I tasted this excellent expression at the Whisky Show in London, but didn’t get to take down my tasting notes for it. Happily, it featured in the VIP lounge at Whisky Live Tel Aviv 2015, and this time I got the notes.
I like Old Pulteney whiskys, although I have not yet tasted their whole NAS travel retail range, and have reviewed the core range (you’ll find the 12, 17, and 21 by clicking each number) and liked each of them, with a special liking for the 17 year old.
Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jhele/4649877869/
The idea here is simple, Old Pulteney new make matured in a peated cask. Now you say “OK, this was done before” thinking, of course, of the somewhat strange Balvenie 17 year old Peated Cask which came out in 2010. Then you look at the Old Pulteney bottle and do the math….
Anyway, Old Pulteney took ex bourbon and ex sherry casks which held peated whisky (this is 1990, so they came from without the Inver-House group, which now has casks from the AnCnoc peated whiskys), with at least one of these casks also making its way to Balblair (later to become the 1990 Islay Cask 1466 single cask release), and released a 900 case (8100 bottle, assuming they’re 9 bottle cases) Limited edition of this outstanding whisky.
Photo Credit: masterofmalt.com
Old Pulteney Limited Edition 1990 Vintage (46% ABV, NCF)
Appearance: Light gold with thick and rather quick legs.
Nose: Totally Old Pulteney with heather, honey, salt, light peat but just a bit of it and the nose gets sweeter with time.
Palate: Honey, more peat here than on the nose, pepper and salt with some fizz on the tongue. Excellent mouth feel.
Linger: Leaves an peaty tang, and the finish is salty, sweet and peated. The linger is very long and enjoyable dissipating into the signature saltiness.
Conclusion
Good stuff, really good stuff. While this is by no means a peated whisky, the peated cask adds a nice smoky dimension to the already excellent 23 year old spirit. This is an excellent, well crafted expression.