SMWS Cask 7.86 27yo (56.7%): The second 100ml bottle from my SMWS welcome package is from Longmorn Distillery. Longmorn is owned by Chivas Brothers - Pernod Ricard today but the particular cask this bottle is filled from actually was distilled when Seagram of Canada owned Chivas & Glenlivet Group back in September 24th, 1985. It is a 27 years old whisky matured in a refill hogshead bottled at 56.7% abv. In 2012 Longmorn Distillery went through a huge renewal process where they increased their capacity to a whopping 4,500,000 liters and revamped their bottle design and packaging. Longmorn is one of the key ingredients in Chivas Regal 18yo, Royal Salute and Queen Anne. The 16yo expression is the only wide release of the distillery for now but they also have a cask strength version sold in Chivas Brothers' visitor centers. It will be the first review of a Longmorn expression on tire-bouchon. Color: Polished copper, medium amber. Nose: Fruit salad with fresh slices of cantaloupe, pineapple and papaya. Glossy old magazine pages, plum juice and cherry flavored Tootsie Pops. Cheap marzipan filled chocolate and fake leather furniture. Palate: A burst of ground pepper, dusty clay and cardboard. Hard to drink at this abv. It's spicy, not accessible and hot... Water needed right away... A generous amount of water took off the sharp edges of its unpleasantness but still bitter and hot. It's a very flat palate with almost no layers. More cardboard, black pepper and oak staves but not in a pleasant way I have to say. It's thin with overpowering tannins. Adding more water as a last attempt made it fall apart completely. Now it tastes like a very young blend. Finish: Long but mostly with alcohol burn, wet craft paper and black pepper. To be honest you want it end way shorter anyway. Overall: Yeah, I'll be straight forward: It's a let down... Especially if you are tasting a twenty-seven year old whisky you definitely expect much more. Actually the nose was kinda ok but the palate really didn't deliver anything worth to mention. It lacked dimension and depth. Well, this is the case with single cask expressions; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose... I am not a guy who would waste a whisky simply forgetting it in the back corner of my cabinet and I am pretty sure I will find an occasion to kill this wee bottle but probably not in near future...
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