Old Pulteney Navigator

Old Pulteney is a distillery that does not appear on my blog regularly. This is only my 15th. The Navigator is one of the many NAS releases from this northerly distillery in Wick. This one first appeared in 2014. When I first put my nose in the glass, it was a bit of a scare. My eyebrows shot up and the first thing that crossed my mind was ‘broth’! Quite green and maritime. Reminds me of dry oysters (which I would not recommend by the way), dry oats, freshly sawed planks and rotting cider apples. It does not sound very good, does it? But that’s what I smell. Completely devoid of any sweetness, bar the cider apples. No, that is not really fair. After a few moments, some caramel and coconut kick in. On the palate, it goes in a completely different direction. Orange liqueur, fresh wood shavings, pepper, sweet malt, brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Much better, but fairly dry. The rather short finish offers mostly coconut, white pepper and loads of drying oak. The nose left a lot to be desired, but amends are made on the palate. Still far from my favorite Pulteney, though.

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