Balblair 40yo 1965/2007 (47.7%, Speciality Drinks Ltd - The Whisky Exchange) 




A brand new bottling by our friends in London, with a different packaging.
Colour: amber.
Nose: really a carpenter’s workshop! Lots of cellulose varnish, freshly sawn oak but also old furniture, antiques… Also lots of vanilla, cloves, nutmeg, roasted nuts. The oakiness is very heavy but also extremely pleasant. This one could be mistaken for a very old and very good rum when nosed blind I think. Keeps developing on crystallised oranges and heather honey, then ripe melon and peaches as well as bananas flambéed. Gets more and more ‘old-Balblairish’ with time. Quite superb I must say.
Mouth: we’re closer to the famous 38yo OB now, with the fruitiness striking right from the start and holding out on the heavy woodiness. Very ripe melons again, bananas, apricots… Orange zests, pecan pie, coffee beans… Very good even if maybe a little less complex than on the nose. Still very nervous at such old age, in any case.
Finish: long, quite hot and almost young, with the wood, the spices and the fruits mingling quite beautifully. A rather rougher version of the famous 38yo OB I’d say, still a beautiful old whisky. 90 points.
[These tasting notes are reproduced from Serge's site]