Mortlach distillery was officially founded in 1823 and is therefore the first licensed distillery in Dufftown. In the first 100 years of their existence, the distillery changed owners a few times, but since 1923 it has been taken over by John Walker & Sons, which soon became part of DCL (later Diageo). Nowadays the distillery is still owned by Diageo, and it still produces mainly whisky for blends. Although there has also been released a range of single malts in 2014, but that wasn’t a big succes.

Anyway, for today I’m not going to review one of these, but I have a Mortlach 15 year old on the menu. This one was bottled by Gordon & MacPhail. So let’s start right away.

This Mortlach is bottled at 43% ABV.

Mortlach 15 year old tasting notes:

Nose: Although it has a rather light colour, it has quite some sherry influences. Dried fruits, like raisins and plums. A hint of leather. Malty as well. A faint chocolate note, and some mocha in the background. This is followed by some citrus-like notes, mostly oranges. Later also a pinch of nutmeg.

Taste: Quite thin on the palate. Seems to me that it could definitely use some higher ABV. Somewhat pungent. A bit of coffee, and some honey. It’s difficult to define. Mocha, dark chocolate. Fortunately, I still get some dried fruits later.

Finish: The finish is short to mid-long, with some citrus. Coffee and dark roasted coffee beans, which makes it a bit bitter. Also mocha and dark chocolate.

I openend this bottle a few months ago and it feels that the taste has already deteriorated considerably. A pity, because what I remember when opening this bottle was definitely more flavours. Now I can hardly define anything anymore. It looks like the fruitiness has disappeared a little, I had the idea of having this more when the bottle was just open. Unfortunately, but the nose is still pleasant.