So the runner up position for me in the Boutique-y tweet tasting went to the only grain whisky on the night. I do enjoy an older cask driven grain whisky. The more neutral spirit off the still provides a great canvas for wood to be centre stage in the glass.
The Loch Lomond distillery is located in Alexandria which is not too far outside of Glasgow.
A fun fact for you is the current owners of the distillery Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Ltd restarted production on the year of my birth in 1987. So this author is either really old or really young depending on your point of view I suppose.
The Dram
This bottle is the cheapest one tasted at £54.95 and available at Master of Malt
For the money you get 500ml of 19 year old single grain whisky bottled at 49.7% ABV. It of course goes without saying that the bottler has not coloured or filtered this whisky before bottling.
Tasting Notes
Colour – white wine
Nose – initially the whisky starts with creamy vanilla, a sweet vanilla essence that has that slightly chemically tinge to it. There is definitely a definitive grainy aspect to this whisky
Palate – The arrival on the palate develops the sweet vanilla into milk chocolate and chocolate sponge cake. The mouthfeel is quite weighty but the spirit is not harsh but quite mellow and rounded from aging. The spirit is still influencing with a cooking apple note in the development.
Finish – The finish is my favourite part of this whisky. The finish turns slightly bitter but enhances and grows into a very intense caffe latte. Quite unexpected but rather lovely
Final Thoughts
The finish here really makes this for me. I love a black coffee in the morning and the coffee aroma’s to this really work for me. The aroma is certainly not unfiltered black coffee but it has been tempered by sweet milk chocolate to balance it all out.
This is a fairly priced grain whisky at a good age from a distillery not far from where I live. What more could I ask for?
Malted 