Tasting Old Pulteney ‘Row to the Pole’ edition

Today We will be tasting a new Old Pulteney expression : “Row to the pole” edition. this bottling is commemorating the first ever successful row to the magnetic North Pole. Old Pulteney Row to the Pole took place earlier this year and the crew as well as all involved are celebrating this extraordinary achievement tonight (19 Oct) at a homecoming event in London.

more information about this whisky:

• It’s a special, one-off commemorative bottling of Old Pulteney created by master blender Stuart Harvey especially for this occasion
• The whisky is presented in OP’s new 35cl bottles and wrapped in sail canvas
• There is no age statement on the bottle, whiskies used in this expression range from youngish to mature to offer complexity and balance.
• Whisky comes from ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks .
• Only 3,000 bottles are available worldwide .
• 40% ABV
• £19.99 RRP

My Tasting notes:

Old Pulteney ‘Row to the pole’ , 40% ABV, NAS, £19.99 (for 375 ml bottle)

Nose: Starts off briny , with some salty seaspray, kippers, fresh cut grass and hay, in addition to fruity notes of apple, and some pear drops. Surf and turf. lovely. No smoke, if you are looking for. (not that i could detect).

Palate: Starts spicy, then creamy stuff, malty, chocolate continuation , rather sweet. apples dipped in cinnamony spicy liquor, chocolate powder , sherry influence here is quite noticeable and that’s a very good thing, it does it good.

Finish : Sweet wood, with a lot of cocoa poweder, and sweet notes, with a gentle memory of sea spray and casks drenched in sea water.

Bottom line:

All in all a great dram. distillery srtle with a twist of sherry. Officialy it’s a NAS and the youngest whisky is around 8 yo, but it has some older whiskies, which make it rounded, and the use of a lot of sherry first fills is noticeable. Great wintery whisky, and very enjoyable. I’d sure love a wee bottle of this in my bar.

Score: 87/100

many thanks to Lukasz and the OP gang for letting us join this celebration and taste this lovely dram.

Slainte!