12/09/2025 Longmorn

Longmorn 34yo 1973/2007 (54.4%, Gordon & MacPhail Cask Strength, First Fill Sherry Butt, C#3649, JG/AIG): nose: bold shoe polish is quickly overtaken by ester-y wood stain (Carbonyl, Ronseal). Then, we pause to smell woody tones, meaning treated wood, rather than wood treatment. It is no longer wood stain, but tainted wood; not lacquer, but lacquered wooden boxes. There is also a growing sense of chocolate and gingerbread; if it were not for the lack of butter and flour, one may even say a bakery. Pencil shavings and cedarwood sheets mix with a dry fortified wine, or blackcurrant liqueur. It is at once precious and dusty, elegant and faded. In one word: old. The second nose is full of wood patina, propolis and thick, dark beeswax weathered by years spent on furniture exposed to the sun rays through the window. Mouth: it is a huge attack, punchy and fiery. It is also immensely leathery, in a polished-sofa way. Minute chewing adds all sorts of Sherry influences: oranges, shoe polish, liqueur-filled chocolate. It also has a clear woody touch, with old cedarwood sheets and gingerbread. The second sip brings up some of the volatile wood-treatment products from  the initial nose (Carbonyl, Ronseal or another decking stain) and fresh-ginger shavings in chocolate. Perhaps it has one maraschino cherry too. Finish: remarkably subtle down the oesophagus, it climbs back up to drop mocha bombs at the start of the palate, right behind the top incisors. To say that is unexpected would be an understatement! After a few seconds, cigarillo smoke sets up camp, slightly acrid, mostly comfortable. The second gulp seems more-immediately characterful, and more in line with the nose and palate, in that it has woody notes off the bat, namely: furniture patina, cassia-bark splinters, decking stain, faint mocha chocolate. That last one starts out almost imperceptible, then grows with each sip. Quite different from our first encounter. Good. 8/10 (Thanks for the sample, OB)