Tasting Notes:Gordon and MacPhail: Inverleven: 1991

Gordon and MacPhail : Inverleven: 1991 (Scottish Lowland Single Malt Whisky: 15 Years: 40% ABV)

Visual: A light golden hue.

Viscosity: Very slow in initial puckering, then after a while medium speed streaks break out.

Nose: Floral. Vanilla yogurt, Hay fields. Crushed white grapes. Freshly baked cakes. Fudge. The same notes but more open with water.

Body: Light. Alcohol feels stronger than it should. Lime cordial. Vanilla toffee and oatmeal cakes. A slight orange zest. Water alters to Chinese stir fry like elements, even more water makes lightly nutty and Madeira.

Finish: Oak and charring. Malt chocolate. Nuts. Water adds an unusual broccoli taste. More water adds walnut cake and Madeira.

Conclusion: This one took a bit of time to investigate. Neat it had more burn than I would expect but not heavily so. It also leaned a bit too heavily on the oak and charring in the finish, but for the most part the main body played with a light floral and sweet style that I would expect from a lowland.

So imperfect but promising so far. A lot of whisky’s don’t really show their stuff until you add a drop of the water to it, and it has a firm enough base to add to. So add a bit of water is what I did. Aaaand…

Disaster.

An odd broccoli element, and Chinese stir fry like bits. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of Chinese stir fry, but not in my whisky. So somewhat disappointed I continued on, adding a drop of water here or there as I progressed.

Here’s where it got interesting, after a while the extra water caused the stir fry elements to wane and become interspersed with light nuttiness and a moderate Madeira sweetness backing it up.  It was still a tad too charred, and I would not call it great, but it brought it back to being a whisky worth drinking.

So, no I can’t recommend it, it is never a great whisky, but if you do try it remember, no water or a reasonable chunk. In between those two poles just doesn’t work.  At best it is a passable whisky, not smooth, not balanced, but ok.

Background: So a few days after I get a link from wordpress’ Daily Post for my work on Craft Beer Reviews and what do I review? A whisky. Sometimes I wonder if I’m deliberately trying to make sure this blog never becomes popular. Anyway. This is whisky from a closed distillery, found in miniature in a whisky/wine shop is Soho. Pretty cool find.  Don’t think this whisky ever got official bottles, being used mainly in blends, so it’s up to the independent bottlers to leak it out to us. This thing was actually bottled in the year 2005 but was born 1991, the year the distillery 5closed. I’m not the hugest lowland fan, but do find it nice to try them for something a bit different, and they do have a few gems in the mix.

Oh and for beers fans, got a NZ beer review coming up next so don’t worry.