One of the great things about attempting to try a sample of every active Scottish distillery is that you learn a lot of things about places you never knew really existed, and in our case, you get to try whisky from distilleries that aren’t readily available in our area. The bad part- you find out that quite a few of these distilleries belong exclusively in blends. Sadly, this is one of the latter: Mannochmore. Specifically, the Diageo Flora & Fauna released, 12 year old.
Mannochmore was founded in 1971 by John Haig & Co, in the Speyside town of Elgin. It was mothballed in 1985, while later re-opening in 1995 on a crazy year-on/year-off schedule with the neighboring Glenlossie Distillery. They shared employees for many years, until Mannochmore was fully staffed and resumed a full-time operating schedule in 2008, under Diageo. They have an annual production of 3.2 million liters, with their stuff going primarily into Haig Club blends. They are also a part of the Flora & Fauna releases from Diageo- check out a video on YouTube from Aqvavitae about the entire F&F series- it’s a fun and informative program.
Moving on, this whisky is bottled at 43%, has color added and is chill-filtered. It’s light gold and produces lots of oily legs in the Glencairn when you give it a spin.
The nose is very buttery with hints of young oak and light florals. I even detected some yellow cake mix in there on subsequent sips. The palate is also reminiscent of buttered popcorn with a medium, mouthfeel that turns to harsh oak rather quickly. There isn’t any depth or complexity to this malt at all, the butter notes quickly turn somewhat rancid and unenjoyable. I even dumped the last 0.5oz or so into the sink. The finish was medium length with a continued theme of bitter oak and butter.
Overall, I can’t see why Diageo would want to showcase this malt in the Flora & Fauna series- this one is clearly not something I’d want to celebrate- much less add to a blend. Oh well, they know something we all don’t and it remains an operating distillery. I’d avoid this one altogether. 1.5-1.75 stars. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go chug a bottle of hot sauce to get this butter taste out of my mouth. Thanks to my friend @PBMichiganWolverine for wasting his money on this so I didn’t have to. Cheers.
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@LeeEvolved yeah you’re right. The good with the bad.
@PBMichiganWolverine - I guess that’s to be expected when not only did we have to buy these from the UK- we also chose the cheapest bottles available. It’s hard to expect 4 stars from a $35-50 bottle that is collecting dust on shelves in London lol.
@Telex @LeeEvolved I’m struggling in this round...I think a lot of these sub-par makes just got me lately disengaged
I am happy just to get a chance to try at least. :) I have the Inchgower and Teaninich ff coming in the next round.
@Generously_Paul @PBMichiganWolverine - while it really is cool to be trying all of these obscure, non-USA distributed malts I gotta say they sure aren’t very tasty. I guess that’s why they don’t bother shipping them across the Atlantic haha.
@LeeEvolved @Generously_Paul the Pittyvaich 12 we have in this round is Fauna & Flora as well.
Indeed I do have the Blair Athol 12. Heard good tings so I hope it helps make the final(ish) round better than this one has been so far
@Slainte-Mhath - I believe @Generously_Paul has a bottle of the Blair Athol F&F for our tour group coming up. So, I hope that redeems this one. I had a 17yo Benrinnes not too long ago and found it pretty solid. Cheers.
@LeeEvolved - you’re in the zone Lee. Now, if you could only make some money off this somehow. :)
Funny that you mentioned Aquavitae's video - I also thought it was a great summary of the Flora & Fauna range. I will buy a bottle of Benrinnes 15 yo soon, and I also put Blair Athol 12 yo, Dailuaine 16 yo and the excellent Rosebank 12 yo on my list. Hopefully, they will be much better than this malt!
Great review, as ever. Good call on Aquavitae's video too - it's an excellent summary of the Flora & Fauna range.