Old Pulteney makes a rare appearance with a bottling distilled on 18 June 2001. It spent 14 years in an ex-Bourbon barrel before being moved over to a 1st fill ex-wine hogshead for another year of maturation. One of 219 bottles. Deep, Rich & Dried Fruits flavour profile.
Nose: A interesting mix sugars, fruits and nuttiness. From the get go we’re into a fairly sweet start to proceedings with sugar syrup, tinned pears, toffee and caramel. This is supported by some pronounced nuttiness – slightly bitter and tannic – almost like seeds. There are indeed some matured wine aromas in here, and they’re quite sherry-like – sultanas and raisins in particular. Diluting slightly, we get bread pudding and toffee sauce.
Taste: Sweet, bitter, nutty, spiced – quite unusual. Star anise, cardamom, turmeric and saffron make for a heady mix of earthy spice flavours. They’ve joined by sweet wine flavours of chocolate, raisins and a light tobacco. Nuttiness continues with walnuts and hazelnuts and are joined by a slightly charred/roasted note. Water brings out fruitier flavours which favour red berries – it also heightens the tannins, making for a teeth licking experience. And there, finally, some of the salinity that I’d commonly associate with a dram from this Wick-based distillery.
Finish: Medium, quite drying and expressing a lot of earthy musky spice.
My relationship with Old Pulteney goes back nearly 20 years – it was one of my first whisky loves. You might expect a maritime, salt-licked experience as is typical with OP, but what you get here feels much more akin to a middle-eastern spice market. There’s tons of aromatic and pungent spice going on, which I can only presume comes in from the ex-wine finish. It doesn’t feel very Old Pulteney to me, but I found it highly unusual and pretty fascinating all the same.