Ben Nevis 26 Years Old Cask 2895 56.4% 1974

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Serge Valentin (91)

Many official single casks were rather heavily sherried, so this is a nice opportunity to try one au naturel. Colour: gold. Nose: typical, with a lot of concrete dust, soot, sourdough, beans, coriander, wet sand, leaves, bitter ale, mead, rum, banana skin and apple peelings. This is complex and very austere, beautifully so. With water: superbly dirty-ish, leathery, with similar chalky tones and burnt fruits, coated with some kind of honeyed custard. Great mead! Mouth (neat): both wide and vertical, all on bitter oranges at first, then tobacco, leather and leaves, with that usual salty touch. With water: earth and even more chalk, plaster and concrete, plus small bitter kumquats (always loved in Dutchieland) and something else that’s rather typical, that is to say a kind of beerish sourness. Ale. Finish: rather long, always on some kind of chalky beer. Comments: absolutely characterful and probably a little segmenting, as they say in marketing. We’re in the right segment.

BOW (91)