Aberfeldy 15yo d.1978 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#7799): nose: assertive, even bold (those were my initial words the first time, almost verbatim), not boisterous, this nose has green hazelnuts and springwood, blossoms and all. We have lots of yellow-flower shrubs too, such as kerria Japonica and forsythia, but also meadow flowers, dandelions and buttercups being the most obvious. In fact, they leave little room for corn-flowers. There is a mineral side to it too, with flint and polished granite, straight from a tombstone carver's shop window. Further in the back, sweet lozenges appear, faintly mentholated -- very faintly. Despite the greenness and the promise of flower-stem bitterness, this bouquet is quite elegant in a flighty way. Further nosing reveals hard-boiled eggs (distant, and still in their shells) and oak leaves. The second nose has autumnal fruits: nuts, of course, yet also apples, now. Have six months just passed over the course of one sip? The change in seasons seems to suggest it. It is now also sweeter and has an unexpected drop of engine oil. Mouth: the entrance is bitter, as expected, combining dandelion-stem sap and unripe hazelnut. It only takes a moment for them to come closer to an unsweetened almond paste and nut skins. Oh! the bitterness does not go away, but it is entirely acceptable. Chewing on the whisky makes it sweeter; not marzipan-y, but sweeter than it initially was anyway. The nut skins morph into nut shells, nuttiness and bitterness included. The texture is creamy and pleasant. The second sip sees sweet-citrus peels. In other words: acidity joins the bitterness. We see calamansis, mandarins, pink grapefruit. Wonderful stuff! Finish: here, the nuts are well ripe. They are also sprinkled with caster sugar, which means the bitter aspect almost disappears, replaced by an interesting earthiness. Walnut shells, almond shells, almond cream (imagine an almond-flavoured sort of Bailey's). Repeated sipping may add a drop of citrus juice, yet it remains largely similar, dishing out sweetened nuts, earthy cream and, this time, tulip petals alongside caramel. Excellent 'feldy. Those notes are quite different from the first time we had this dram, which illustrates the influence of position in a sequence, probably. 8/10
Happy birthday, FD!
No comments:
Post a Comment