Old Pulteney 12 Year

Very easy drinking. Has a nice fruity ending. Not smoky, not too sweet. Good middle of the road whiskey.

Seems this is the only place to review this, but I am drinking the now discontinued US edition that comes in at a drinkable 43%. Purchased at under 30 USD before tax. Real shame there's nowhere to score the 43% version separately as the gap in a 43 and 40 could be huge. Nose - vanilla, caramel, sea salt, light oak. I almost get a dry bread element here and perhaps even a raw dough. There's a bit of a sour element and good bit of heat for 43%. Nose isn't blowing my mind here. Taste - Oh it's vanilla ice cream and salt and maybe some raw cookie dough. Finish had some toasted oak and just good oak tannin that leave a medium long finish. I tend to be a bit more of a sweet lover in my whisky and while this has all kinds of sweet notes, it's the salty and savory elements that really dominate this. This however breaks that rule as I'd drink this all day everyday and it's priced so freaking well right now. It's a bit spirity (a bit more youthful than 12 would suggest), 43% and chill filtered and you can tell it's a bit lacking in mouth feel, and complexity is low. For 30 bucks get this, heck most I've seen it for is 45. If you can find the 43% bottling get it. I'm not sure the 40% is going to be awful given this does have some heat to it, but I'd rather add the drop if water myself and frankly I kinda like the lively bite a bit here. I'm going 2.0, but if I were to scale this score for the price, this is a 4.5 rating. It's so far and away at 30 bucks the best value I've ever had in scotch, but I don't think that 30 is the going rate for most and at 45 which i've seen it at, I'm a bit less blown away (that is a 50% price increase from what I paid). I could see this being a gateway scotch for a lot of people due to price and just how cool the vanillas and salts play together.

Drinking with ice. Spicier than I remember...