Halfway through January I went to De Whiskykoning’s Bottoms Up tasting. He put out all open bottles that got too low to use in a tasting and we were allowed to randomly pick a number of drams for tasting. I guess there were about 250 options available to us, so we were spoilt for choice.

Near the end of the tasting I spotted this Old Pulteney from 1990. A fairly magical year for the distillery, since a lot of the ‘whisky of the year’ thingies Pulteney Distillery has won was for either 1989 and 1990 distillates.

I asked whether I could take the tail end of the bottle with me in trade for a yet-to-be-decided-upon sample, and that was okay. Yesterday I decided it was time for this one to be emptied properly.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Marram grass and salty coastal notes. Some vanilla and American oak, even slightly floral and dry. Sand, pastry cream and straw.

Sip:
The palate is sharp (it was my first dram of the evening, so that didn’t help) and dry. Straw, marram grass, vanilla. Oak and some fresh yellow fruit (apple, pineapple). Quite sweet and salty.

Swallow:
The finish is quite full, like the palate, with lots of coastal notes and fruit. Pineapple, apple, salt, sand, grass, windy beaches. Very lightly earthy and some more oak than before.

Well, this is a real Old Pulteney, and I can see where the 20+ year old editions come from. Those are slightly less crisp and a bit more oaky, but in general they are in the same vein.

A very solid whisy, this. To think this stuff used to cost about 30 guilders when it came out (about 14 euros) is hard to imagine. Note to self: if I ever see Old Pulteney from this vintage in an auction and I have some money to spend… It’s very good stuff, this.

88/100

Old Pulteney 10, 1990-2001, 57.8%, Hart Brothers