Last week I got an email from Master of malt saying that they are sending over something for me to try, I can only blog about that Friday. something very interesting and unique , so naturally I was looking out for a wee delivery from the whisky fairy. However, you can count on the Israeli mail to fuck up whenever they can, and I was a bit sceptic the sample would arrive on Friday. Well, in an alternate universe I would write, and you know what? It was here on time. But, It really was not. It barely was, but then the Israeli post decided to go on strike, so I ended up getting the package only on Tuesday. Luckily I was not the only one having post office issues, and my good friend Sjoerd was having some issues with DPD which is the Israeli equivalent I guess. We ended up getting the sample a few days after everyone had already posted notes etc, but It was worth the wait. Sharing the misfortune, I figured out why not taste this lovely dram online with Sjoerd (on twitter that is), gladly he accepted and we set to taste that later that day around 2030 CET.
I was really looking forward to that having previously tasted their 30,40 and 50 year old speysiders and loved them, a 60 should be nice if they decided to bottled that. What is über cool about this one is the price. it’s a few pennies short of 1,000 quid, which makes it the cheapest 60 year old single cask bottling out there. If you look at 40 year old dram like the Old Pulteney 40, Highland Park, Balblair 1969 etc, all are quite expensive at around 1000 
quid, and are much younger. So, it’s a good price. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but it is ( I am going to get crucified for writing so I know). So here we were, tweeting like mad (read our feed here) and tasting a piece of heaven.
Master of Malt 60 Year Old Speyside , 42.2% , £999.95
Nose: Ancient wood. Varnish. Pine resin and mint. Hints of tomato. very very gentle,yet woody in a good way without being way too woody given its age. Damp wood. And a very faint hint of sour balsamico and grape pith.
Palate: It starts very creamy with a hint of cinnamon and pepper then Gets violently herbal with lots of tomato / meaty stem sort of green feel to it. Some would say weed but I couldn’t possibly comment on that. 😉 grape pith again, and pepper. Wax.
Finish: Hugely vegetal. Those tomato stems or whatever you imagine they are… Gentle whiffs of oak, vanilla and chocolate powder.
Bottom line:
Now this is one tasty and complex dram. Surprisingly gentle, with not as much old wood (or any wood) you can expect from a 60 year old whisky. What a cask! and very different from what I had expected. so very much so, yet an experience I will savour.
Score: 94/100
Many thanks to the chaps at Master of Malt who thought of me, and sent me a sample. You rock guys. thankful.
Available at Master of Malt (where else?!) for just under £1,000
I had good fun tasting it with you! It’s a solid dram indeed. The finesse is stunning. I had the weed on the finish, and that was the only bit in which one flavour trumped all the others. Other than that, absolutely massive, this one.
I love how one person writes “pine resin, herbal” and the other writes “weed.” guess which one lives in NL 😉
I wrote weed too in the palate 😉