Càrn Mòr: Celebration Of The Cask: Speyside 1991 (Scottish Speyside Single Malt Whisky: 25 Years: 62.5% ABV)
Visual: Banana gold.
Viscosity: Thin slow puckering.
Nose: Thick. Stewed apricot. Caramel. Floral. Hard sweets. Light menthol and peppermint. Water makes more apples, grapes and light oak. More water and time adds golden syrup and white chocolate.
Body: Strong alcohol. Charring. Apples. Oily. Peppery. Vanilla. Waxy. Water makes butterscotch, oak and oddly stronger alcohol. More water brings more butterscotch – time makes even more so and slight tart grapes. Tinned tropical fruit.
Finish: Malt chocolate. Dry oak. Tongue numbing, Peppery. Water gives more alcohol and butterscotch. More water brings apples, pears and vanilla. White chocolate and tart grapes.
Conclusion: This is heavy duty, high alcohol and high burn whisky. In fact, it gets even higher alcohol character with a drop of water. Which is not what I expected. It takes a serious battering of water to get this thing to calm down.
This is an oily and waxy beast – it brings a huge wodge of sweet stewed fruit and caramel. Initially it is a deeply unsubtle beast – peppery, yes, but really concentrating on the heavy apricot. However as I paid attention I did realize it was a bit odd around the edges, with a menthol and peppermint character.
Water is definitely needed to bring everything in line so you can properly enjoy it. Neat it is fun, but harsh, mostly one track and what else it has doesn’t quite mesh. Time, and all that water makes it a very different experience. It becomes so much smoother, with lots of butterscotch coming out to create a coherent center for everything else to hang off.
It is a thick, sweet one – some notes of white chocolate come out, matched by some tart grapes which seems to be the remnants of the odd elements in the neat whisky. It is strange that this was aged in a single sherry butt as it brings a lot of tropical fruit that I would usually associate with bourbon aging. For a 25 year old whisky it is not exceptional in complexity, but gives a waxy texture that really sells what it does have. The texture takes a sweet whisky that would be good, but very simple for a 25 year one, and gives it a lot of grip and some unusual stylings. Very full, very thick – definitely not a bad one – but not great for the age. Solid.
Background: Wow, bottled in 2017, this still holds a massive abv for 25 years of aging – and was the first of five whiskies tried at Independent Spirit for their second Uber Whisky tasting of the year. I loved the last tasting, so was very excited for this. Also, my first ever set of notes from The Speyside – the distillery, rather than the region Speyside (also called just “Spey” for a bunch of its bottling, probably to stop confusion with other whiskies from the region). This is one of 533 bottles. Anyway, as always for these events – I was doing my notes in a social environment, with five strong whiskies back to back – my notes may be affected by other peoples thoughts, the drunkenness, and the other whisky I had. However, as before, for trying five expensive and rare whiskies like this I could hardly miss the chance to do some notes. Hope they are ok by you.
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