Finlaggan Old Reserve
Mysterious and Young
0 176
Review by @Kutter
- Nose20
- Taste20
- Finish18
- Balance18
- Overall76
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The Finlaggan Old reserve is a single malt from Islay from the Vintage Malt Whisky Co (independent bottler). We know it is from Islay, but the actual distillery is kept as a mystery. Some people says it is Lagavulin, others says it is Caol Ila or Laphroaig. It is a no age statement malt and from the tasting I did, it is very young (under ten, maybe six!). Since the youngest Lagavulin I have tasted is a 16 years old, I really don't know how a young Lagavulin should taste. So I won't try to guess from which distillery it comes from.
Nose: Peated and peatier ! It is from Islay and it is young, no mystery here! It is a greenish peat with some rubber and coal in it. After the nose get used to the peat and the smoke, I identified some fruits (pears?) and a sugary note that reminds me of spiced honey.
Palate: Peated a lot ! taste less young than the nose, but the big peat shows the lack of maturation. fruits and honey starts to show off after a few seconds
Finale: medium short, but the peat is so present, that you think it is longer.
It is a very nice big peated malt for a very affordable price (I paid 35 US$). For all Islay fans out there that want a cheap peated everyday dram, it is a good choice, but the complexity of older peated malts is not there.
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I suspect that there are more than one mystery distilleries. That Finlagggan is bottle young surplus whisky from a few different distilleries. I've tried a couple of bottles and I am certain that what I was drinking was Bowmore. Indeed, it was almost identical to Bowmore Legend.