Littlemill 22yo, 1990/2012, The Whisky Agency, 52.2%
The last post on Littlemill had quite a bit of information on the distillery, none of which bears repeating here, except a reminder that Littlemill’s stills were a little strange: Pot still bottom, rectifying column top, covered with aluminium but copper on in the inside. How does that work? Littlemill stills.
(picture credit – http://www.ewhisky.de)
The distillery was dismantled in 1994 under the ownership of the Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse company, and the site destroyed by fire in 2004, so here we have another closed distillery that will never reopen, but fortunately with plenty of stock left. Indie releases are fairly common and well priced… Will it ever become a collector’s favourite?
**Update: The Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse representative I corresponded with indicated that Littlemill’s old distillery equipment were in such a poor condition, it was sold for scrap.
(Commercial image)
Nose: Diaphanous but enticing. White wood shavings, custard and honey with some peppercorns. Then the fruit arrives with impact- the ripest peaches freshly cut. Quite mouthwatering. Incalzando! Fresh fruitiness turning into a deep mellow mango ripeness. And it’s not one dimensional, the oak and its friends are chattering away all the while. Some more honey and maybe dill at the back of the nose to top it off.
Palette: Light bodied as expected, all gingery with a big and somewhat odd slice of raw bittergourd! Bitter pucker. Getting drier, and then the fragrant mangoes reemerge, though the bitterness remains, Gets drier again to the finish.
Finish: Long, bitter and dry but also a fruity aftertaste.
So smoothly drinkable I did not see the need to add water, though in the end I did and it did lessen the bitterness after all. I’ll take that bitterness as character so it’s a characterful and fruity Littlemill, very enjoyable!
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