With the soaring prices of the new OB Mortlachs, The only reasonably priced good quality Mortlachs you can afford or find these days are by IBs. Thank god they still have quite a lot of casks laying around and we’re able to enjoy this lovely distillery without having to suffer the consequences of its Dalmorisation * . This whisky was distilled September 17th 1990 and bottled at CS on the 17th of Feb. 2014 yielding 569 bottles all in all. I’ve tasted this one on the same evening as the Clynelish 1996 by the same bottler, and the other dram felt more Mortlach-y (meaty, sherry) than this one, which was a big surprise. I’m not saying this is not a good dram, but the sherry effect here was less than I had anticipated. A sister cask (#6075 is still available on the whiskybase shop for € 145)
Mortlach 23 YO 1990 (cask 6074) – (Signatory), , 54.5% , £89 / € 145
Nose: Some lovely deep dried fruit, but not over powering, with hints of burnt wax (is this a Mortlach? or a Cynelish?) .On the fruity side I am getting some red berries and some balsamic notes (it’s a sherry cask after all right?), not very meaty at all, which was quite a surprise.
Palate: The palate is much bigger than the nose : a little meaty and sweet as well as being waxy, and semi sweet with Chocolate. There’s quite a bit if sulfur . Not as meaty as you might expect, but I guess this is a refill sherry cask which was not very active. It also reveals some notes of apple/ pear, and maybe apricots and leather.
Finish: Medium long Nice. Sweet. Long. Dried fruit.
A very enjoyable palate, that I must say, but the nose is somewhat of a disappointment, it’s too subdued, and lacks the sherry punch I was looking for. Not a bad dram, but for 145 bucks or so, I would expect much more from a Mortlach cask.
Score: 87/100
* Dalmorisation – the process of transforming your malts into super duper luxury whisky priced over the top.
Cheers for the sample, ofer