1960’s Aultmore 12 Year Old 26 2/3 fl oz Highland Malt

Colour: Pale straw.

Nose: A wonderful old Highlands style, waxy and mineral, with a good deal of smoke and linseed oil as well as notes of stewed apples, which makes it fairly fruitier than, say old Clynelish. Also slightly floral (roses). Classic unsexy but oh-so elegant old style malt. And it’s no weak whisky!

Mouth: Again, this is surprisingly strong and assertive, as they say. Same profile as on the nose, even more Old Clynelish now. Mineral, peppery, sooty and rather mentholated, with a very distinct peatiness behind all that. Big peat in fact! I didn’t know that Aultmore could be so heavily peated in the old days, this is akin to, say a slightly lighter Talisker as far as peat smoke is concerned. Interesting and very good.

Finish: Amazingly long considering this one’s pedigree. Fifty years in glass., this was big whisky when it was bottled.

Comments: It’s simply brilliant whisky.