dhsilv2
Old Pulteney 12 Year
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed
October 21, 2019 (edited June 23, 2020)
Seems this is the only place to review this, but I am drinking the now discontinued US edition that comes in at a drinkable 43%. Purchased at under 30 USD before tax. Real shame there's nowhere to score the 43% version separately as the gap in a 43 and 40 could be huge.
Nose - vanilla, caramel, sea salt, light oak. I almost get a dry bread element here and perhaps even a raw dough. There's a bit of a sour element and good bit of heat for 43%. Nose isn't blowing my mind here.
Taste - Oh it's vanilla ice cream and salt and maybe some raw cookie dough. Finish had some toasted oak and just good oak tannin that leave a medium long finish.
I tend to be a bit more of a sweet lover in my whisky and while this has all kinds of sweet notes, it's the salty and savory elements that really dominate this. This however breaks that rule as I'd drink this all day everyday and it's priced so freaking well right now. It's a bit spirity (a bit more youthful than 12 would suggest), 43% and chill filtered and you can tell it's a bit lacking in mouth feel, and complexity is low.
For 30 bucks get this, heck most I've seen it for is 45. If you can find the 43% bottling get it. I'm not sure the 40% is going to be awful given this does have some heat to it, but I'd rather add the drop if water myself and frankly I kinda like the lively bite a bit here.
I'm going 2.0, but if I were to scale this score for the price, this is a 4.5 rating. It's so far and away at 30 bucks the best value I've ever had in scotch, but I don't think that 30 is the going rate for most and at 45 which i've seen it at, I'm a bit less blown away (that is a 50% price increase from what I paid). I could see this being a gateway scotch for a lot of people due to price and just how cool the vanillas and salts play together.
29.95
USD
per
Bottle
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@dhsilv2 you're spot on regarding the VFM. Available and affordable. Nice review - I'd give it and the comment discussion 4*. Or maybe 2* ;-)
@Soba45 I'm more focused on me knowing it for me I guess. If I can help others too, great. But I'd rather offer tasting notes to others than the score itself. Now with Uber yeah sure give them a 5. Meanwhile on my preformance reviews...a 3.0 is good and I'm unlikely get higher or score my reports higher.
@PBMichiganWolverine Yeah it's a hard one. I think personally it's a bit of a blend of personal and conforming to an understood rating. I'm really not a fan of people rating everything 5 or close to as it's meaningless as to if it's good or not. But then you get Uber where if they are below a 4.5 or something they lose their job...so you need to conform. I've generally tried to hue to the generally understanding of what a rating is as if you have to explain your rating system to everyone / they are constantly misinterpreting it then it gets back to the point of what your trying to achieve in the first place by your rating which for me is to convey if I like something or not.
@dhsilv2 I like your system! Wish I had the funds to try the rare scotches! Maybe after grad school!
@PBMichiganWolverine well I hope I'm more consistent than that russian judge! :) But yeah, can't believe people think I'm going to skew the scores...
@dhsilv2 my personal belief—-you can score whatever you want...it’s just distilled barley and grains...we’re not scoring the Olympics here
@WhiskeyLonghorn my use of 2's as still darn good whiskies throws some people. I just need more room to score the exceptional whiskies of the world and frankly I don't think you need a lot of room to score whisky if it's bad, it's under 1 star and I'm done with it. But you need a way to seperate a well made 10 dollar bourbon and a life changing 1,000+ dollar scotch. I can't give one a 3 and the other a 5. A quality 1 or 1.5 for the bourbon and a 5 for the scotch or maybea 4.75 (can anything be perfect? and I have given a 5) feels more accurate to me.
You had me worried for a second there with the 2.5. Love this dram! Glad you enjoyed it too. Agreed that it’s an incredible value for what you get. I can only find the 40% version in my market and I’d still re-buy easily.