Banff 21 Year Old 1978 Chieftain’s

Banff is one of the distilleries that did not survive the big closing round in 1983, executed by Diageo. So this is not a whisky that you encounter often. So far, I have only tried two myself; a 37 Year Old 1971 from the Dead Whisky Society and a 32 Year Old 1975 from Douglas Laing. Hence I am very curious about this much younger and very pale Banff.

The nose starts relatively closed and needs a few minutes to reveal breakfast cereals and white fruit. Vanilla and apple cider as well as some tinned pineapple. Honeysweet, actually. Evolves towards citrus. Mandarin. Not exactly exciting, but far from bad. Oh, lest I forget, it does display a nice, albeit discrete, hint of smoke.

On the palate, though, the fruit has to move out of the way of quinine and oak. A bit of pepper, a truckload of ginger. Dried grasses. Slowly but surely, it turns bitter, way past grapefruit.

In the medium long and drying finish, I get another burst of citrus.

More than pleasant nose, but on the palate and the finish, it was a bit of a let down.

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