A WAX ADHERING TO WOOD – Score: 3.5/10
This new release from Thompson Brothers presents us, on this occasion, with an eleven-year-old Longmorn, distilled in 2011 and bottled at 53.5% ABV.
Longmorn is a distillery little known to the general public, yet endowed with a most remarkable history. Founded in 1894 on the ruins of an ancient church, it also served as an early inspiration to Masataka Taketsuru, who worked there briefly before returning to Japan to establish what would later become the Nikka group.
This is therefore no ordinary distillery, but rather a genuine fragment of Scottish (and Japanese) history that we are encountering this evening.
Unfortunately, this bottling is unlikely—at least, one hopes—not to represent the finest expression of what the distillery is capable of offering.
This bourbon-cask-matured spirit is dominated by vanilla-laden cereal notes, while its waxy, woody finish leaves behind a pronounced and persistent bitterness.
A whisky that feels far too unbalanced, unless one happens to be particularly fond of quinine-like bitterness.
