The third Longmorn of the 5 Gordon & MacPhail Reserve bottlings for Van Wees in 2011. The youngest of the bunch so far, but still a pretty old dram. I like the ‘series’ idea by Van Wees, to select more than one great cask and bottle those all at the same time. Of course, it might hamper your sales a bit, because I don’t regularly see people spending € 2200 on 5 bottles all at once.

Nose:
This one shows a bit more leather than the first one. I am comparing it to the first one, since the second one was such a diversion from the regular taste profile of Longmorn. Apart from the leather, the aroma profiles are more or less in sync, or at least cut from the same wood. And there’s a lot of wood at that! I also get a slight whiff of paint and the fruit is slightly more bitter. Some green banana peel. It doesn’t really mellow out but stays rather sharp. After about 10 minutes it does get a bit waxy.

Taste:
The body of the whisky start out rather sharp and dry with chili pepper and I thought I got a slight hint of cork. Its quite hot, but that’s because the ABV is still around 60%. Quite a lot of wood and some berries. It does get a bit more friendly after a while with brown spiced cake, peaches and apricot. With a drop of water it becomes a bit more friendly and spices, vanilla and caramel pop up.

Finish:
The finish is tremendous! The woodiness declined a bit and it has a dusty feel to it. Lots of fruit and honey, and it lasts for quite a while.

Although I almost wrote a book on this whisky, it was my least favorite of the bunch. The finish is great, but apart from that I find it too sharp and the paint scent at first put me off a bit. I don’t mind a slightly industrail aroma, but this one didn’t do it. Also, when a whisky this old is still at 60% ABV, I usually find that it becomes too hot and, in this case, it doesn’t handle water very well.

Longmorn 1969-2011, 42 years old, Gordon & MacPhail Reserve, Selected by Van Wees, 59.4%, First Fill Sherry Butt 5294. Available at Jurgen’s Whiskyhuis for € 375.99