Lochside 1967 Cooper's Choice Review

Hi everyone,

Another obscure whisky that you’d never heard of, from a distillery you never knew existed, at an incredible age. This time it’s the turn of Lochside, the closed malt and grain distillery. It started in 1957, closed in 1997 and demolished in 2005. So no more Lochside for us.

Because it was both a malt and grain distillery you see both under the same name, which is confusing but does mean it was one of the few distilleries you might get a ‘single blend’ coming from. Despite it closing relatively recently you don’t see too much of it either, even with the independent bottlers.

So spying this one lying within arms reach was quite a shock. Especially considering the age, which makes it the second oldest malt I’ve tasted now.

 

Lochside 1967 Cooper's Choice 40.5%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Still there, still fresh. Fresh and tropical fruit, some mango and pineapple, wine gums, a little oak, out of date milk chocolate that gets that white layer over it, some banana. Nice nose.

Taste: Dry, really dry arrival, tannins, lacking power but some tropical fruit and spice, pineapple, white pepper and ginger, some under ripe banana. A little rubbery.

Finish: Long length. Rubbery tropical fruit, more oak here and elastic rubber.

Bottled 2016 at 49 years old. A bit past it's prime I think. Those rubbery notes are detracting from the experience and I would have expected more complexity from this. Another great example of older isn’t better when you get up to this age, or that I just don’t like whiskies that are too old.

75/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #551

Whisky Network Review #646

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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