30/12/2017 Pre-NYE drams at Dornoch Castle Hotel

Third year in a row. \o/
dom666 has joined JS and me on this trip.

It has been a good day, we round it off with a few drams.

dom666 has Caperdonich 14yo d.1968 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice), which JS and I had last year.

Putachieside 12yo (43%, Cadenhead, b.1980s): oddly, I have never had a Putachieside before. Time to right that wrong. Nose: old-school scents, such as cork, lichen rotting wood and wild mushrooms. A drop of coffee and fox's skin complement that, yet the nose is rather subdued. Melted caramel grows in intensity and is joined, much later on, by discreet mango. Nice and subtle. Mouth: melted caramel, dark honey, yellow-flower broth. It becomes vaguely drying, behind the caramel. Perhaps it is salted caramel. Finish: caramel, walnut flesh, wax. This is nice! It would score one more point if it was a little more expressive. 7/10

Springbank 1993/2010 (46%, Moon Import, 236b): nose: not many things beat an old Springbank. This has Chinese gooseberries, carambola, perhaps a hint of jasmine, fresh, untanned leather (the fringed-jacket type). So fresh, this! Mouth: salty-fruit-juice debauchery. Acidic Chinese gooseberry, unripe pineapple, sliced carambola. Excellent indeed. Later, a creamier mouthfeel settles in. Finish: the same fruity extravaganza is now joined by custard and creamy butterscotch. It still has the vague acidity or bitterness of unripe fruit (carambola, this time), but this dram spells out 'perfection' almost, well, perfectly. Almost. 9/10

Canapés are served: salmon and black pepper on crackers and fried haggis balls.

Oban 13yo b.1990 (62%, OB The Manager's Dram, Sherry Cask): my own bottle of this was lost in transit a few years ago, so I welcome this opportunity to try it, after all. Nose: old-school richness with a mix of encaustic, white fruit and a gentle austerity. It has dusty books and orange rinds, then pear yoghurt, custard, brine and sugar. The nose is tentalising, but where is the sherry? Is this a seventeenth refill? Mouth: powerful, peppery, annihilating. It has citrus and pepper, and certainly does not live up to the nose. At second sip, dried apricot appears, but the pepper is huge, cloaking. Finish: enormous, earthy and coastal, with fishing nets, sea salt and an undeniable alcohol kick (no, seriously). Cork and dried apricot both show up. The alcohol burn dissipates and leaves dry sherry dryness. Enthralling nose, the rest is less convincing. But the nose!... 8/10

Talisker 17yo b.2011 (55.2%, OB The Manager's Dram, b#1011): this being dom666's favourite (supermarket) distillery, he wants to try it now and be done with it. Nose: very coastal, with drying fishing nets, smoked mussels, peat smoke -- much more than in the regular offerings, in fact. Mouth: another big one, it has lots of horsepower, peppery honey, peppery pepper, burning charcoal. The lick of honey is really welcome. Actually, it is what keeps it interesting, in my opinion. Without it, that would be a peat burner. Finish: big, long, honeyed and peppery. It has some of the smoked mussels, a touch of peat, but not much. It is a good Talisker, but shhhh! Do not tell dom666 I said that. 8/10

The bar manager (NB) gives us a sip of Glen Garioch 21yo d.1973 (43%, OB), which he calls the poor man's Brora. It is in the same vein as my own, screen-printed bottle, that looks more recent, but maybe is not. This one here makes no sense: it is a 1994/1995 bottling, but 750ml, which suggests it is for the US market; however, the strength is in % ABV, not in US ° Proof. Puzzling.

After that interlude, we have supper, then resume our activities.

Chicken-liver parfait	Salmon salad
Sweet potato and coconut soup
Chicken suprême with smoked ham	Roasted salmon
Selection of cheeses. The blue on the right is called: blue murder.	Sticky toffee pudding

Springbank 30yo 1967/1997 (52%, Blackadder, C#1561): nose: as the earlier Moon Import, this is bursting with fruit -- Chinese gooseberry, carambola, even raspberry, here, -- and then ash and soot show up. The carambola dominates, though -- that is starfruit, for those who do not remember. Mouth: a fruity number here too, with finely-ground white pepper, sawdust, pulped carambola and gentle marmalade. Finish: again, a fine mix of fruit (fresh and jammy), sawdust and milled pepper. It is quite strong, making the finish very, very long. 9/10

vs.

Springbank 1950--1978/1996 (54.7%, Thompson Bros, 47b): most will know the story of this, by now. In a nutshell: the sons of the hotel's proprietors bought a flagon of Springbank, which contained a vatting of different vintages between 1950 and 1978. All came from the Springbank distillery, and they had all the documentation to prove it. What the Scotch Whisky Association thinks of those dates being written on the label matters little: after all, this is not available for sale. Nose: an unsubtle sherry influence, with coffee, old leather, dry earth, walnut oil and walnut shells. Soft fruit lies behind all that (soaked prunes, dates and figs), but the dominant is the dryer sherry influence. With time, the coffee quietens down. Mouth: woody, drying, acrid, bitter. All the same, it is not bad. It retains the coffee (as in: coffee-stained earth), dried fruit and leather (recently-polished shoes). It is a bit too much for me, though. It is also rather strong and heavy on the pepper. Oxidation helps prunes and soaked sultanas come out more. Finish: prunes and dried fruits, wood lacquer, coffee and, well, drying wood. Lots of time seem to make it fruitier. This is past its prime, to me. Interesting, maybe emotional for some, but taken over by the wood and the sherry. Pity. Forty-five minutes of breathing does it good, though, and improves the score. As is, it is 6/10

This year, we spot a Baltimore oriole.
Probably lost on his migration path.

I ask what the music is that is playing. The waitress tells me Cigarettes After Sex. Probably a bit premature, considering she just met me. :-)