Generously_Paul
Invergordon 9 Year Old (Battlehill)
Single Grain — Scotland
Reviewed
April 8, 2018 (edited April 12, 2018)
Stop number 37 on the SDT is Invergordon. Like the Girvan that I recently reviewed, this distillery only produces single grain whisky. I really don't have much info on this Highland distillery, but I'm relatively sure it's main purpose is to be used in blends as you can't really find official distillery bottlings. This 9 year old bottle comes from the independent bottlers from Battlehill. Bottled at a beefy 58% ABV, non chill filtered and natural color of a pale straw.
There is an initial blast of alcohol on the nose, as is to be expected at this strength. It's very waxy, candle wax or paraffin wax. A fair amount of vanilla and grain (comes off as wheat but it could be another type of grain). Green oak and sawdust. Some honey and another hit of oak, but charred oak this time. At this point it took a turn for the worse and a very sour note emerged. Like sourdough bread. I decided to add a generous amount of water to see what would happen. More grain, oak and honey came out, but so did more of that sour note. Really off putting.
The palate arrives hot with sharp oak. Underripe stone fruits like apricots and nectarines and some bitter grapes or bad grapenuts cereal. Some bitter chocolate and perhaps burnt coffee beans. The water brought out that sourdough bread in the palate as well. A weird soap like note came through as well. Not pleasant and it actually made me a little nauseous.
The mouthfeel is hot, oily and mouthwatering. Actually a rather pleasant mouthfeel.
A medium long finish that is sour with green oak
I think I've gotten my point across that this stuff was not very good, at least not for my nose and tongue. Really unpleasant sour notes. Actually it reminded me of Craigellachie with how sour it was (I know most people rave about Craigellachie but I didn't care for it). I ended up dumping about half of the sample that Lee provided me with (sorry Lee). It was just not sitting well with me, and still isn't 30 minutes later. I can't see a time when I would buy or recommend this bottle. The initial nose and mouthfeel are the only redeeming qualities that I found. I'm giving it 2 stars and I thinks that's generous.
Cheers
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@Generously_Paul that 44 yr old was the oldest I’ve had too. Interesting to have something distilled before we were born
Nice :-)
@Soba45 we were lucky enough to try a 44 year old Invergordon (my oldest) thanks to @PBMichiganWolverine. That one could have passed as a bourbon. It was quite good
I was lucky to try a couple Invergordans recently. A 42 boutique and 43 Adephi. Both nice but the Adelphi was really good. Not that expensive from memory either. Round the $300 USD mark. Seems like a fair bit of their older stock is coming to market. The 43 year old is the oldest single malt I've had as well so double bonus!