Over a month has passed since my latest publication. For our first article of 2023, it feels right to mark the occasion with something suitably rare. How about a one-of-one bottling? Mmmmh?
Inver-Regal (43° Gay Lussac, J.H. Wham & Son (Largs), for testing purposes only, b. pre-1991): nose: there is a lot to like or dislike, here, starting with heavy, heady red-onion brine, and following on with WD-40 on old screws, and greasy rags in a mechanic's workshop. We have old tin screwcaps, that have had decades to taint the liquid in the bottle they were supposed to protect, too, though whether that is indeed what has happened, or the whisky was like that in the first place, we will never know. It opens up to reveal crisp cucumber peel and lime zest, still sprinkled with WD-40. Odd, but I like it. Red onion is still there, that has spent too long in too warm a cupboard, then hot laundry water appears. Most puzzling, but -- hey! It still works. If the laundry note scares you off, rest assured there is no FWP in sight. There is a whiff of cured ham (as in: way past its prime), in the back, that makes me think of a Port- or Madeira-cask maturation, and then old oilskins that one used to use as tablecloths, in the 1980s. The second nose has something burnt, be it caramel, tyre, or that very oilskin -- probably the latter, sprayed with droplets of Cologne, bizarrely enough. Mouth: it is much more conventional, here, with butterscotch, burnt butter, and something more root-y -- subtle liquorice, perhaps? Black-cardamom shavings? The funk of Madeira is back in no time, sweet, hairy, and with its share of burnt sugar. It is rather numbing, in the long run, and the second sip conjures up memories of Iso-Betadine, which is to say it is coating, thick, yet a tad drying at the same time. One might liken it to a chicory infusion more than a wine. Finish: full-on butterscotch, now, sweet, heady, intoxicating, even. Caster sugar and molasses team up with powdered eucalyptus; boozy toffee and sticky fudge meet ground cassia bark; a pinch of ginger powder rounds off the picture. Repeated sipping makes this seemingly sweeter and sweeter. It does retain the black-cardamom aspect, present, if certainly not overpowering. At this stage, it is balanced by rehydrated-raisin water (or prune water). It is pretty assertive, all in all, yet not one flavour outstays its welcome. Just a decent blend, really, yet not a profile one would expect to find easily, today. 7/10
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