31/03/2025 Longrow

Longrow 16yo 2001/2018 (56%, Cadenhead Warehouse Tasting, Chardonnay Cask Finish): souvenir from a couple of months ago. Nose: at once sweet and smoky, it brings one back to a 1980s arcade, with a mix of lingering tobacco smoke and cotton candy. If I remember well, some of those arcade machines had an ashtray built into the control panel. It seems like a wildly-mad idea, in hindsight. Anyway, that morphs into breezy margaritas and smoked jelly beans, candy necklaces and scorched earth, crusted mud and sherbet. It has something of a seaside kitchen too, if that makes sense: I am made to think of uncut sponges, fluffy and soft, then ink and crayon shavings. Lastly, dried strawberry slices rise, gently smoked, and introduce ancient smoke-dried pine cones. The second nose feels softer and fruitier, ripe with Fruit-tella or Tubblegum, with the smoke clearly taking a back seat, now. Yes, the sweets become chewier (not quite Gummibärchen) and closer to plasticine, yet they are not too-obviously chemical. In fact, we spot a nice clafoutis, a some stage -- a clafoutis with a caramelised crusty top. Mouth: big, fruity and smoky, the palate has a hodge-podge of sea water, dried banana slices, smashed plantain, smoky custard, cassia bark, limestone, and eucalyptus or laurel leaves. It is a tad bitter indeed, with a mineral side that competes with the smoke. At the same time, it remains fruity and, actually, gains in fruitiness upon chewing: green grapes, calamansi. The second sip is surprisingly sweet, full-on caramel and smoked-apple compote. It is chewy in a caramelised-pastry way. Smoked blueberries emerge, as does weathered chicken wire mesh. Finish: without surprise, it is a bold finish too, with some cinnamon, lemon bark, preserved lemons cut on a limestone plate, and a generous whiff of smoke via retro-nasal olfaction. It is a scorched-earth type of smoke. The whole mouth if left as if one had just swallowed smoke-dried grapefruit peels coated in quarry dust. Without turning chalky, it certainly is bitter and gritty. The second gulp welcomes orange juice spilled on scorched earth, and it is only careful analysis of the retro-nasal olfaction that reveals quarry chippings and smoke from an industrial fire, acrid -- so acrid, in fact, that it may be a burning heap of citrus peels that creates that smoke. At the same time, it manages to hold a creamy mouthfeel. This is good. 8/10 (Thanks for the sample, BA)