Mortlach Gordon & MacPhail - 15 Year Old

Nose: Takes a bit of warming in the hand to get this one to open up. When it does you get canned pears, lightly spiced, baked apples and pickled ginger. Lots of malt. Some sherry... perhaps not the freshest sherry. Faint whiffs of something a bit soapy that is actually more pleasant than you'd think. It's very difficult to pin down. Eucalyptus maybe?

Taste: Arrives with a... erm... hammy tang? Um... yeah... I meant to type that... I think. Wait. How's this: Arrives with notes of black forest ham baked with pineapple and a bit of hoisin sauce. Pine wood, toffee, and then a nice smokiness with some black pepper heat. Yes. That's better.

Finish: Not as complex as the nose and taste, but lasting. Features a mild mannered smokiness coupled with the enduring malty notes. Add in a bit of sweet cigarette tobacco and wet autumn leaves and you have yourself a very interesting whisky that probably won't jive with everyone, but it gets a hammy tangtastic thumbs-up from me!

Yep... just ended that off with a dorky uncle joke. No biggie.

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