Day 21 takes us away from Islay after being on the Island for a while and its one which we have reviewed before although not for a couple of years. The first review of this can be found at: Old Pulteney 15 Year Old. In that somewhat brief review I found it to be a bit boring and uninspiring. With an evening to myself will I find it more interesting in December of 2025.

Available as a core bottle offering for a similar price to yesterday’s Laphroiag I think we should compare them both against value for money. They are very different bottles for whisky for sure with this being a mix of bourbon and sherry casks and not a hint of peat and the Cask Strength 10 being the exact opposite of that as a spirit forward peaty bonfire. The pounds and pence all come from the same place though so which one is the winner?

The exact recipe for this bottle is an initial long term maturation in second fill ex-bourbon casks follows a finishing period in first fill sherry casks. Bottled at 46% ABV which means it might also be natural colour and non chill filtered but there is nothing on the bottle to suggest it.

Tasting Notes

Where Can I Buy?

Master of Malt – 15 Year Old

Final Thoughts

So I think I have a vague memory of the 15 year old sample I had from Whisky-Me when I did the initial review of this whisky. It was also around the time when the rebrand happened and I definitely don’t remember the whisky being this rich, this full of flavour and this interesting.

My previous concise thoughts were from an underlying underwhelmed meh feeling from a distillery I respect. Either the quality is up at Old Pulteney or the sample I had the first time around was a bit stale and over oxidised in the pouch because this is nothing like that first visit to the mid priced core range offering. Its a recommended buy from me.