Signatory Vintage Collection – Rare Reserve Kinclaith 1969 (35 year old) 53.3%
Cask 301444/ Dist: May 1969 Btl: Oct 2004/ Tasted: Nov 2010
A high toned nose of sherry infused dried fruits with hints of perfumed orange, Turkish delight, butter and a fair amount of vanilla oak. The alcohol provides quite a nose prickle and apart from some lurking honey, there is not much in the way of distillery character (not that I’m well versed with Kinclaiths character!).
Soft, with subtle notes of spicy sherry wood followed by some distillery character (I assume) – rose petals and Turkish delight. It finished a bit hot with the alcohol being rather noticeable, just like the nose. Its maturity is obvious, and the spirit is still alive, but it feels like it has been given the Dr Frankenstein treatment.
With water some dried, old grass appears and the wood impact is lessened. On the palate much the same happens, the spirit is beginning to creak loudly now and the alcohol is far too dominant now. With a price tag close to £650 this will really only be bought by collectors.
I wonder if this was originally aged in a sherry butt before being re-racked into an ex-bourbon cask, as there is far too much ‘youthful’ American oak vanillins for the cask to have been an American oak sherry seasoned cask, and besides back in the late 1960’s I doubt very much that there was widespread use of American sherry casks, but I could be wrong.
Whisky According to Chris Whiskyman 