Mortlach 19 Year Old 1990 Signatory Cask Strength Collection

This suspciously pale Mortlach from Signatory – in their Cask Strength Collection with those mighty decanters – was bottled from a sherry butt. I presume it was a refill sherry cask. No less than 639 bottles were filled at cask strength, some ten years ago. I recently presented it at an online masterclass and it divided the room.

Well, the nose certainly is very funky. Quice jelly, moss after a shower, Graeffe sugar, white bread, ferns, oregano and dried apricots. Needs time – a lot of it! – to open up. Very atypical. I cannot compare it to any other Mortlach I have tried so far.

On the palate the DNA of Mortlach shines through some more, but again it’s quite a harsh, piquant malt that makes me gasp for breath. Quite chemical as well. This one is giving me a very hard time.

The finish is piquant on white pepper and nutmeg, some bright citrus (lime juice), but the chemical aspect never leaves.

Well… takes some getting used to. Very sharp, funky and alcoholic. A dud.

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