Auchentoshan and me have a bit of a weird history. Not a long one, mind. When I started my whisky journey and bought loads of starter whiskies, I really like Auchentoshan 10. Since there was so much out there, there weren’t many bottles I bought duplicates of, except for Lagavulin 16. So it was a couple of years before I got my hands on another Auchentoshan.

That was an 18 year old Sherry cask, which was quickly followed by the 17 year old Bordeaux cask, and the 16 year old Bourbon cask. After that, they’ve only come by in some bottle shares, or when I got a sample for reviewing.

A while ago, when Whiskybase’s 1972 Invergordon was released I ordered those. Whiskybase are a bunch of nice guys and they toss in a sample or two from their own Archives series most times. This time, it was this Auchentoshan.

Sniff:
Lots of straw and hay, some vanilla and grass. Quite spirity for a whisky of this age. Warm apples, but also some flowers, wild flowers. It get more and more perfumy as I let it sit.

Sip:
Sweet at first, and quite rich. Then I get white pepper and perfume. Oak, and flowers. Fairly sharp for the reasonably low ABV. Dry and dusty.

Swallow:
The finish is dry and dusty, and rather chemical. Sweet, with oak and perfume.

The nose started out pretty nice with straw and grass hints. Something you’d expect from a properly aged Lowlands whisky. Unfortunately, the dreaded perfumy notes come in after a little while. That seems to be something that’s plagued Morrisson-Bowmore in the eighties and to some extent, the early nineties. A shame, really.

So, as you might guess from the above paragraph, I’m not really enjoying this one. The perfume scents and flavors get the overhand quite quickly, and they don’t go away give time.

Obviously, if you happen to like those perfumy flavors, I know some people do, this is a great bottling for you. As for me, I’ll skip…

79/100

Auchentoshan 11/11/1990 – 09/2014, 23yo, Hogshead, 47.7% – Archives (Indian Ducks and Their Allies). Available from Whiskybase for € 135

Thanks to Whiskybase for putting the sample in with an order! Great service!