Simon checking in again for sample #2 of the Craft Cellars Douglas Laing tasting. A second distillery after Blair Athol that I know nothing about. Let's get into it!
Longmorn 25 yo 1994, refill hogshead, 60.1% ABV, $750 CAD.
Lets sniff this:
Green apples. Ethanol forward... some caramel pops out. I try different angles and the ethanol is making everything pretty murky. Hard to get much more than the green apples and caramel. Not a particularly nice nose.
Cheers!
Butterscotch, syrupy. u/the_muskox who posted his review of the same bottle a few days ago on Scotchit mentions nougat and that definitely comes out now that I read that. It's got a little salty. It's got this spiky heat to it, spiky feeling in my throat. Little marzipan. Licorice. The finish is nice, it's got this leather/tobacco type of finish to it. Fairly smooth for 60% ABV.
I added a drop of water twice and both times it just turned this into a salt bomb.
Review: I've done as many gymnastics with this sample as I could, splitting it in two days, and Douglas Laing found something here that I just can't relate to. The nose isn't very enticing, the palate is nice with some complexity, it's got a cool finish, although I have to push my tastebuds to find that leathery/tobacco note. This is nice and going into this blind I'd be fairly impressed, but knowing this is $700+ CAD bottle, it's a big let down far as my tastebuds are concerned. Landing on a 75 here. It's not boring but yeah. The Douglas Laing tasting notes advertises this as a candy factory. I reviewed an 18 yo Strathisla recently that had all those candy factory notes and that was a special experience. Couldn't find anything remotely close to that on this Longmorn.
Cheers!
Simon from the S&P crew.
Comments