To round off this prolific year, we will have a dram from a distillery that we had to stop ignoring, in 2025.
Ben Nevis 26yo 1998/2025 (43.2%, Hannah Whisky Merchants Lady of the Glen Rare Cask, Refill Hogshead, C#176, 276b): nose: blimey! It is a fruity one, overflowing with orchard fruits and berries; Golden Delicious apples, Comice pears, golden raspberries, cloudberries and rehydrated dried strawberry slices. With a bit of time, it even supplies timid tropical fruits: dragon fruit, mangosteen, breadfruit, cherimoya -- phwoar! Have we got a winner, here, or what? It has an extremely-discreet metallic note too, and, in typical Ben Nevis fashion, a whisper of mud and a drop of heady wine. With intent, one may detect a pinch of ash, or a dusty ball of modelling wax. Fruits completely dominate the conversation, though. Tilting the glass strangely pushes sugo al ragù (or Bolognese sauce, as non-Italians tend to call it), fennel seeds and all. The second nose is even fruitier. It is augmented with nail varnish (of the edible kind, if that exists), plasticine and a dash of pink-grapefruit-and-pineapple juice. That makes for a lovely pastry. Mouth: funky fruits is the short answer. Wine-cured apples and quinces, apricots being dried, perhaps papaya. This time, those fruits have competition, however: the palate takes us to Roland Garros, all clay court and crushed bricks. Chewing unleashes a torrent of exotic fruits, papaya and mango first, snakehead fruit, chikoo and breadfruit in tow. There is something bitter to this as well -- thankfully not shampoo: something closer to windscreen defroster. The second sip confirms: it is modestly stripping, more squeegee than industrial cleaning agent. However, it takes but a microscopic movement for fruits to come back all guns blazing. We welcome citrus into the mix, this time, satsuma, shaddock, calamondin and sweet lemon meet papaya, longan and chikoo. Finish: more fruity debauchery. A custard-y yoghurt with cherimoya, sugar apple, mango, papaya, longan, dragon fruit all blended in. It takes a little imagination to find minute cigarette smoke, scented plasticine and clay. Actually, it is Tartan track or another rubber surface more than clay court, now. In any case, it is a medium-long finish with just a little (enough) warmth, a subtle yoghurt-y texture (coconut yoghurt, for accuracy) and just a milky lick of white wood. The second sip adds chocolate milk or cocoa made with coco to make one cuckoo. Satsumas are also present, as are golden kiwis. Mud makes a tentative re-appearance, probably clay, in fact, as it is borderline rubbery, but it is very tame indeed, soon forgotten, behind a river of tangerine pulp and smashed mango, rectified with a drop of pressed kumquat. Phwoar again! 9/10 (Thanks for the sample, SW)
No comments:
Post a Comment