Miltonduff 39 Year Old 1978 Cadenhead’s

Miltonduff does not appear on my radar all that often. This is only my 26th, but also the oldest I have ever tried. Distilled when yours truly was only an 8 year old boy and bottled two years ago by one of Scotland’s oldest bottlers. Around 390 EUR or about 10 EUR for each year of maturation (note to self: what’s kind of remark is that?).

I am happily surprised by After Eight (mint and chocolate) on the nose, as well as a truckload of vanilla and soft caramel paste, overripe pears of which the juice dribbles from your chin when you bite in it, a bouquet of wild heather flowers and some sniffing tobacco. Silky soft, elegant and very pleasant.

The body is equally soft. This one glides over the palate. Again very sweet on white fruit and vanilla, while the mint and flowers return. Good continuation of the nose with a little alcoholic power behind it. But oh so quaffable that it’s almost lemonade.

The finish brings a smile to my face. Agreeably long, fruity and sweet, playful yet elegant.

An undiscovered gem, this one. Discrete, but grand. Thx, Manny, what a whisky!

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