25/07/2023 Mortlach

Mortlach (70° Proof, Gordon & MacPhail, b. ca. late 1970s): nose: in one word: rustic! Piles of lichen-covered branches, cut and stacked in preparation for the winter, wood stoves, antique hot water bottles made of copper, musty dunnage warehouses, and Verdigris all feature, at one point or another. Moss-covered metal and billows of grey smoke too. Here is an old-school nose, if we ever sniffed one! Centuries-old gardening tools that were once used to work a sandy soil, saxifrage and lemon thyme growing on a lime-rich ground, and tangerine turning blue with mould. The second nose has smoked lime leaves, cured limes, and the filling for a lime meringue pie -- which is safe to assume is lime meringue. Later on, delicate nail varnish has a peek too, alongside fancy, scented-crayon shavings and subtle erasers. Mouth: one would struggle to identify the Beast of Dufftown in this. Hail Mortlach in Bourbon casks! The rustic character of the nose takes a back seat, and lets citrus roar. Pomelo, pink grapefruit, clementine, peels included, which gives a soft bitterness, and a mildly-rubbery texture. Scratching the surface, one may spot liquorice allsorts, via retro-nasal olfaction, yet this is mostly a fruity affair. The second sip has flat pomelo lemonade (did we call it pomelonade, in the past?), and turns sweeter with every passing second. Flat pomelo lemonade, now enhanced with Galia-melon juice. It gives a strong, light-green impression, fruity, bitter, acidic. It is also faintly sooty, in the long run. Finish: at an ideal strength, this has the same fruity tones as the palate, perhaps with more-pronounced rubber. It is by no means overly rubbery, yet it certainly has a chewy bitterness to counterbalance the fruit. And chewy it is! Chewy, coating, quite like citrus peel. In the back, we see combava leaves, waxy, chewy, and citrus-flavoured. Behind the fruity acidity, the second gulp somehow gives a whisper of white smoke that would be mildly acrid, it it was less subtle. Smoked Galia melon blends with pomelonade again, with just a pinch of soot to keep things interesting. This is outstanding. Perhaps I am overly generous, today, but I will score it 9/10