Soba45
Blended Whisky No. 1 50 year Batch no. 5 (That Boutique-y Whisky Co.)
Single Malt — Scotland
Reviewed
November 10, 2018 (edited April 18, 2020)
The nose was fantastic. Chocolate Baileys; chocolate and caramel. The palate I had to work on. Predominantly raisin and xmas cake with a slight burnt caramel astringency and bitterness and the balance not really there.The longer you took on this one the better it got, however I wouldn't say it ever moved into the great category for me unlike the 35 year old (which I can see why that won medals). It is however the first time I've tasted whiskies in their 50's, one of the few categories older than me...a diminishing category :-). I've seen mixed reviews on this one. 3.75 for me.
Create Account
or
Sign in
to comment on this review
@Richard-ModernDrinking Ah true. They often start high quality and decline batch to batch as it gets harder to replicate...especially with ones of this age. Would have been interesting to taste the 1st batch
Actually the bottle I bought was batch 1, so it may well be a completely different blend.
@Richard-ModernDrinking Your father is a lucky man to have gifts of this calibre :-). Yes 4 is a fair score I reckon. It is very reasonably priced for it's age
This was one of three bottles adding up to 80 years that I bought my father for his birthday. From memory, I'd rate it a 4. I recall a surprising licorice note and a long finish.
@Slainte-Mhath Yes it definitely tasted like one of the casks was tanninic / bitter heavy
I think for these very old whiskies, it is important to keep in mind how much a single cask can actually add to a spirit. If I remember correctly, it is said that after 30 years in the cask, you will get mainly tannins which could even spoil a whisky. Many of the 30 years+ Caol Ila's I tried were underwhelming, and I tend to believe that older is not automatically better. There are of course exceptions, as always, but usually I find 25-30 years to be the sweet spot.
@Soba45 yeah older Armagnacs and cognacs will be much cheaper too. I think the oldest I have is a 60 yr old MoM Speysider...not many distilleries can go that far except maybe Macallan, Balvenie, Glen Grant, and Glenfarclas
@PBMichiganWolverine Yes it does make you sit back and think about what was happening 50 to 60 years ago and the people who would have laid the casks down. I have a 51 year Dumbarton lying round I think. That'll be the oldest whiskey I'll probably ever try :-). You can get really old cognacs and armagnacs for much more decent prices these days.
@Soba45 either way, you’re in a pretty exclusive category ...not often one gets to try a 50yr old whisky
@PBMichiganWolverine It might be a case of working through a bottle overtime and it opening up a bit maybe? A few people did mention this. From what I tasted though I don't think it'd make a massive difference.
This is disappointing—-I’d have expect more from a 50 yr old