A few weeks ago the guys at Old Pulteney whisky announced a twitter tasting event featuring their new line of NAS travel retail, all very colourful NAS packaging of whiskies named after light houses in the Scottish highlands around Wick (where OP distillery is located). I was not able to take part in the event as I was vacationing with my family over at the Lake district, UK. Gladly I was able to get samples from Lukasz later on at Maltstock last week. Anyways, the first one i am going to review is Noss Head : Matured in ex-bourbon casks and bottled at 46% ABV, It’s a NAS, so surely this is relatively young, as we’re about to see.
Old Pulteney Noss Head, 46% , NAS , £ 39.99
Nose: Feels rather young. Very young. Needs a bit of time to aerate. Then you get some more wood and lots of sweet barley and cereals. Bit of zest and white pepper.
Palate : Ouch! Feels so hot with pepper and alcohol. 46?! I’d never guess its only 46%. Man! I get some off notes as well as in metallic and other stuff I can’t really pin point. Spirit-y.
Finish : Quite short with pepper, bitter lemon. and some wood.
Although I am a fan of OP, this expression is not something I’d consider getting. It’s way too young and looks like it should have been matured some more in order to make it smoother and less spirit-y. It’s also not cheap as such , and at almost 40 quid, there isn’t any reason to buy this instead of the lovely 12 yo OP which is much cheaper (£23) , and way nicer. Hopefully the other 2 in the series will be better.