Old Pulteney 25

An early day that popped up out of nowhere allowed me to drop by 1855 Bottle Shop's Wine and Whisky Week at Suntec, and boy am I glad I went. Most of the offers were for fairly standard stuff - you've got the usual Diageo entry range, Balvenie and Glenfiddich from William Grant and Sons, Suntory trying to pass off non-aged Hibiki as worthy successors, and so on. LMDW was there this year too, and boy was I glad they were.

For sampling was the usual Amruts and Kavalans. And, by sheer luck, Khai was on duty, saw me, offered to let me try anything I wanted, paused, then said, "But you've already tried everything on display, right?" Which is true. And I need to repent for the amount of time I've spent in the lovely bar that La Maison has. Tongue-in-cheek, I pointed to the bottle of Old Pulteney 1983 vintage (RP: about $900) and said that I've not tried that one. That one was, unfortunately, not open for sampling, but there was the Old Pulteney 25, if I did not mind the plastic cup that he had to use for the event...

Old Pulteney 25 (abv 46%)

Colour - Beautiful. Deep golden with a teak-ish hue.

Nose - plastic cup probably interfered a little, but this is eff-ing beautiful. My gosh. The sheer richness and balance is the best I've nosed since the 50 year old grain at Whisky Live two years ago. There's a very sprightly fruity touch. Grapes, raisins, some prunes, and maybe half a banana. But behind that. A dollop of cream, baked bread, slightly salty notes, very classy notes that remind me of a French Oak single cask Chichibu, lots of honey. A little more time, and the spices come out. This is from a newly opened bottle (I did ask if he was sure this was for sampling). Bloody hell.

Palate - Raisins and grapes come back. That must have been a really active sherry second maturation. Same as the nose, the sherry influence is but an added flourish on a very excellent whisky from the first 22 years of bourbon oak. Vanilla more present on the palate (I blame the plastic cups for the lack of vanilla on the nose), butter and milk cream, which goes very well with the viscosity. Really nice when what you taste matches the texture. Spices here, more of that classy wood notes I associate with French oak. Very fruity still, on lychees, I think. There's a light peat on this, which I didn't detect on the nose. A little bit of salt and eucalyptus oil. This is one beautifully aged whisky.

Finish - gets spicy and then drying, feels like an over-steeped fruit tea, due to the strong fruity elements. But there's a hit of peat too...so...fruity lapsang. Like my colleague DDW mixes in the office by putting a lychee teabag and a lapsang teabag into the same pot. This Old Pulteney works better, buddy. You might want to age your tea for 25 years.

Overall - I think $580 might be worth the money for this, if you have bottomless cash. But I don't, so not getting this on balance. But if money isn't a problem, buy 2 of this. One to drink, and another to drink later.