1901
Old Pulteney 12 Year
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed
September 19, 2020 (edited April 16, 2022)
Like getting the word “Quixotic” in Scrabble this is truly satisfying.
Nose: brine, citrus fruits, honey, dusty malt
Palate: light salt, malty, oats, orange, honey
Finish: quick and sweet
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Last 16, Match 3:
Old Pulteney 12yo versus Oban Little Bay
A tough competition with the little tyke from Oban and I did prefer the Oban’s richer, darker sherried nose. But I think the taste of OP12 is in my goldilocks zone and it bests its opponent on palate and finish. Ah, what an appealingly light and perfectly balanced dram! I think @Scott_E nailed it in his review when he called it the perfect summer beach house sipper.
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Qtr Final, Match 2:
Old Pulteney 12yo versus Isle of Skye 12yo
This time round the OP12 has a fresh and dusty smell, if that’s not a contradiction. The blend is not a bad dram at all, but OP12 knocks a hat-trick past the forlorn keeper from the Isle of Skye.
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I have too large a backlog of samples and miniatures to go through. Rather than being liberated by the banquet of choice available to me I become tyrannised and paralysed by it. But before you cry me a river, I have found a solution. I have selected sixteen scotch whiskies that are 12yrs or younger or NAS to battle it out in a Scotch Deathmatch. It’s my incentive to lighten the logjam. Follow along if you care (and really why should you?). Oh the drama!
https://challonge.com/ScotchMadness
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Update: Qtr Final, Match 2: Old Pulteney 12yo versus Isle of Skye 12yo This time round the OP12 has a fresh and dusty smell, if that’s not a contradiction. The blend is not a bad dram at all, but OP12 knocks a hat-trick past the forlorn keeper from the Isle of Skye
@cascode you are right, of course. I think i should flag my own comment as inappropriate :)
@1901 Come on mate, how can tasting a whisky ever be pointless :) Open that puppy and enjoy! As a matter of fact if you search hard you can probably still find dusty bottles of the 17 here and there. The 21 is pretty much unobtainium now, except for absurd prices on the secondaries.
@Scott_E Huddart is an OK lighted peated version of old Pulteney. It's young and the smoke comes from maturation in ex-peated Knockdhu casks, so it's mild. I thought it was OK, but not outstanding at all. It seemed to me like a competent but hesitant attempt by the distillery to jump on the "peat train" without going to all the effort of actually processing peated malt.
@1901 @cascode yes it’s unfortunate they changed a good thing. The 17 and 21 are fabulous. The 21 was the best of the night for me at Whiskyfest 2017. Wound up finding and buying 2 bottles of each (17/21). I did recently grab a bottle of Huddart. Curious about that but I suspect I will be comparatively disappointed.
@Scott_E @cascode that’s a pity to hear. I have a sample of the 17yo too which I have yet to open. Seems slightly pointless in one way as I would be unlikely to the get a bottle now if i really liked it.
I've detected a change when they "refreshed" the brand after ditching the 17 and 21 year old expressions. Something is just not the same at Pulteney any more.
One of my favorites. I believe the new “formula” is diluted down somewhat. Haven’t tried that one yet.
@1901 I heard people declaring a preference for the Old Old, but no personal experience yet. I did go out and bought a bottle of the Old Old, just in case.
@CKarmios I got it from MoM in Sept 2018 and I see online that the new range was released in Aug 2018. I’m guessing it is the Old Old, but can’t be sure. Any difference in your opinion?
Zero shenanigans here, 100% agreement on the final result. Question remains, is it the Old Old or the New Old. I’m betting you’re offloading samples hence Old Old 😉