Dram data:
Distillery: Invergordon
Bottler: Maltbarn
Distilled: 1988
Bottled: 2015
Age: 27 years
Limitation: 132 bottles
Casks: Ex-Bourbon
Alcohol: 51.3%
unchillfiltered and uncoloured
Whiskybase link
Tasting notes:
Colour: light gold
The nose opens on a surprisingly light note for the age of the whisky, but then again spirit intended for blending (as this Invergordon probably was destined for) is sometimes even matured in 5th-fill casks. Let’s delve deeper. A slight spirity note, fresh wheat, citrus, breakfast cereals, lemon rind, fresh ginger, ginger in syrup, white pepper, a hint of cloves, cake icing with lemon juice, unripe gooseberries. After a few minutes the spirity note fades, revealing dusty and slightly oaky ones. The palate is a bit alcoholic on the arrival, on the light side with notes of propolis, beeswax, rosewater slightly dusty oak, roasted wheat, hay, column-still rum and sugar-reduced toffee. Quite an improvement over the nose I’d say, nice base for blending, but a tad “boring” on its own. The long finish is equally light and goes down rather well. Slightly alcoholic upon swallowing with rum sweetness, cereals, a hint of cloves and a dry oak bittnerness. Getting sweeter as time passes.
Verdict:
27 years in an x-th fill cask have left quite a bit of the initial sharp notes intact – luckily they do fade as time in the glass passes. The rather spent cask had a hard time imparting flavours other than oaky notes, but some have made it. In the end a rather rum-like, aged grain whisky, nothing bad about it with actually a few interesting aspects and quite quaffable, but it can’t deny the rather generic, blending-stock purpose. It just doesn’t tickle my palate, but looking at the whiskybase ratings after scoring this dram there seems to be quite a lot of people liking this style, so it may just be my palate…
Score: 81/100
(Nose: 79 Palate: 83 Finish: 81)