Littlemill 25yo Private Cellar Edition – 50.4% abv

Info: The Loch Lomond Group are releasing this 25 year old Littlemill, whisky from a distillery which has long gone, destroyed by fire in 2004 and now mostly demolished. Selected from a mix of 10 American and European oak casks which were then married together and finished in Oloroso sherry casks. 1500 bottles, bottle includes a mini.
Legs: Thick, slow, oily legs.
Colour: Autumnal bold, bright gold.
Nose: Fairly powerful nose, quite high alcohol vapours. Behind the vapours are sweet notes of barley, gentle hints of peat and stewed autumn fruits. There’s a rubbery quality, coming from the sherry influence. After a while there’s a nuttyness that comes out a little.
Palate: Very thick mouth coating oils, easier on the palate than expected from the higher abv and the alcohol nip you get on the nose. It’s a thick, creamy and gentle layered dram with a good pinch of spices all underlined with a smokey nature from some peat that’s been used to dry the barley. The autumn fruit stew is there with a dollop of clotted cream.
Finish: The finish goes on for a really long time, it’s warming and rather sublime with wood tannins coming out easily, not interrupting the dram but instead working for it.
Thoughts: A nicely blended and finished whisky from a long gone distillery. It would be interesting to see what the product was like before being “finished”, did it need improving or has this just given it that extra push towards greatness? Over all the hugely thick creamy nature to this dram makes it a winner. It’s great to see it released at cask strength.
Available: www.lochlomondgroup.com – “available for pre-order and purchase”, however no particular info on price, expect it to be around £2000, at which price I can’t recommend buying it unless you have money to burn.

Thanks to Loch Lomond Group for the sample.