St. Magdalene 30 Years Old Cadenhead Closed Distilleries 55.4% 1982

Professionele reviews

Serge Valentin (92)

St. Magdalene 30 yo 1982/2012 (55.4%, Cadenhead, 192 bottles) Five stars Colour: pale gold. Nose: those are the wonders of refill wood, you keep the freshness and the original style. Indeed, we aren’t that far from the 11, this is just a little rounder, more mentholy, and even more complex. Clay, chalk, citrons, grapefruits and green tea coated with the finest honeydew and some kind of tar liqueur, Finnish style. And then more and more damp earth, humus, dead leaves, engine oil and all that. Just superb. With water: it gets very mineral. Schweppes, clay, mud, damp hessian, limestone… And in the background, a little lemon. Zing! Mouth (neat): extraordinary, and I mean it. I think we haven’t been paying enough attention to these whiskies when they were easily available, but now that this style is gone gone gone (all about the distillate, not all about stupid oak), all we can do is cry. Unless you’ve got a stash or close friends who’ve got one. With water: fat and nervous at the same time, immaculate, pristine, zesty, extremely mineral. Lemon oil. We’re close to some very petroly riesling once again, and we won’t complain. Finish: quite long, with a marvellous balance and an extreme cleanliness. Very tense whisky. Comments: I’m afraid this baby will be very hard to beat, but you never know, refill wood can do wonders to old whiskies.

BOW (93)