Hi everyone,
Seven hundred and fifty reviews of Scotch whisky later, we arrive at my coronation of the red crown tartan! It has been and continues to be an absolute pleasure to be a small part of this amazing community. A big part of me continuing to review whiskies, isn’t only my own passion and curiosity but hopefully helping people and getting the knowledge out there about the whiskies that I try. Being part of the industry, I get to try loads of stuff that people aren’t normally able to and I feel extremely, extremely lucky to be in that position!
This one in particular is one of those dream whiskies that would cost you a buckload to actually buy a bottle of and many thanks go to Claire for this sample.
I have heard from a few people now that Fred Laing (the original Laing behind Hunter and Douglas) had a certain favourite distillery; Port Ellen, and managed to acquire quite a few casks of the stuff, meaning that both the Laing’s may well sit on more casks than Diageo (no idea whether that is true but it sounds good, right?).
Anyway, this is a newish one from a Sherry cask.
Port Ellen 1982 Douglas Laing Platinum 54.4%
Colour: Amber
Body: Full
Nose: The most muscular cherry chocolate cake ever made, sooty chimney, chocolate coated dried cherries, black cherry gateaux, old ethereal coastal smoke. Seriously delicious nose that strikes somewhere between an old Beninnes and Lagavulin. One of the best noses I ever had the pleasure to set my nostrils to.
Taste: Very soft arrival, some tingling spices with ginger and clove, silky oak, sweet cherry and orange, some old coastal smoke (more into the finish), quite a bit of dry oak but good.
Finish: Long length. Smoke and cherry, some fresh orange, chocolate. Not so in balance here, quite drying.
Well, it would get 91 for the nose but there's just a bit too much oak on the taste and finish I think. The age and the Sherry has also had a hand toning down the smoke, which I think would have helped the whisky stand up to the cask a bit better. Perhaps should have been bottled 5 years ago. Perhaps. Still, awesome to try.
88/100
Thanks for reading!
Scotch Review #750
Whisky Network Review #888
Network Average: 75.1
Best Score: 94
Worst Score: 12
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 I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.
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