Miltonduff 15yo 1995/2011 (56.3%, Gordon & MacPhail Reserve imported by Classic Wines Imports for Park Avenue Liquor Shop, 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel, C#9461, 198b, AA/ABBB): nose: wood and burnt wood, hessian sacks used to carry logs to the fireplace, and, let us not beat about the bush, sulphur. Matchbox strikers, spent matches, exhaust fumes from a diesel engine, cordite, spent fireworks, charred plums, and a few vegetative whiffs to complement that (marsh gas, stagnant water, cabbage cooking water). This is clearly not for everyone. After a while, it does welcome husky and fruity notes, such as pot ale and charred orange peel, yet it is a rather challenging nose, this. With water, only the sulphur seems to persist, mineral and austere; brimstone, elemental sulphur, hot sands, dry linen. Mouth: different story on the palate, where orange, blood orange and grapefruit compete for attention, perhaps rinsed with a few drops of peach nectar... and fire! This is strong, though not exactly spicy. It is hard to describe. I find Jaffa Cakes (the lesser PiM's), orange drops, banana rum and preserved strawberries. I suppose the sulphur from the nose is there, but it is subtle, almost beyond recognition. A little charred-wood gratings, maybe? Artichoke, rose-petal jelly, fierce grapefruit juice. With water, the alcohol cools down, but so does everything else. Diluted orange-and-grapefruit juice. I cannot say it is a good swimmer! Finish: yes, charred-wood gratings, a diesel-engine's exhaust fumes, cordite, yet they take a back seat to blood orange and grapefruit. This is powerful, citric, unforgiving. A lick of culinary chocolate, melted in the microwave oven and slightly burnt, burnt toast, strong liquorice, hot tobacco ash. Water increases the chocolate note and adds liquorice-root shavings and aniseed to make it an earthier effort. The citric acidity is still present, if less pronounced. I like this better than previously. The nose is still as unwelcoming for me. That said, I know people who would love it. It redeems itself on the palate and in the finish, in my opinion. 7/10
27 July 2020
26/07/2020 One Miltonduff
Miltonduff 15yo 1995/2011 (56.3%, Gordon & MacPhail Reserve imported by Classic Wines Imports for Park Avenue Liquor Shop, 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel, C#9461, 198b, AA/ABBB): nose: wood and burnt wood, hessian sacks used to carry logs to the fireplace, and, let us not beat about the bush, sulphur. Matchbox strikers, spent matches, exhaust fumes from a diesel engine, cordite, spent fireworks, charred plums, and a few vegetative whiffs to complement that (marsh gas, stagnant water, cabbage cooking water). This is clearly not for everyone. After a while, it does welcome husky and fruity notes, such as pot ale and charred orange peel, yet it is a rather challenging nose, this. With water, only the sulphur seems to persist, mineral and austere; brimstone, elemental sulphur, hot sands, dry linen. Mouth: different story on the palate, where orange, blood orange and grapefruit compete for attention, perhaps rinsed with a few drops of peach nectar... and fire! This is strong, though not exactly spicy. It is hard to describe. I find Jaffa Cakes (the lesser PiM's), orange drops, banana rum and preserved strawberries. I suppose the sulphur from the nose is there, but it is subtle, almost beyond recognition. A little charred-wood gratings, maybe? Artichoke, rose-petal jelly, fierce grapefruit juice. With water, the alcohol cools down, but so does everything else. Diluted orange-and-grapefruit juice. I cannot say it is a good swimmer! Finish: yes, charred-wood gratings, a diesel-engine's exhaust fumes, cordite, yet they take a back seat to blood orange and grapefruit. This is powerful, citric, unforgiving. A lick of culinary chocolate, melted in the microwave oven and slightly burnt, burnt toast, strong liquorice, hot tobacco ash. Water increases the chocolate note and adds liquorice-root shavings and aniseed to make it an earthier effort. The citric acidity is still present, if less pronounced. I like this better than previously. The nose is still as unwelcoming for me. That said, I know people who would love it. It redeems itself on the palate and in the finish, in my opinion. 7/10
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