28/03/2016 A couple at the Bon Accord

Two years since JS and I were last here. If you remember, last time, we had a string of wonderful Rarest of the Rare, and an incredible Bowmore. Well, two years later, they still have several of the bottles we did not get to try that day.

I'm back again on a higher stage
Listen to my party beat and get in rage

JS is not feeling too well and FMcN joins us after a bit. The drams we are looking at require undivided attention. Since FMcN does not drink whisky, I do not want to favour the drink over a friend we rarely get to see. Only two drams, then.

Interestingly, they seem to have changed the prices of many of the drams today. The prices on the iPad (the menu) do not match the new prices on the bottles themselves. I point that out to the bar tender, who checks with his boss what the right thing to do is: charge the old price... and update the iPad! Thanks. \o/
I order. The boss (the pub owner) looks at me: "Where are you from? I'm PMcD."
We exchange a few words. He has an interest in whisky (surprise!) and is delighted to see someone who seems to know what they are ordering. Just like in Dornoch, it is apparently a minority.

Caperdonich 41yo 1969/2011 (41.8%, DT Rarest of the Rare, C#3245, 179b): C#3254 was very, very much to my liking. It is fantastic to get a chance to try this one too. Nose: a delicate blend of yellow flowers and yellow fruits. We have apricots and peaches, both fresh and dried, alongside daffodil and forsythia, perhaps kerria japonica. There is buttery pie dough in the distance. It goes from assertive to rather discreet and brings up satsumas, eventually. Mouth: delicate again. Some would say weak; I think it rather demands one's attention. Dried apricot, Smyrna raisins, bathing in apricot juice. This is gentle, thin, but by no means watery. Finish: it grows in intensity, with yellow fruit again, though this time soaked in punch. There is a vaguely rummy note to it, as well as those wonderful fruits. Oh! and a dash of chocolate coulis. 9/10

Bowmore 38yo d.1957 (40.1%, OB, C#216--220, 861b): yes, ordering this does make a few heads turn. :-) Nose: an unbelievable mix of tropical fruit and salty sea spray. Pears, seared in butter, cut peaches, hints of kelp or cockles, wet sand and drying shells. There are whiffs of an open fire in the chimney, then polished dashboards (Jaguar Mk7 from 1953), walnut flesh, antique, precious furniture. This develops in a wonderful way, with peach stone (flesh still attached), then, behind all that, more tropical fruit -- passion fruit, star fruit, quince, juicy satsuma. Mouth: gentle and refined, almost quiet, it turns milky after a moment (semi-skimmed), with vague reminiscence of the nose -- fruit and polished wood, then. The second sip brings forth more juicy peach. Finish: all at once, it delivers velvety fruit, coal fire and precious, tropical wood (teak, mahogany). The whole is delicate (tired?), but holds together all the same. It is now the well-weathered dashboard of an XK140 Jaguar, upon which is resting a basketful of fresh fruit, including pears, mangoes, jack fruit. Is there a life after Bowmore? Ich don't think so! 12/10

What a selection! With FMcN having to leave and JS feeling worse and worse, we call it a session. We will be back!

Old Men meet