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Mortlach 1990 22 Years Old, Chieftan's (K&L) Exclusive

Pretty good sherried whisky

0 487

nReview by @numen

11th Jul 2013

0

Mortlach 1990 22 Years Old, Chieftan's (K&L) Exclusive
  • Nose
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  • Taste
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  • Finish
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  • Balance
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  • Overall
    87

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Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

Cask #5160, sample from a friend

Before kicking this off with the usual notes, I thought that it was appropriate to say that I paid particular attention to the wood influence in it due to interest in and concern about oak in it. Having just had another 1990 Mortlach 22 Year Old from an IB, I thought that I'd have a good point of comparison. Without further delay...

Nose: Dark, dry, moderately aged sherry - the whisky and the wine. Dried cherries and drying grapes (not quite raisins), toffee, caramel, and lightly salted nuts. Touch of oak. Nothing outrageous. Coffee, chocolate malt, and something vegetal and acidic. (with water) Stale dried red fruit and berries, chocolate, salty nuts in a very dry Spanish brandy. Oak is a bit more distinct here, but it's still in check.

Palate: Starts out as a sherry bomb, though it quickly transitions to some tannic oak. Then there are dark strawberry chocolatey jams. It rides the oak wave and turns rather on coffee, chocolate, and some varnish. The oak here is like when you're watching tv with the volume at a comfortable level, then you suddenly push it up toward the maximum and drown out everything else, and then bring it back down so it's louder than it was at first, but you can distinguish most of the ambient noise. (with water) Much sweeter at first, and then you get some oak, which yields to fine coffee.

Finish: Very dry with the typical dark sherry notes (not as heavy or big as some of those old Glenfarclas numbers, but it's also younger). Pinch of salt. The wood hides in there. I think that some of the criticism of the wood is more about the surprise of finding this amount of wood in a sherried whisky this old. I've had some old Glenfarclas and Glendronach that have far more tannic, varnishy oak than this sucker does. They're also close to twice as old. If you're sensitive to wood, your experience, starting at the midpalate, may be less than you desire. It's still better than the Rattray.

More disclosure-- I also like some very big, woody cognacs and armagnacs that some find very astringent at points. For whatever that's worth.

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4 comments

@Wills
Wills commented

@Numen your stock of samples has to be enormous. There is a request in the other review of Mortlach 22yo for a different IB and you just have it and do a review of it. Faster than any software support! :)

11 years ago 0

numen commented

@Wills, haha, thanks! It's a decent size, and it fluctuates, though it's probably not as comprehensive as many folks'! There are only about 12 items at the moment that I'm waiting to try, but should be getting a few more next week. I've got some very generous friends :)

11 years ago 0

broadwayblue commented

Thanks for the review. 87 is a respectable score to be sure...although this Mortlach sounds more like a very good whisky than a great one. From your notes it sounds like a very nice dram, but to be honest I was hoping for a bit more in a $170 bottle.

11 years ago 0

numen commented

@broadwayblue, that's a fair assessment. The price is not inexpensive. I didn't think that the sherry influence was stale, like some of the LAWS members. You can probably get a similar quality sherried whisky for significantly less cash - perhaps from a Glendronach. The quality probably would be in the same ballpark, but part of this is also the sherried whisky profile. For instance, you can get a 21 year old Glenfarclas, but it's got a very different sherry profile than this 22 year old. It really depends what you value most in your drams and purchases. I liked this, but wouldn't get a bottle of it.

11 years ago 0