Longmorn 10 Year Old "Hart Brothers Finest Collection" K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Sherry Butt Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml)

We rarely get to bottle Longmorn these days. While the world loves to talk about single malt, the fact is blends are still king and Longmorn has been prized for over 100 years as a top not ingredient to add the stuffing to famous blends from VAT 69 to Dewar's and Chivas. In fact due to its quality, Longmorn was one of the distilleries Nikka's Masataka Taketsuru did a stint at in his legendary visit to Scotland. For years you could find Longmorn's without looking too had at the independent bottling market, but it seems less and less is available today, certainly at reasonable prices. Official bottlings are hardly to be found although they do exist. Fortunately for us, the Hart Brothers were able to come up with a first filled sherry butt of 10 year old Longmorn that checked all of our boxes. Bottled just shy of 11 years and with a beautiful golden amber hue, this famous malt offers a bushel of stone fruits and a full peck of apples, both fresh and baked. The slightest rancio notes sit behind all that fruit provided from a quality sherry butt. While not a bomb or wildly dark, it is listed as a first fill butt, and frankly, it's perfectly matched to the medium body of Longmorn's profile. A warm and soft waxy character runs throughout giving this a lovely texture and confirming the distillery's critical role in the blending world. At 56% ABV it's no slouch. With a little water so much oil comes out that it almost louches like absinthe. The palate gets sweeter and the texture is elegant and silky. The finish shows a dry tannin like the best red wines yet doesn't lose that beautiful fruit from the first nosing. It's a splendid cask and a screaming deal in the burning hot whisky market.

I love Longmorn and I'm always surprised how difficult it is to get. I guess Chivas is aware of how dang good this stuff is and you just can't make that much blended scotch with out the stuffing from these gems. So anyway, we jumped on the chance to own a cask of Longmorn and we're all the more excited to see it was aged in sherry. Now this sherry cask isn't very dark, but my god it has a ton of character - indeed color and character are not always correlated. The color is pale gold. This one pops immediately with a huge apple orchard fruit character. It's so pungent it can't only be the fruit of the malt at this age, but that gorgeous high quality sherry coming through. After that we get a big vanilla bean, wild honey, candied citrus peel, honeydew and a bit of candle wax. On the pallet, it's very rich and oily. More apricot and honey, but also now some earthy malt and hints of fragrant heather. With water the nose becomes darker and maltier, which is very unusual and welcome. A bit more sherry funk comes out as well, losing its absolutely pristine nose in favor of even more intensity. The palate is down right thick now, a strange trick of water and whisky, where by the perceived density increases despite the obvious physical fact that you've diluted the product. Absolutely unparalleled vibrancy adds to the picture with countless fruit and botanical aromas flowing freely now. This is nearly the perfect Speysider for me. It exemplifies the dichotomy of elegance and complexity that the regions best malts exhibit. There's not a better $70 malt on the market today in my humble estimation. For those who want elegance and depth over power and punch, this is the real deal.

A wonderful sherry aged single malt. The nose is subtle with malt overtones. In the mouth it is rich, round and mouth coating. With a splash of water it really opens up. The nose shows delicate sweet notes. In the mouth it becomes lighter but more complex.

Longmorn... A special place in my heart. One of the more complex speysides out there. This 10 year has some beautiful pepper on it, all tied up neatly with a butterscotch bow. Right, let's not forget the cask influence. The body of this whiskey is big and lush. There's some texture complexity to this whisky as well, its not to sharp but just assertive enough to demand your attention and respect -- a good dram from a good producer.