(UPDATE: As was pointed out to me in the comments. This is a Speyside. I have no idea why I thought it was Highland. The bottle should have been a give away. Let’s just pretend I was doing some clever dada anti-art piece and be done with it)
Connoisseurs Choice: Aultmore 1995 (Scottish Speyside Single Malt Whisky: 12 Years: 43% ABV)
Visual: Pale grain.
Viscosity: Quite fast medium thickness streaks.
Nose: Pencil shavings. Alcohol. Heather. Water adds rice cakes.
Body: Lime and kiwi. Toffee. Tangerine. Soft custard. Lightly oily. Water smoothes but keeps the same general character for the most part. Adds apples, nut oils and nut chocolate.
Finish: Malt chocolate. Orange and tangerine. Nut oils. Water makes more sharp orange, but generally similar.
Conclusion: This seems to be the first Highland whisky I could have mistaken for a Speyside. To my memory at least. While it has that robust sweetness I see a lot in Highland whisky, I was more drawn towards the fruity notes that seemed at the forefront. If this had been a Speyside whisky I would have called it prototypical for the area, as it is, I’m now just puzzled.
It’s all in the main body, as the aroma did little to amuse me – the main body however, especially with water, though that is not required – is rock solid.
There is a soft but solid toffee backing, and a mix of soft green and fresh orange fruit all tied up in a nut oil bow. It’s hardly pushing the envelope, but it is a letter sent straight to “get the job done street”.
This is, therefore, the job done, not a masterpiece, but, ya know, done. Admittedly it seems like Speyside rather than Highland job, but if the job is done I don’t complain.
My metaphors may be getting a tad hard to follow again…
All in all a solid dram, and one that will win your enjoyment, but not awards.
Background: Yay for tiny bottles, yay for Connoisseurs Choice. Or in other words, more exploring distilleries I haven’t tried before. The 12 year age is based on some googling, which indicates it was bottled 2007, as the miniatures don’t tend to list bottling dates. This was picked up from the Whisky Exchange as part of a batch of miniatures for sampling new distilleries. Drunk while listening to the History Of Guns’ EP Disconnect.
Alcohol And Aphorisms 
We just tried the Aultmore 2000 – also part of Gordon & MacPhail’s Connoisseurs Choice… however I thought this was a Speyside. Though wiki has it listed as ‘Highland’ on the distillery page, its under ‘Speyside’ in the distillery region listings. That’s also how Gordon & MacPhail has it – including on the pic of the bottle you sampled here! 😉 Personally we quite enjoyed the 2000… lovely how the palate fulfilled the promise of the nose.
Ach, so it does. I’m not quite sure why the hell I thought it was a Highland whisky. I may have been very tired when I did the write up. Thanks for the heads up. I’ll correct it.
Glad you didn’t think I was a presumptuous upstart or stuffy snob. 😉 The 2000 from Gordon & MacPhail is worth slowing down and appreciating.
I’ve also briefly sample (aka airport sample) the 12 and 21 year which were better than I had expected.
Oh no, I appreciate the feedback. Better to be corrected than have wrong info out there forever. I’ll keep an eye out for the 2000, see if it turns up anywhere around here.
Ah – that was why I messed up – I looked it up in Michael Jackson’s Malt Whisky Companion and forgot they break regions down into districts so it was listed as Region: Highland – District Speyside (isla). I just wasn’t paying enough attention. Oops. Thanks again.
Hahaha!! Well… goes to show your instincts were correct even if you research skipped the following words. 😉