Inchgower 29 yo 1982/2011 Berry Bros 54.5%
Unknown, unloved and invisible Inchgower. Do we even know where it is? Who drinks this stuff? Lets check googlemaps – what?! Type in Inchgower distillery and it doesn’t even return a location. This distillery doesn’t exist?
And yet there it is, in Buckie not far from the sea, soldiering on without the apparent right to exist:
Who drinks this? Well, all of us do, as a major constituent in Bells or else any of diageo’s blends. In fact 99% of its 2 million annual litres goes into blends. So it’s a blending malt, why? Dave Broom remarks on its big muscular spirit with an intense spiciness that might pass for saltiness. Michael Jackson calls it “intense… with a jasmine-like floral character, underpinned by a resolute saltiness…” So. 2 counts of saltiness for a Speysider 1.8km from the sea.
Besides the fact that the distillery equipment was sourced from Tochineal in 1871, remarkably little else is publicly available on this workhorse, so to its spirit I turn.
(Image – whiskyforum.se)
(Image – whiskybase)
Fat onion shape stills in use here does suggest a heavy spirit was intended.
(Commercial image)
Nose: Sandalwood, musk and old dry lacquered cabinets. An expansive nose that’s remarkably aromatic with an integration wrought by time. But then – fresh cooking oil and potpourri. Getting exotic. Dried purple flowers on the verge of mustiness. Dried lemon slices used for display only. Very strange. With water: No favours done. Heavy florals, a musty bouquet and stale fruit.
Palette: Cooking oil, liquefied dry pinewood, lavender satchets with a touch of mustiness. Getting hotter with a last burst of spice and soap. Strange but can’t fault the integration and presence. With water, with regrets: Hotter and more heavily floral. Patchouli and wilting lily.
Finish: Fairly long with sweetly stale flowers, old dry ginger from the dark recesses of the fridge. Sandalwood.
I will be generous and imagine I did not add any water. Without water: Old style maybe, certainly strange with a bit of grandpa’s house thrown in. With water: Do you like stale perfume?
After-note: I was really surprised by this, as it seems a certain venerable whisky blogger got iodine and medicinal flavours and even loved this so much he gave it a 91! All I get with water are stale flowers!
Whiskyrific RSS
- Millburn 36 yo 1969 / 2005 Douglas Laing #DL2152 50% vs Glenburgie 40 yo 1963 / 2003 Signatory #4751 56.4%
- Ben Nevis 23 yo 1996 / 2019 Single Malts of Scotland for the Nectar #536 51.3% vs A Speyside Distillery 32 yo 1989 / 2022 Thompson Bros 51.4%
- Brora 22 yo 1972 / 1995 Rare Malts 61.1% vs Brora 22 yo 1972 / 1995 Rare Malts 58.7%
- Talimburg 19 yo 1986 / 2005 The Whisky Fair #1485 45.9% vs Talisker 20 yo 1981 / 2002 62%
- Caol Ila 12 yo Bulloch Lade for Zenith 43% vs Caol Ila 30 yo 1979 / 2010 Berry Bros #4604/5 55.6%
- Clynelish 29 yo 1965 Whyte & Whyte 52.1%
- Brora 21 yo 1982 / 2003 Signatory #416 58.4% vs Clynelish 27 yo 1982 / 2009 Synch Eli Daily Dram 46%
- Dornoch 5 yo 2017 / 2023 #46 ‘Jasper Broers’ 57.9% vs Shizuoka ‘private cask’ 2017 / 2022 #2017-108 61%
- Clynelish 26 yo 1993 / 2020 Carn Mor #11215 52.7% vs Bowmore 17 yo 2004 /2021 SMWS 3.327 ‘Siren’s Song’ 57.1%
- Talisker 25 yo ‘Bottle TA25 3987’ 45.8% ~ bottle code L0296CM004 bottled 2020 vs Ledaig 11 yo 2008 / 2019 The Swan Song & 1BRD #700104 58.7%
whiskyrific 