Colour: White wine.
Nose: Farmy peat, iodine, sea salt, citruses notes and wood smoke. It’s powerful and perfectly balanced. (No alcohol presence)
Mouth: The alcohol is well integrated and the texture is pretty oily. White and yellow fruits notes perfectly integrated with hints of delicate smoke, sea salt, iodine, farmy peat and some lovely honey notes in the background. Very balanced.
Finish: Long. Here the farmy peat and the coastal notes are more powerful than the rest. There is still this delicate campfire on the beach notes that lingers longer than anything else.

Thank you Flo to share this bottles from « The Cage » with us. That’s a great pick, we loved it!

Score: 90

Colour: Dark copper with lighter hues.
Nose: Flower honey, leather, raisins, nutmeg, noble wood, waxy notes, hints of eucalyptus freshness. It seems to be a pretty round sherry.
Mouth: The alcohol integration is quite good but could have been better and the texture is quite thick. Candied oranges, raisins, hints of candle wax, leather, caramelized notes, citruses freshness and some drying notes from the wood. Pretty good!
Finish: Long. It’s pretty much the same profile than the mouth.

I tasted the sister from 2018 and i liked it! This one is good too but I preferred the 2018 one which has the distillate more present, while this one is more round and sherried.

Score: 89

Colour: Light gold with coppery hues.
Nose: Orange zest, lemony notes, fruity marmelade, wood notes, everything is perfectly integrated. A gentleman dram, full of balance and delicateness. It cant hide is oldness by the way, delicious!
Mouth: The alcohol integration is perfect and the texture is very oily. What a nice white and yellow fruits basket. I can’t find whose are those fruits since it’s so well integrated but it’s beautiful. A nice « old dram » profile, dry and fruity. Citruses notes at the end of the mouth and hints of delicate smoke. There are even some OBE notes.
Finish: Long. Fruity and malty with some citruses freshness. The OBE notes are lingering forever, delicious

Just by tasting this you can say it’s old. The integration and balance are just awesome. What a nice find!

Score: 91

Colour: White wine.
Nose: Waxy notes and a lot of ripe tropical fruits. Pineapples, mangoes, bananas and guavas.
Mouth: The alcohol integration is perfect and the texture is very oily. Over-ripe mangoes, bananas and fresh pineapples adding some acidity to the mix. At the end of the mouth rises some mineral notes balancing perfectly this profile with chalk, I love it!
Finish: Here the chalk and mineral notes are way more present and the fruitiness is still very powerful. Very interesting complexity.

A very nice multi-layered Ben Nevis 1966, one of the best in my book! Everything is present and mastered. I did not mention that it’s highly quaffable but well… It is!

Score: 91

Colour: Mahogany with dark gold hues.
Nose: It’s round and sherried. Coffee, chocolate, old cigar box, leather, caramelized almonds, dusty books, OBE notes, old wood and bitter cocoa. There is shy fruity notes on the background, can’t find more fruitiness in the nose.
Mouth: There are a lot of layers in this mouth. Firstly it starts on dry sherry notes with coffee beans, leather, dusty library and old cigar box. Then arrives bursts of tropical fruits coated bitter chocolate with those sherried notes. Pineapples than mangoes and lastly passion fruits, that’s beautiful!
Finish: Very very long and evolutive too. The fruity notes are more shy and on the background. Very dry sherry, old wood, polish, dusty leather, coffee beans and bitter cocoa.

That’s just beautiful, it’s clearly the best sherried irish whisky I ever tasted! If I have to say something more I’d say that I would have loved more fruitiness in the profile. Other that that everything is perfect, the balance, power and especially complexity is top notch!

Score: 92

Colour: Deep gold.
Nose: Coastal and aerial peat, sea salt, powerful brine, hints of lemon, citruses and white pepper. Delicious. No alcohol presence of course.
Mouth: The alcohol integration is perfect and the texture is very oily and thick. Wow, what a smash in your face! It’s powerful and balanced. The coastal notes are very present with fresh brine, a lot of sea salt, iodine, wood smoke, hints of lemons and perfectly integrated aerial peat. At the end of the mouth th wood smoke becomes more present and there is some white pepper notes. This is a perfectly integrated and powerful old Islay profile, pure joy!
Finish: In a perfect harmony with the mouth at start and it evolves slowly towards a more smoky, spicy and peaty finish. It’s just lovely.

This is a truly wonderful Port Ellen with nearly every box checked. What a smash in the face to nearly end this line-up! It’s clearly more of a one trick pony than the Maria Label that was less brutal and more complex than this one but those are equally enjoyable to say the least!

Score: 92

Colour: Light gold.
Nose: The alcohol is a bit more present than the last one. Mainly aerial peat that overwhelms a bit the rest. Lemons, coastal notes, melted fruits, leather, dusty books, delicate smoke and hints of waxy notes on the background.
Mouth: The alcohol is well integrated. Aerial peat but it’s a bit too present in the profile. It’s a bit less integrated and complex than the PE. Pears, peaches, meaty notes, wood smoke, white pepper and brine.
Finish: Long. Still mainly on the aerial peat, delicate wood smoke and brine with hints of lemons. Very good!

It’s less straightforward that the PE but still very very good. It’s more of an old gentleman in there, still full of complexity.

Score: 91