Mortlach 20 Years Old Rare Malts Selection 62.2% 1978

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Distileerderij	Mortlach
Bottelaar	OB
Serie	Rare Malts Selection
Gebotteld voor
Gedistilleerd op	1978
Gebotteld	05.1998
Land	Schotland
Streek	Speyside
Leeftijd	20
Cask Type
Vatnummer
Alcohol %	62.2%
Inhoud	0,70
Conditie	In originele houten kist
Etiket	Perfect
Voorraad	0
Inhoud	0,70
Conditie	In originele houten kist
Etiket	Perfect
Voorraad	0

Professionele reviews

Serge Valentin (85)

Mortlach 20 yo 1978/1998 (62.20%, OB, Rare Malts) Colour: gold. Nose: extremely punchy once again, well in most Rare Malts’ style, that is to say close to the distillate. Once again, there’s quite some wood smoke but also much less sherry and much more grassy notes than in the F&F. Whiffs of vanilla custard and orange cake, then a combination of paraffin and kirsch (or any stone fruit spirit) and maybe even a little soap – or is that fresh almonds? With water: oh, it shuts down, getting grassy, mineral and very austere. Mouth (neat): raw, powerful and kind of gritty/tannic, with some lime in the background. A little strange, paraffiny and lemony. Unusual! With water: better but still a little aggressive and maybe too ‘green’ and grassy. Hints of oil, strong liquorice, lemon syrup and various herbs. Thyme? Finish: long, all on the same grassy notes. Comments: not an easy-easy Mortlach but quality is there.

Malt Fascination (90)

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By now the Rare Malts Selection is quickly becoming the stuff of legend. It’s not even that all of them are stellar whiskies, but enough of them are to lift up the entire series. And when they are stellar, I mean truly stellar. Think of Brora, Clynelish, Port Ellen and Rosebank, for example.

Another thing that makes the Rare Malts selection stand out is the rather insane ABV that most of them are bottled at. It’s quite common to see these bottling at over 60%, while they are all pretty well aged whiskies.

What’s also funny is that Diageo tried to do something similar to this again with their Manager’s Choice. The entire project went down in flames, more or less. Of course, they are collecting some value nowadays, and some of them have always been (Lagavulin, Clynelish, Talisker). But for the first decade these were out, they just didn’t move.

Image from Whiskybase
Sniff:
True to character with hints of pan seared beef. Hay, straw, barn yard. Barley ears, lemon zest. Oak and a hint of beeswax, varnish.

Sip:
Dry and bees waxy, with ‘tea wax’, oak, barley. Again the slight hint of seared beef. Hay, straw, a bit farmy. Quite sharp, for the age, but not surprising with an ABV like this. Hints of cork, lemon rind.

Swallow:
A huge finish, that just doesn’t seem to dissipate. Dry with hints of cork, oak, straw. The waxiness is mostly gone.

This honestly just is what Mortlach does best, and it’s not even from a sherry cask. The beefy notes on the nose sound weird but are actually very, very tasty. Combined with the other notes and the massive ABV this makes for rollercoaster drinking, but all in a good way.

Of course, this stuff is unaffordable now (600 euros, as we speak), but even at that price I wouldn’t be disappointed.

BOW (89)

This is an old vintage bottle and the closure may have deteriorated. When opening care should be taken.
The item is sold as described.

We have added parafilm to keep this bottle in top notch condition