St. Magdalene 23 yo 1982 / 2006, Douglas Laing, OMC
Only the second ever St. Magdalene on Whiskyrific (can’t say I have had many more IRL either)
St. Magdalene is a closed distillery, both this and the Chieftains were distilled in 1982, a year before its closure.
By the way this is proof lowlanders are not always triple distilled – It is known that St. Magdalene was double distilled prior to its closure. Though we are not sure because the distillery did have 5 stills once, before being reduced to 4 then down to 2 at some point. This might have contributed to its character being quite unlike triple distilled lowlanders, indeed many regard St. Magdalene as, I paraphrase, ‘a highlander in lowlander’s clothes’.
St. Magdalene 23 yo 1982 / 2006, Douglas Laing, Old Malt Cask, refill hogshead 2918, 50%, 331 bottles
Nose: Salted butter and fresh pencil shavings. Rosy apple candies and white pepper. And very thickly mineral, like wet chalk and soot being ground together with Singer oil in a granite pestle. In this, drawing some parallels with the Chieftains St. Magdalene in my collection. Very austere and old school. Absolutely beautiful. Elegant but aloof. Ok more salt and flints, and faded paper flowers. There is a tension in the nose that gives it cohesion. Wilted greens. With water: no change.
Palette: Juicy malt, distinct raw white fruit – unripe peach? Petrol fumes and pencil lead. Sparkling prickly pepper. Then soothed by subtle sweet fruit notes and spice. Cranberry juice and peach stones. A case where the nose outshines the mouth, though the palette here is not weak, the nose is just better.
Finish: Long, sour juice aftertaste, sting on the tongue. Minerals.
Almost. If the palette was a little more ‘forward’, but the nose is the star here. Still, makes me sad to think of what St. Magdalene could have been.
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