Review #123: Longmorn 26yr bottled 2013, Cadenhead Small Batch, 49.5%, Bourbon Hogsheads, 402 bottles

this one's a little pricey

It wasn't too long ago that there were a lot of (good) 1992 Longmorns running around for cheap; now the going rate on late-80's Speyside whisky is almost $200. (And the Longmorn OB is both expensive and dull.) Oh well. This is from Cadenhead's "Small Batch" line, in which "Cadenhead" receives no apostrophe; it is probably from a couple of bourbon hogsheads distilled in 1987, but nothing on the label gives that away. The label does call the distillery "Longmorn-Glenlivet," probably because that's what it said on the barrels. It's a little reminder of how recently "Glenlivet" practically meant "Speyside" and everyone used it in their distillery name.

Nose: very juicy fruit: cider apples and pears yes, but also maybe some strawberries. Plus some straw and crushed leaves. Lots of malt. There's still a little sharp herbaceousness, but at the same time some ultra-mature flowers and candy (both the fruit-drop kind and the buttery kind) and perfume -- very nice together.

Palate: again the herbaceousness, but then a blast of apples and a couple greengages, some buttery toffee and some drying oak. This strikes me as about what I'd expect from Longmorn. Compared to the nose, this was a little pedestrian, but the dryness gives it a nice body.

Finish: long but not terribly distinct: oaky and slightly peppery on top of the apples and the toffee.


Extraordinary nose, and then turns back into a typical Longmorn. Typical Longmorn is still pretty good.


score: 88

Review #7: Longmorn 19yr 1992/2011, CWC, 52.7%, cask # 71734, 298 bottles, ex-bourbon hoggie

did they take the bourbon out first?

well, they must have, since it's a hogshead and thus, I assume, a re-built cask. but you wouldn't know by tasting it.

it's very good -- that's the first thing to say. but the nose is toffee (or TOFFEE!) with some creaminess and a little whiff of, yes, corn. some soapiness appears initially, but blows off.

when I first opened the bottle, the toffee was so intense that I couldn't taste anything else. since then it's settled down a bit and more flavors have come out: flambe' banana, green banana, raw grain, butterscotch, apple peelings, lanolin, some grassiness. the corn is faint but still there. (I'm not sure which I like better -- toffee, vanilla toffee, and more toffee, or the fruitier and grassier version.) The toffee is cut by fairly sharp pepper and oak spices (cinnamon) and bitter tannin at the end. Vanilla, toffee, and juicy apples on the finish.

the other thing to say about this is that it's from the 1992 vintage (or whatever one calls the year of distillation), which, like the older 15yr bottling (or the 30), is universally beloved. but one never hears about more recent vintages (or the newer 16yr bottling) -- one might worry whether this has something to do with switching to indirect heating in '94, in which case we won't hear much from Longmorn any more. Either that, or there was just a really big batch of '92 lying around to pick through.

score: 85


update: people seem to like this 1996, so never mind. there must be some other reason why the 16yr seems to suck.