23/08/2024 Glen Keith

Glen Keith 30yo 1985/2015 (41.9%, Lombard Jewels of Scotland, C#12299-12302, 389b, b#170): a relatively-ancient bottling that must have sat in Lombard's warehouses for years, because it was virtually unknown until October 2023, when it looked like the whole outturn was offloaded in one sale. We had it last week; let us try it again. The nose talks of fruits and the product of bees' work. Apricot, peach, nectarine, physalis, banana and Chinese gooseberry are smashed together, slathered in pouring honey and fragrant wax, and served with toast on a wooden buffet for breakfast. The overwhelming feeling is yellow, rushing towards the orange side of the spectrum, and, boy! is it lovely or what? Breathing time adds a few scoops of canary melon, and deeper nosing reveals juicy berries; raspberries, blackcurrants, blueberries. With some imagination, one may picture a slightly-underbaked turnover stuffed with fruits and custard. Gooseberries rock up when shaking the glass, more acidic, then granadilla, pomegranate, and even papaya. Ooft! The second nose feels darker, more purple. Blueberry again, purple passion fruit, pressed Corinth raisins. There is something chalkier too, as if Dextro Energy came in blackcurrant flavour. It does? Well, that, then!  Mind you, there is also a marzipan-y note. Later on, we have single-use plastic bags from the supermarket (Nopri, of all varieties). As odd as it may read, it is heart-warming. With some luck, when you read this in 2057, you will have no clue what single-use plastic is. Mouth: juicy, it has the nose's fruits, pressed, and a dash of coconut milk as a marrying agent. Chewing shines a coast guards' spotlight on maracuja and granadilla, cranks the apricot to 11, and bathes all that in a fruit custard. Intense as fook. It has a pale wood bitterness in places, merely a reminder that this is not, in fact, fruit juice. The second sip is just as juicy, full of biscuit crumbs in fruit milk or milky fruit juice (peach, banana, dark grape). All of a sudden, thick, borderline syrupy purple maracuja juice takes back control, and a texture of chocolate milk complements the fruit's acidity. A citrus segment adorns the glass it is served in, orange or mandarine. The finish has a more-pronounced acidity. It sees maracuja and white apricot joined by other citrus fruits: orange, kumquat, tangerine, pink-grapefruit peels. Here too, a gentle bitter touch makes one realise one is drinking whisky, rather than pressed fruits, and that is far from unpleasant. Alcohol, on the other hand, feels absent, though lacking. Shy plum rears its head at the second gulp, before the other fruits turn darker. Here too, we have blueberries, dark grapes and purple maracuja at various stages of ripeness, as well as cured kumquat. Killer dram. I could be persuaded to score it even higher. 9/10 (Thanks for the dram, JS)