Hi everyone,
Gearing up towards Review 1000, we now have one of the oldest whiskies I’ve ever tasted. A Longmorn from 1964!
Amazingly, back at this time, Longmorn still had floor maltings on site and direct fired stills. A huge difference to today’s distillery and, in theory, should be giving this a heavy character.
There’s been quite a few of these old Longmorn’s from Sherry casks done by Gordon & MacPhail but quite a few have been at 40%. Part of what made me jump on this one was that it is cask strength.
Longmorn 1964 Gordon & MacPhail 'The Dram Takers' 53%
Colour: Dark Amber
Body: Full
Nose: Dark-af, old-af and complex-af. Incredibly rich, ethereal ghostly oak, fruit and sweet Sherry, loads of cherry, liquorice, really dense, dark chocolate, pine and outdoorsy forest floor.
Taste: Intense, old, dark chocolate, dry arrival, big kick of spice and tingling oak, dried cherry, leather. Massive whisky, really a lot of oak but really good.
Finish: Long/Very Long length. More dark chocolate, even more oak here, lots of staying power. Emotional. A tad dry here maybe.
Bottled at 46yo. Essentially my tasting notes for this are useless, and the score is probably too. Its an emotional old whisky, similar to Highland Park 40. The oak isn't handled so well here though. The oak is massive, its everywhere and it isn't balanced. So I'm taking a few points off for that... However its about more than just flavour and balance and power and complexity. This thing has an emotional punch that very few others have.
88/100
Thanks for reading!
Scotch Review #833
Whisky Network Review #996
Network Average: 75.2
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 the Global 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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