Saturday, July 21, 2012

Cutty Sark 25yo Old

Cutty Sark was a blend by Berry Bros and Rudd (BBR) in London but in 2010 the brand was acquired by Edrington (With the distillery Glenrothes going from Edrington to BBR)

Cutty Sark bottles a range of ages 12, 15, 18 and special bottlings. The 25yo is their oldest of their regular releases.


Cutty Sark 25yo 45.7%

The first thing I think when I see a dark blend is e150, caramel colouring. This is me being prejudiced. Shame on me. But at the end of the day the whisky will have to speak for itself. And it does. The nose has a distinct sherry part. It's very nice. This actually reminds me of old Macallan with a twist. This sample is probably from before 2010 but BBR and Edrington work tight together. Well logic says it should be Glenrothes :-). The conclusion is that colour and nose/taste is not in disharmony. 

Heavily sherried, more dry than sweet, the context gives me greasy clay associations, probably because there's oilyness and earthy mustiness burried deep inside this dram. Makes me think there could be Caperdonich in this. 

This is a blend for the sherry heads. For sure this should me drunk neat, it's very drinkable and the somewhat extra than needed ABV gives this sufficient oomph to satisfy single malt enthusiasts while the smoothness will make this go down well with the (occasional) blend drinker, where smoothness and drinkability is a key factor. Not everyone is capable or used to drink neat alcohols. 

It's also very nice to drink a heavily sherried product with no or little trace of sulphur. If there is anything in this it might be some latex rubber, but I could be making this up in my head. 

Noone knows whats inside this blend but for me this is signatured Rothes in Speyside as I get associations to Macallan and Caperdonich which is located in or near Rothes. Being a BBR/Glenrothes product just adds to this. The blend itself also have faint similarities to Speyburn 10yo, while I can't see any connections to Glen Grant or Glen Spey, but its not like I have tasted much Glen Spey 

Rating 88

I think I got this sample from Willie JJ. Not sure. But thanks to Willie JJ anyway, he is always generous with whisky :-)

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