Tullibardine 25 (1993) Small Batch (1 Barrel) (Cadenhead's)

Opening the sample bottle I was struck immediately by how fragrant this is. Flowery, fruit nectar and general sweetness. Can’t wait to dive in! Nose, after resting, has manuka honey, cooked pear and apples, honeydew, vanilla and some really interesting spices I can’t nail down. Palate is light, a little creamy, oil, waxy, with sweet pears, honeydew, some tropical fruits and those interesting spices. Finish is on the longer side with sweet fruits and mild spices. Doesn’t quite live up to the initial blast of notes out of the bottle, but very good. Empty glass combines all the best notes and is divine for a brief few moments. Thanks to @ContemplativeFox for the sample.

Rating: 18/23 I opened this to celebrate getting my second shot of the CoViD vaccine! It seemed like a sweet, necary treat was warranted under the circumstances. N: I get a grassy maltiness with a bit of honey and maybe milk. P: Immediately, a (white?) peppery burn hits me with some light dry grass notes and maybe some ginger and clove. I can't decide whether I think the white pepper comes across as harsh. I'm not impressed by this initial wave of heat, except by the fact that it's coming from a 45.4% scotch, which I'd thought would be much milder. This initial hit reminds me a bit of my bottle of Glen Grant 26 (1992) bottled by Cárn Mór and also of a 26 year old single grain. Getting past that though, I get some sweet, rich, nectary, tropical flavors. Honey, banana, pear, baked apple. A little bit of cinnamon starts coming out after a bit, though the white pepper certainly lingers. Aside from the burn, the herbal element from the white pepper adds some nice balance to keep this from being overly sweet. It's think and kind of oily in a way that goes great with the honey, completing its bitter side. The oiliness also weirdly reminds me of an Irish whiskey. There's a bit of watered down milk hanging out around the bottom of this too that blends into a little bit of musty vanilla funk that reminds me of Westward. I won't say that this is terribly complex, but it is really tasty with its sweet, full, tropical fruitiness. F: The white pepper lingers along with the ginger and clove, the last of which is quite numbing. I get a hint of turmeric as well and a little teensy bit of cinnamon might have made it in. Hints of tropical fruits make it through as well and even a little bit of that oily honey remains. The long finish gets really herbal and grassy. - Conclusion - This is a great, but not amazing, scotch. Side by side with Glenfarclas 25, I find the Glenfarclas to be more put-together and also more complex and decadent. This really suffers a bit from its white pepper burn. That is just too strong for the rest of it and doesn't quite fit in. This does have a really nice maturity (aside from maybe the white pepper) and it's sweeet and full in a kinf of decadent way. The oiliness and fruitiness makes me think of Irish whiskey, so I compared it with Yellow Spot. Yellow Spot tastes immature and thin in comparison. The Yellow Spot oiliness doesn't taste as good because it doesn't have a nice honey flavor to blend into. The tropical fruitiness definitely tastes so much more robust here as well, though the Yellow Spot may be a bit more complex in this regard. The Yellow Spot tastes more youthful though, with more of its alcohol showing through. This is far better than Springbank 12 Cask Strength and Tyrconnell 15 Madeira doesn't stack up either. With all of that taken into consideration, there is no way that this is less than an 18, seeing as how it clearly beats Yellow Spot (17 (though sometimes 18)). A 20 seems as high as this could go though. Most likely, it will be an 18 or 19 when the bottle is killed. I'm starting with an 18, after much consideration.