22 August 2025

22/08/2025 Pittyvaich

Pittyvaich 14yo 1986/2001 (43%, Ian McLeod Chieftain's, Hogsheads, C#9519-22, 1074b, L1212BB 3 11 58): nose: it was not that way when I opened this bottle, a few months ago, but, today, it feels remarkably close to how I remember the James Macarthur bottling we had previously, which is to say wine-y and butyric, with fermented fruits macerating in cheap wine. The wine is then spilled on cardboard, and topped with sweaty Parmesan (the cheese, not a factory worker). That comes with a leather wineskin filled with red wine. It is a little game-y and leathery, as well as wine-y, even if we are not talking about sauce grand'veneur, here. It is more nuanced than that. It has dried apricots too, and, on the late tip, thick tulip petals. The second nose increases the fruits-on-cardboard note. Some of those fruits are dried, some are decaying, some were kept in a leather pouch. Deeper nosing puts the spotlight on plums and tulips, then warm, wet leather. In the long term, we have fresh dark grapes stored on a wooden shelf in a cellar. Mouth: porridge served in a leather pouch, splashed with red wine. Reads weird? It tastes it too. It is not unpleasant, mind; just unusual. A bit of chewing adds cured plums and lukewarm custard, rehydrated raisins, a dollop of shoe polish, butter cream, engine grease and an old, crackled leather jacket. The second sip welcomes more plums, fresh and cured, nectarines, peach slices, maybe even clementines. All those come both fresh and soaked in wine. If looking for them, one may find elderberry and lingonberry, and those would suggest wine, surely. Perhaps it has a pinch of cut grass too, though this is hardly a grassy number. Finish: it peddles the same raisins and cardboard in the finish too, with a splash of wine, naturally, all served in a recycled-cardboard cup. There is a sangria element to this, highlighted by the cardboard one inevitably finds where sangria is served, whether that is cardboard plates for the buffet, or cups for the drinks. Only, here, that cardboard is dusty. The second gulp adds discreet, overly-sweetened chocolate and a drop of berry liqueur. It is not Edel Tropfen by a long shot, yet it points in that direction. Repeated sipping introduces a spoonful of pineapple custard and a drop of mint filling such as the kind one finds usually in After Eight. An unconventional dram that may score higher in the right sequence. 7/10

HB ruckus!

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