Longrow NAS
The Sea
0 185
Review by @Pandemonium
- Nose19
- Taste22
- Finish23
- Balance21
- Overall85
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Distribution of ratings for this:
- Brand: Longrow
- Type: Scotch
- Region: Campbeltown
- ABV: 46%
This NAS version is the successor of the Longrow CV, a Campbeltown'er from Springbank. Not much to tell, nice and simple packaging, very pale colour.
Nose: the name Longrow Peated could suggest that we were dealing with heavily peated, islay-style malt. Instead, to my surprise we only get a slight whiff of smoke, as if you were poking around in the cold ashes left in the chimney. It's salty, with a wee bit of leather scents, vanilla and lemon tones. It reminds me of a misty day in Oban when the peat smoke from the houses got mixed in with the cold and wet salty sea-breeze.
Taste: yet another surprise, as soft and light as the nose was, an actual sip will, after a few fruity notes, reveal that this is in fact a smoky burner: gooseberries and rhubarb are suddenly swept away as a powerful wave of smoke and black pepper comes rolling in and slams into the rocks.
Finish: the waves retract slowly and leave a trail of saltiness and dry smoke.
Conclusion: not at all what I expected, I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised. It is a fairly simple but powerful malt and given that this is only the entry level of the Longrow range, I'm excited to try out some other expressions. The Springbank distillery has not disappointed me thus far!
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Longrows are expensive (at least in the U.S.), so I haven't tasted through much of their range. But I have read quite a few reviews. The old CV seems like their most widely acclaimed bottle, with the exceptions of the old stuff from the early 1970s.
So please do taste up through their range and share what you think, but expect, probably, drastically decreased peat in the better-aged stuff, in exchange I suppose for greater complexity.
I just opened a bottle of the 10 that I find pretty middling on first impressions.