Finally got my hands on something really really nice and I’m astonished with the way the Mortlach 12 impressed me. The aroma basis is classic sweet and warm with toffee, butterscotch, rich caramel and probably a drop of a sweet musk. It also has a rather unusual notes of toasted chestnuts, citron sweets, subtle cigar smoke (like in perfume) and even pine needles, what makes the smell a little bitter. The taste is a logical follow-up to the aroma as it’s powerful, warm, spicy and it’s like saturated with the sweetness of raisins, dried apricots, caramel, nuts, butterscotch and it reveals some oriental delights in the background. It just knocked me down for a few seconds so I wouldn’t probably call this whisky smooth. Hence it leaves me in a position where it’s hard to gauge the balance of the whisky as it has this overwhelming sweet power though it delivers some bitter notes in the end. Finish is really bitter and hart-hitting. The aftertaste lingers for a while with that bitter sweet flavor of a honey mixed with a tar. And, well, caramel. Sorry for not mentioning it once again. It has its own style and this special heavily sweet mood which is might be more typical to armagnacs. Does it live up to its name of “The Beast of Dufftown”? I doubt it not.