Jose-Massu-Espinel
MacNair's Lum Reek Peated 21 Year
Blended Malt — Scotland
Reviewed
February 18, 2023 (edited February 19, 2023)
Awarded as 2020's best Blended Malt, Lum Reek is an offering from the Hall of Fame Master Distiller and Blender, Billy Walker. Yes, the same genius behind Glendronach and GlenAllachie nowadays.
Lum Reek tells the story of MacNair, who was making a fine whisky but the lum (chimney) of his house went out of control and started smoking the whole place. Eventually that smoke entered the glass of his own whisky and when he tasted it, he said that it was now perfect.
It is bottled at 48%abv, and it is a Peated Speyside Blended malt with a lovely golden color.
On the nose, it is quite lovely. Cotton candy, chocolate, almonds and a pecan pie. Cotton socks, fondant. After a first sip, the aroma changed into red apples, suspiros (hard meringue) and dulce de leche. Apricots.
On the palate, rich flavors of caramelized apples. Beautiful spiciness, pepper and salt. After a few sips it becomes very salty, hay and grassy.
Aftertaste gave me a minuscule puff of aromatic smoke, but only on the first sip. Hay, salt and cinnamon. It is actually very grassy and super salty.
Overall, i can tell that this is the type of whisky that wins awards easily. It is super enjoyable, rich, rounded and clean. The problem with it, is that it is called "Lum Reek" which translates to a stinky chimney, but it has almost no smoke at all!. Having said that, this is actually delicious. My score for it is 89/100.
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