I am trying (and often failing) to go for quality over quantity. With all the #StayTheFuckHome Tastings of the last year the amount of bottles has grown significantly, and while that’s not the only reason for it, it is a good one.

Also, when you don’t buy as much random stuff left and right, there might eventually be enough whisky budget left to buy that one bottle that you really, really want, instead of spending it on things that just happen to pop up on my Facebook feed.

And yes, I should not read newsletters and not look at Facebook feeds since you get triggered and you prefer to take things slower and find whiskies by more targeted searching instead of what a marketing agency pushes in your face <BREATHE> but it’s so much fun to try all these random things even though you end up with overflowing shelves and cupboards start buckling under the weight you put on them (not kidding, by the way).

Anyway, a FORTY-SEVEN year old single malt from Speyside, from a highly commended bottler. A bottle of this sets you back € 800, which is out of my league even if I would start saving money for more luxurious stuff. However, a sample was available and I bought one. 5cl of this for the price of an entire bottle of Lagavulin 16. It better be good!

Sniff:
Very gentle and highly complex. There’s no shortage of oak, but it’s also not overpowering. Semi-dried fruit. Not the rich sweetness, but also not crisp freshness. Old apples, dried peaches. Some oak spice, sawdust. A small note of nutmeg and clove.

Sip:
The palate is quite dense. Dry oaky sawdust, barley husks, oak shavings. Slightly roasty with some roasted almonds and toast. Dried apples and peaches, some baking spices. It does build up with some black pepper, but it never gets hot. Baked fruit, peach juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove.

Swallow:
The finish is, not surprisingly, very gentle with lots of fruits and quite some spices. Dried apples, peach cobbler, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove. Very long, slightly drying and fruity.

Awesome stuff, this. Absolutely gorgeous with everything happening all the time. Fruit, spices, oak. Great maturity, with all the complexity that comes with it. The oak hasn’t completely overpowered it, luckily.

93/100