This bottle is from one of the more expensive bottle shares I did last year. Initially it was a bit painful (financially) that it didn’t sell out, but at this moment I am glad it didn’t.

It’s not often anymore that bottles from 1975 come by, which results in The Whisky Agency having become one of the slowest bottlers to release stuff at the moment. This unnamed distillery from Speyside (of which we generally know what that means) was distilled years before I was born (6, to be exact) and spent an awesome 40 years in a Fino cask.

Shamefully there aren’t too many Fino casks out there, which I would love to see remedied. Fino is a weird kind of sherry with a nose that’s generally quite different from the palate. But when the casks are used for whisky maturation, I generally am interested since almost all of those whiskies are friggin’ amazing.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Dusty peach skins and a bit of warmth from the 55%. That typical scent of flinty fino sherry, which is gorgeous. Some chalky notes and match heads, in a very good way. Soft stone fruits, apricots, reine claude plums. Quite intense, especially for this age.

Sip:
A touch of peppery heat at the arrival, but the slightly sweet stone fruits comes right after. That chalky, flinty note of the Fino sherry again, and after that there’s more heat. The alcohol seems to reactivate. Lots of fruit and gentle oak influences. Dry and sweet, with loads of fruit. Is that guava?

Swallow:
The big and bold finish with most of the flavors amped up a bit more. Incredibly fruity, but also some soft grains and oak. Long, flavorful and those white-ish stone fruits are great. Maybe some lychee as well?

So, an incredibly fruity dram in which I kept discovering new flavors with every sip. It started with (wild) peaches and apricots, then came reine claudes, guava and even lychee. Underneath all this awesome fruitiness there’s a flinty, chalky dustiness that is quite typical of fino sherry in my view. Add some minor grain notes and a gentle oakiness and you’ve got yourself a dram you wish you’d bought more of.

93/100

Speyside Region, 1975-2016, 40yo, Fino Sherry Butt, 55%, The Whisky Agency (Good Vibes). Available on Whiskybase for 440 euros.