The 1993 Connoisseurs Choice Pittyvaich 13 Years comes from Pittyvaich’s last year of distillation. The distillery, which was originally built to make generic malt whisky for the Bells blend, lived for only 18 unremarkable years. No fires, no explosions, nothing really happened there except making whisky.
Which isn’t a bad thing since that’s what a distillery is supposed to do, quietly pump out whisky, but where’s the fun in writing about that? Have you seen those signs that say “On This Site in 1897 Nothing Happened”? I could basically replace this opening section with that.
Pittyvaich Timeline (via Malt Madness)
- 1974 – Built as a sister distillery to Dufftown by Arthur Bell & Sons
- 1975 – Started distillation
- 1987 – Owners switched to United Distillers (predecessor to Diageo) when DCL (Distillers Company Limited) merged with Bell’s
- 1993 – Closed
- 2002 – Demolished
Told you it was an uneventful life. Anyways, on to the 1993 Connoisseurs Choice Pittyvaich 13 Years Review. Hopefully it has a little bit more going on with it than its history.
1993 Connoisseurs Choice Pittyvaich 13 Years Info
Region: Speyside, Scotland
Distiller: Pittyvaich (1975 – 1993)
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Cask: ex-Bourbon
Age: 13 years (’93 – ’06)
ABV: 43%
Price: NA – Auction or specialty Shop at this point
1993 Connoisseurs Choice Pittyvaich 13 Years Review
EYE
Light gold
NOSE
A nice complex fruit with notes of orchard and tropical fruits make up the bulk of the aroma with some nice notes of vanilla, honey and malt peeking their heads in. There is a bit of stinging astringency that comes up the longer it sits, but not enough to keep me from enjoying the overall aroma and ends up adding a bit more dimension.
PALATE
Malty, fruity and oddly woody. I would have sworn this was an older scotch with the amount of wood in here, but it’s only 13 years and the oaky character is fairly pronounced. A bit of honey and a clashing combination of citrus and a bit of mint show up at the end, adding an interesting dimension to the whisky.
FINISH
Fruit, malt and wood fade out pretty quickly to a surprising stretch of marshy earthiness that I didn’t find on the palate or nose. It’s a really short finish, but that sulfury bogginess isn’t what I’d call pleasant.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Doesn’t quite come together for me and feels a bit off. Medium body but with a rich oily texture and almost no burn.
OVERALL
1993 Connoisseurs Choice Pittyvaich 13 Years is an interesting little bugger. The nose is solid and the palate is tasty until the mint and citrus show up and clash like stripes on plaid, but it’s light enough to not kill the score and I like when a whisky gets a little weird. However the finish… the finish takes it too far. It goes beyond weird with its boggy earthiness, but that’s the only major derailment in this one.
If it weren’t for that muddy finish it would have scored a bit higher, but that short sulfury ending just didn’t do it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love a touch of sulfur in my whisky, especially if there’s some peat n’ sweet action accompanying it, but in here it’s too heavy. Breaking down the components of this whisky the nose gets a B+, the palate a B, the finish a C+ and the body a B-. 1993 Connoisseurs Choice Pittyvaich 13 Years is saved by a nose.
SCORE: 80-82/100 (B-, not tasted at home)