Aroma: This is a sweet, pudding of a whisky on the nose. At first, there is a sweet, salted caramel note, which is delicate and gentle. There are also buttery pastry notes, which combine with stewed apples esters with and warm cinnamon flavours.
Taste: On the palate, those desert aromas carry on through to the palate. Initially there is a mix of crisp apple sweetness and a spicy floral heathery honey. There is a creamy, berry fruit that arrives as the dram warms.
The middle of this dram is full of robust black pepper heat, more sweet berry fruit and salty maritime notes.
Then finally there is a rich oak wood, a buttery saltiness and finally a warming, spicy heat. As the dram warms here there is also a gingery, golden syrup flavour that comes through.
Appearance: A golden brown colour.
Real Dram Factor: This review has sat for a long time in the No Mans Land that is The Real Dram notebook, collecting dust since the Old Pulteney re-brand which happened in August of last year. I was personally a huge fan of the 17 Year Old that this whisky seems to have replaced (on a budget scale at least). It isn’t quite in the same league, but it is still very good. There are maritime type salinity notes, spiciness and general fruity sweetness, which make it a layered treat of a whisky that develops in the glass over a longer time drinking. For those reasons, it feels on fair to award it a 7.0
You Will Like This If… you are a fan of those maritime flavours of the sea, but not the power of peat.
ABV: 46%
Price: £60-70
Source: It was a sample from a fellow blogger, but for the life of me I can’t find who, so massive apologies to them! (Let me know and I will add you in here!)
More Information: https://www.oldpulteney.com/whiskies/181-15-years-old-single-malt-scotch-whisky
Buy Online: Master of Malt or Whisky Exchange