Sherry Monster: Mortlach 17 Year (malt trust)

As party of my recent bachelor party, Dodgydrammer picked up a bottle of Mortlach 17 year bottled by Malt Trust. It’s been collecting dust for a few months now and I thought it was well past time to pull it out for a proper tasting (we were all much to drunk, with shot palettes from some tasty Laphroaig 15 year – my favorite single malt – to make good tasting judgments when we first cracked the bottle).

Here’s what I got recently in a second go-round:

Mortlach 17 Year

Mortlach 17 Year bottled by Malt Trust
Single Barrel, Natural Cask Strength
59.6%ABV
Cask #4718, Bottle Number 380
Distilled November 1988, Bottled March 2006.

Nose: All sherry. Not quite as smooth as The Macallan, more attacking. At 59.6% ABV, you can’t get your nose in too close or the alcohol kills you. Other tasters suggest spice and a hint of fruit, and the official notes say spice and coffee, but I’m not getting them.
Color: Amber/Bronze
Taste: Hugely sherried – it’s the only taste that can overcome the hotness of the ABV.
Palate: syrup, substantial and very hot
Finish: Long, slow fade on the sherry, very prickly from the high ABV. Almost distractingly so.

With a dash of water added:

Nose: It’s still a sherry monster, but a few coffee notes have crept in as the alcoholic edge takes a back seat.
Taste: Sherry continues to dominate, but it is quickly followed by warm spicyness. Rather than attacking, the dram is now warm and inviting.
Finish: Not quite as long with the sherry and spices fading to a light caramel before disappearing altogether. With just a tiny amount of water, the pricklyness is also gone.

The ABV on this bottle is a little prohibitive to enjoying a glass neat, but it opened up nicely with a little water. Still, it’s not a hugely complex scotch as the sherry continues to dominate the nose, taste and finish.

youth to power, or too powerful?

Here’s an article we liked about the new prevalence of younger whiskies among distillery expressions:
Four Year Old Whisky Comes of Age.

I think this is a great trend. Laphroaig is on top of it with the genius of the Quatercask bottling (a vatting of whiskies 5-9 years of age). These younger, (sometimes) cheaper bottles balance out the trend toward rising prices in general.

But I think it is indicative of several things:

1. whisky is more popular overall, and since the response-time of the industry to trends is considerable (eg, Laphroaig just now released its response to the ca. 1990 popularity of the Macallan 18), having a ready supply of whisky is critical while the whisky boom lasts.
2. more people are more familiar with whisky and whisky appreciation; whereas folks used to judge a whisky by its age (due to lack of understanding, often), now the informed whisky consumer knows that age is not the determining factor of a whisky’s quality.
3. And yes, more care is being put into younger whiskies than might have been a long time ago (again, see Quatercask, Ardmore Traditional Cask, etc). Wood has been much more carefully considered over the past half-century, enough that distilleries are realizing that just a few years is enough to round out the spirit in the right kind of cask.

I’m a fan, but what about those high-priced, premium young whiskies (the Supernovas, Port Charlottes, and Octomores)? Gimmickry, or simply the high-end of the young-whisky market and worth the cash?

Comment request: your favorite whiskies 9 years old and younger.

Also, stay tuned for a review of some young Laphroaigs later in the week.