This was purchased for a friend as a Christmas gift, it was given to them in late April and then (among another 2 gifts) was forgotten here. So having taken some initial notes the night before, and a follow-up glass we bring you something unique. However much like that bent fork in your silverware drawer that you hate but won’t throw out, there are some downsides.
We could blather on with what’s gone wrong here, but it’s easy, to sum up. This is a whiskey by a smaller distillery that ages their product for 10 years in sherry casks and should only be used in someone else’s blends.
What they Say: “” As a Gordon & MacPhail selection, there’s not anything about the Miltonduff itself and therefore no real text.
Taste: 7.0 – A bit of woody peat, a bit of fruit, overall what should be a delicious but light Speyside. It’s very nice.
Aftertaste: 2.5 – What started as a nicer Speyside is gone. Dead. Buried and then disappeared. The sherry has arrived and despite some muted sweetness it’s very much all you can think about it, and as such, that original taste dies a true death having been forgotten. Thankfully that sweetness carries the sherry and lingers as well.
Burn/Smooth: 3.5 – There is some burn, but that sweetness helps it out there. What it fails to do is deny that this is by no means a smooth sipper.
Aroma: 7.5 – There’s a nice amount of woody flavor here that balances out the clearly present sherry casking. It does so in a way that makes you hope the sherry casking hasn’t rum rampant here.
Honesty: 5.0 – While Gordon and MacPhail have much to say about – themselves, they do leave any comments about this whiskey to themselves, and fail to pass along any parting words. As well by nature of the breed, there is no room for design or uniqueness as any distillery that’s smaller and under this banner is nearly the same. As such we have to go with a straight 5 because it’s a true average – nothing ventured, nothing gained, but also – nothing lost.
Mixability: 5.0
W/ Rocks: 5.0 – It blends that sherry into the rest of the scotch, which is overall not ideal in some ways, but it does manage to cut some of the bluntness. It’s a rare case where the sum of the parts is marginally better than both tastes alone.
Value: 2.0 – This was bought for a bit less than that, but still that’s wildly out of the right price range. It’s smaller batch – sure, so small they don’t even produce themselves. But that cost should be managed for that exact reason, and there’s no getting away from who would want to buy a 10 year that’s spent its life in a Sherry cask. No this belongs as just another whiskey for a blender, not a buyer.
Google Shop Average: $46
Website: https://www.gordonandmacphail.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 4.0
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Metric Score: 32.5/70 |+| Metric Average: 4.64 |+| Reviewer Average: 4.0
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Final Thoughts: While this might be a gift (and still in the lounge waiting for its owner), it is not a gift to the world of scotch at large as an individual. We understand the reasons for sherry casking, and when combined well in other words the effect can be made from lackluster to astounding. We appreciated Gordon and MacPhail for their mission of bringing smaller distilleries to the world at large, but like any niche local brew you can find awfulness, perfection, and everything in between.
