off-putting. Bacon around a dade, salted caramel and cherries. Spicy oak. Becomes somewhat sweet and sour. Some coffee grounds and chocolate, but also green notes as if from rosemary or dill. Nice smokiness, but less intense than expected. Do not leave it in the glass for too long though, because then it evolves towards wilted flowers and vase water. The sulphur, unfortunately, becomes quite big after about ten minutes. The body is fine, almost creamy. Very peppery and powerful attack. The saliva glands go into overdrive. Big smoke around some dark and sweet notes (chocolate, dades, burnt bacon), but the whole turns quite salty pretty quick. Brackish water with red fruit (wtf?). It seems to work. Midpalate, it becomes bitter and even astringent. The whole remains very spicy. The finish is very long, spicy and drying. This was a very difficult whisky. One sip enchants, the other fails me. Goes up and down from sweet to sour to salt to umami. At the death, luckily, there is a note of dark chocolate with cream filling.

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