25/05/2021 Strathisla

Strathisla 15yo (100° Proof, Gordon & MacPhail, b.1970s): not sure if this is the version with stencilled flowers or not. Nose: the perfect balance of encaustic/wood polish and wine influence. We have drinks cabinets, teak coffee tables, pickled onions, leather grease (the kind one uses to waterproof a coat), plenty of rancio, and, on the late tip, lichen-covered staves. In the medium term, sangria materialises, teeming with macerated fruits -- orange rinds, berries, peaches, plums, perhaps apricots too, closer to dried than juicy, however. I really want to smell smoke in this, but I do not think I can. Even later, that impression of onions, pickled in red-wine vinegar comes back with a vengeance. This time, it is accompanied by older, dryer wood (old bookshelves) and old newspapers, kept in a damp cellar. There might even be a whisper of old cardboard, on the second nose. The addition of water brings sulphur into the picture, with spent matches, cooled off in cold water, black cumin seeds and nigella seeds. I would go further and diagnose charred raspberries. Mouth: ooft! This is lively and punchy. It is also ample, woody, laden with tannins, and pickled red onions. Decaying plums feature too, antique teak bookshelves crumbling apart (it may be mahogany, but it was too good a pun to pass), and rancio, in the back. After thirty seconds on the tongue, it reveals itself for the old lady it is, with old wood (sawdust, yellowed newspapers) and old liqueurs (plum, elderberry). This is definitely not an easy palate: it is acidic (vinegar), bitter (wood), and, if it is not austere in the mineral way (no chalk nor limestone, no flint either), it certainly is not openly welcoming. Charming, though. As it did for the nose, water pushes charred, sulphur-y notes forward; marinated spare ribs left for hours on the barbecue, until they crumble out of their own accord, nigella seeds, and charred herbs (rosemary, chiefly). Finish: remarkably soft on the way down, milky (full-fat milk, if you please) and velvety, it nonetheless reminds one of its other characteristics, namely old wood (sawdust, newspapers) and wine (red-wine vinegar, pickled onions). The second sip brings fruit into the mix, yet it is fruit that has spent an extended period in wine or liqueur. Plums, peaches, greengages, mirabelle plums, apricots, green gooseberries. are all soaked beyond recognition, made acidic and bitter, as if unripe, by a nasty young red wine (cheap sangria) or red-wine vinegar. Water tones down the vinegar acidity, which allows timid berries to come out, but they are charred too. Again, I find dried raspberries, left to char on the grille until they are but a heap of black ash. 7/10 (Thanks for the sample, SA and JW)