Speyside Region 1973 (47.4%, Whisky Agency, 568 Bottles, 2017)

• ABV: 47.4%
• Age: 43 Years Old
• Bottling: The Whisky Agency for The Whisky Exchange
• Category: Blended malt scotch whisky
• Cost: £399
• Origin: Speyside
• Vintage: 1973

What they say

Official tasting notes:

• Nose: Spiced brioche, brown sugar and rich lardy cake. Cinnamon buns and iced Danish pastries with a cherry on the top. Fruit jelly notes develop – lemon, lime and pineapple – with a background of old, wax-polished oak tables. Meatier notes slowly emerge, balanced by sugar flowers, candied lemon and sweet whipped cream.
• Palate: Creamily textured, with lightly spiced egg-custard tarts leading into old Chartreuse, spiced sponge cake and butter cream – the herbal notes float around on top, while underneath sit piles of cakes and oaty biscuits. In between are fruity boiled sweets, barley sugar and herbal throat sweets. Tarte tatin notes develop, softly spiced and drenched with butter.
• Finish: Apple sauce and buttered toast. Toasted, spiced, fruit loaf develops. Apple sweets and cream remain.
• Comment: Old and dignified. Floral and fruity notes dance around on top, with weightier notes of spice and cake supporting from below. Complex and elegant, rewarding long exploration.

What I say

Thanks to TWE for the sample of this aged blended malt whisky.

I have had similar from Royal Mile Whiskies see RMW 40yo Blended Speyside Malt. I suspect this is of similar provenance, i.e. a blend of malts made up and interred into a sherry butt for maturation and used as part of a blending parcel, then either sold due to surplus to requirement or identified as ‘of superior quality’ i.e. drinkable without further mixing/blending. A lot of fingers point in Edrington’s direction for these partly due to distilleries spirit likely involved and also as a lot of other “Grouse” stock has been sold/bottled recently – I’m particularly thinking of Morrison & Mackay’s Old Perth blend offerings e.g. their 1977 41yo available here 

My tasting notes:

• Appearance: Gold (9/20), slow-forming, fine tears and thin legs.
• Nose: Tropical fruit mixture, dolly mixture sweeties, apple, apricot, banana, pinapple, dusty icing sugar, putty/linseed oil, fruit cocktail syrup, maraschino cherry, cotton candy, linen, dry oak wood.
• Taste: Medium bodied. Zesty and syrupy fruit, quite vaporous and sharp, apricot, peach, pear, pineapple, brown sugar crystals, apple, sherbet, tart and tangy, sponge cake, pineapple upside-down cake, old sweet shop; wooden counters and jars of goodies, dried apricot and yellow plum, candied peel, highland peat smoke, matches/fireworks almost black powder-like; sparklers & burning magnesium.
• Finish: Medium-long, refined fruit, tart and tangy, oak wood, syrup and honey.

Overall

Massively fruity, zingy and fresh for its age, but also with that oiled wooden counter in a sweet shop feel about it and some old smoky notes not commonly found anymore.

Score 90/100

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