1/01/2019 Start as you mean to go on

This is the time bloggers tend to round up the recently-deceased year, list their favourite drams, festivals and producers, complain about the increase in prices and the drop in quality.
Long may that continue. That draws the attention away from the fact that there has probably never been as much great whisky at great price as nowadays. It seems to me that those bloggers are not looking in the right direction. I reckon what they are really looking for is their own innocence, when the release of a new batch of Aberlour A'Bunadh at £50 was an event  to be excited about and when they were happily ignorant of the launch of pixilated, price-inflated Dalmore collections.

I had something noble and desirable in mind, but I am not feeling quite one hundred percent, today (I blame GL and OB for giving me the Southeast-Asian flu, on Sunday). We will have something perhaps more pedestrian, but oh! so good.

64.32 10yo 2001/2011 Nutty delights (59.1%, SMWS Society Single Cask, 1st Fill ex-Bourbon Barrel, 245b): ah! My early days at the SMWS, when every bottle was exciting and fresh. And, to be fair, they were exciting. I remember trying to tick boxes, in those days -- Mannochmore? Never had one! Little did I know that the SMWS would release one a month, since then -- all good too, though the ones from the early days have a special place in my memory. This one is no exception. Nose: all sorts of woods, nuts and seeds. In no particular order, this has almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame, cocoa-bean shells, Brazil-nuts, raw rice, walnut vinegar, crushed pecans, balsa wood and curry leaves. It also has a touch of oilskin, before a gently-metallic note surfaces (gun oil on gun metal), alongside crushed clove. After the first sip, the nose brings boiled sweets, candied apple and minty chewing gum. Mouth: juicy and rather woody, the mouth has a good dose of spice (black pepper, black cumin, cloves), sprinkled on nuts (walnuts, Brazil nuts, crushed macadamia nuts). Walnut grows in intensity through retro-nasal olfaction, with the bitterness of walnut skins taking control of the sides of the tongue and the gum around the upper canines. The second sip is sweeter, with cotton candy, cherry drops, cough lozenges, hot mince pies and sweetened marmalade. Finish: full-on walnut, including the bitter skin, though that is quickly joined by fudge, caramel cream and liqueur praline. It numbs the palate a bit, this remarkably long finish. Funnily enough, it seems to verge towards overly woody; bizarre at this modest age. It walks the straight and narrow, though, flirting with old wood, splinters, liquorice root, yet never turning completely plank-y. Here too, the second sip is much sweeter, with berries jam and caramel, though it does not shake off the walnut/wood bitterness entirely. Excellent drop. For the age and the introduction price, this was a nice surprise when it came out. I still like it! 8/10

Happy new year!