SMWS 76.139 - Mortlach 15yo

Whisky: SMWS 76.139 - Mortlach 15yo

Region: Speyside

ABV: 56.5%

Price: £65

Full disclosure, Mortlach is by far one of our favourite distilleries. This particular release was matured for 13 years in a bourbon hogshead before being transferred to a first fill PX sherry hogshead for the remaining two years of its maturation.

Nose

Beef, Irn-Bru, chocolate coated raisins, cinnamon, deep leather, and earthy shiitake mushrooms. There’s not a lot of sweetness here, but there’s a deep richness here that seems well integrated with the alcohol.

Palate

Starts with alcohol soaked cherries, pencil lead, Sweet tobacco, sour apple sweeties, freshly ground black pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and well-sanded oak. Finish is long and incredibly warming, like sitting by a log fire during a snowstorm.

Nose (with water)

Roast beef and buckets full of raisins. The sherry cask is in full force, we can almost see the sherry dripping from the staves as the barrel is being re-constructed.

Palate (with water)

Quite herbal, with oregano, thyme and tarragon making an appearance. Cinnamon swirls coated with sweet icing, honeycomb and a tingly alcohol finish.

Conclusion

The cask finish is the star of the show here, some typical Mortlach notes appear, but the flavour is dominated by PX. In this case however it works very well. We’d be curious to have tasted the whisky before it was re-casked, but we imagine it was probably quite unrefined. Overall a very pleasant dram that I could have multiple pours of without getting sick of it.

Score: 8/10 

• 10 - Perfection. A whisky that we’ll remember forever.
• 9 - Amazing. We’d pay through the nose for a bottle.
• 8 - Great. Pick this up at RRP.
• 7 - Good. Happy to have a dram or two but wouldn’t buy a bottle.
• 6 - Passable. Would accept a dram, but wouldn’t seek it out.
• 5 - Poor. Would drink if it was the only option.
• 4 - Bad. Maybe it can be saved by ginger beer?
• 3 - Awful. It can't be saved by ginger beer.
• 2 - Pour it out
• 1 - We’ve never tried a whisky rated this low and hopefully never will.

Interested in trying drams like these? We've created the Two Whisky Bros Dram Club to help you get access to high quality, rare whisky by the dram.