Port Dundas 12 Year Old 2004 North Star Spirits
Chocolate Milk
0 284
Review by @markjedi1
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall84
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- Brand: Port Dundas
- Type: Scotch
- Region: Lowland
- ABV: 58.8%
I must confess, I have hardly any experience with this Lowland grain whisky. This is only my fourth Port Dundas. This distillery, owned by Diageo, was closed in 2009 and the production was moved to North British and Cameronbrigde. This single grain was distilled in 2004 and bottled at a whopping 58,8% by the new kid on the block North Star Spirits from Glasgow. It is very pale.
Thenose is very sweet on honey, sultanas, candied peach and coconut. Some nuts – make that marzipan – and cinnamon. Crème brûlée. It also has a herbal and floral touch, reminding me of potpourri.
It glides over the palate in a silky soft and very creamy way, but does deliver an immediate spiciness. Vanilla, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon. Becomes candy sweet, but it works well. Honey and coconut return, but the fruit is then replace by a kind of chemical sweetness that I often find in single grain. It is not a problem. Midpalate I get some mashed banana and toffee and white chocolate.
The finish is surprisingly long. Spicy and warm with a final hint of chocolate milk at the death.
Nice! I like a good grain, but usually can only truly appreciate it after a longer maturation. This young one took me pleasantly by surprise.
Is that 58.8% a dilution, or cask strength?
I wonder because Scottish grain whisky is, by all accounts, typically distilled to a much higher ABV than malt whisky—though I don't know if it's typically diluted to a cask "entry proof" like malt whisky is.
(All the opportunities for whisky makers to turn tap water into whisky never fail to surprise me!)