Description
A 28 year old Convalmore whisky. Bottled at cask strength by Diageo under their Special Releases series. Distilled in 1977, it was then aged for 28 years, before being bottled on the 17th August 2005. A run of just 3900 bottles. This is bottle number 3301.
The Convalmore Distillery was opened in 1893-1894. Convalmore was fourth of the “Seven Stills” of Dufftown, built in the late 19th century and later acquired by the blender, James Buchanan. After the merger of Buchanan’s with DCL (now Diageo) in 1925, Convalmore continued to supply blends, and as a result was never officially bottled as a single malt in its own time. The distillery was shut down in 1985, and all equipment was dismantled and removed. While there have been occasional Diageo special releases over the years, its single malt output is mostly limited to some very sought after independent bottlings. The site is now owned by William Grant and the remaining buildings are used to store casks of Glenfiddich and Balvenie.
Colour: Gold.
Nose:
Punchy and powerful, starting very malty and very sweet, on cooked strawberries, cake and buttered caramel, with whiffs of cinnamon and a nice, sweet and sour woodiness. It then gets more herbal, with notes of yellow Chartreuse, Darjeeling tea, American coffee and cocoa.
Taste:
A powerful attack, extremely sweet and quite woody, starting on fruit liqueurs (such as pineapple), Chinese rice spirit, with a ‘sweet-and-sourness’ that gives it something Oriental indeed. Rather tannic, getting a little drying after a while. With water now… (and while the nose gets even fruitier and quite farmy as well…) It’s much more civilized, harmoniously fruity (apricots, peaches and melons, even tropical fruits such as mangos and passion fruits), with notes of freshly crushed mint leaves.
Finish:
The finish is rather long, balanced and enjoyable with water, always very fruity, with a little icing sugar. A malt that needs water to get tamed – or it’ll take no prisoners!
