The Loch Lomond distillery has to be one of if not they most versatile distillery in Scotland. They have the ability to make any type of whisky they want from single malt to a complete blended scotch whisky all within the walls of there industrious production facility. From this place comes this single grain whisky after 19 years of maturation.

The Dram

Cask 11184 was distillied in December 1996 and bottled by Douglas Laing in May 2016 under the Old Particular brand. This is the brand I much prefer from Douglas Laing as I tend to find the Provenance range to contain quite a few under matured examples being sold cheaply. The problem with saving a 20% on an unknown bottle is that if it turns out not to be to your liking its 100% lost money and I was bitten like that with the 14 year old Auchentoshan this year.

The Loch Lomond today was from a single refill hogshead which yielded 341 bottled at 51.5% ABV which is cask strength. If you can find a bottle of this now it will reset you back just under £70.

Tasting Notes

Colour – diluted lemon juice

Nose – lemon sherbet dip, black pepper and cardamon seeds. It’s almost curry like in its make up actually.

Palate – First there is a sweet vanilla note but then things go wrong. The alcohol bites in and drowns out any other flavours. With water you can get rid of a lot of the harshness but you don’t gain much if any flavours.

Finish – Harsh rough finish with burns the throat. Some orange, lemon and lime peel but it is just so disappointingly rough.

Final Thoughts

I have tried quite a number of Loch Lomond products this year and none of them have been to my taste at all. I am increasingly coming to the opinion that the use of Lomond stills at the distillery is doing nothing to help the single malt/grain products to sit in there own right. There is something fundamentally flawed in the production technique which leads to harsh rough alcohol even after nearly 2 decades in cask.