Millburn 1981 / 25 Year Old / Sherry Wood / Mackillop's

Millburn distillery was established in Inverness in 1807, although it is unclear when whisky was distilled there for the first time – after all, this was sixteen years before the passage of the Excise Act of 1823 that legalised whisky distillation. Following a series of mergers and acquisitions, Millburn became part of the Distillers Company Ltd family in 1937 and was moved under the control of Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd in 1943. The distillery was closed in 1985, and in 1988 many of the buildings were demolished to allow for the property to be redeveloped. In 1989 a restaurant named "The Auld Distillery" was opened in one of the remaining distillery buildings, and today the main complex serves as a Premier Inn, the Inverness Centre hotel on Millburn road (premierinn.com/gb/en/…). This particular Millburn expression was distilled on 26 February 1981 and bottled in November 2006 as bottle #193 from cask #355 by Mackillop’s Choice. It very prominently says “Sherry Wood” on the label but I was not able to find out any details about the specific maturation process of this particular release.

The nose is sweet and fruity with notes of oranges, cinnamon and caramel. I also detected a hint of lemons. Not spectacular but well balanced overall.

The palate is medium-bodied and comes with a good portion of wood spice. Then there are raisins and cherries, followed by grapefruit flavours.

The finish is of medium length and quite zesty. I now got notes of grass, followed by a hint of white pepper.

I am not very familiar with Millburn but then, honestly, there are not too many bottlings on the market. The only other bottle I have ever owned was the 25-year old release from Diageo’s Rare Malts series and that was a rather strange animal (see my review on connosr). Reviewing my tasting notes I must say that it is a full panoply of flavours ranging from sweet to sour and from fruity to grassy. But I did like this. It was well balanced, it was unusual, and you really do not get to taste this every day. Well done!

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