Mosstowie Artist #2 35yo 1973/2012 54,3%

Mosstowie is one of those “distillery within a distillery” experiments. Produced at Miltonduff between 1964 and 1981 using Lomond stills, it was originally designed to broaden the flavour palette for blends such as Ballantine’s under Hiram Walker’s ownership. The project was eventually abandoned, and Mosstowie was never officially released as a single malt, making these whiskies both rare and highly sought after.

This particular bottling is a single cask (#7621), distilled in 1973 and bottled in 2012 after 35 years of ageing in a sherry butt. It comes from La Maison du Whisky’s Artist series: natural strength, no chill filtration, no colouring, and a limited release of 562 bottles.

Colour: Dark amber, gold lights. Irregular heavy tears.

Nose: Generous jammy notes at first: quince and orange zest marmalade. Mint gum in the background. Delicate pastry notes. Herbal and tea-ish mix, with fermented sides reminiscent of pu-erh. Clean fruitiness combined with the noble tea-like rancio of a 60yo GC. Lovely. Clove and fresh cardamom with air. Grassy notes, a bit like Highland Park.

Palate: Oily texture. Waxy, then incredibly acidulous, with intense cherry sweet notes. Light and opulent at the same time. Minty and herbal again, echoing the nose. Capovilla-like apricot eau-de-vie.

Last Notes: Heady dry floral notes lifted by a refined touch of saffron. Yeasty aromas of fresh bread dough and sesame seeds. Opulent plum notes, almost umeshu-like. Lavender and dandelion. Back on the palate, a perfect malt patina, blending wax, oxidation and nutty tones. Finish on hazelnut cream.

Beautiful rare malt. I definitely love this fragile profile with an “intellectual” nose (91). I miss a deeper palate (88+) to score it higher.

My very subjective note: 89+/100

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