Rosebank 25yo (2007)
Some time ago I ordered some samples from Sjoerd, and mentioned to him that I had never tasted a Rosebank before. So what does he do? He includes two samples of Rosebank 🙂 I already reviewed the first one here. That one wasn’t completely to my liking, but he also sent me a sample of the 25 year old, an official bottling from 2007. And this one turned out to be pretty great!
Rosebank 25yo (61,4%, OB, 4710 bts.)
Nose: Very dusty at first, with damp wood, wet leafs and mushrooms. Also almonds. Next up we get the more classic Lowland-grassy notes with straw and hay. All of this goes accompanied by a nice hint of smoke.
Taste: Zesty and salty with subtle peat smoke. Also white pepper. The palate is fairly dry and spicy with lemon and orange and plenty of grassy aspects. A pretty smooth whisky in spite of its extreme percentage of alcohol.
Finish: Vanilla, pepper, pineapple and subtle peat. Very long.
Rating: 91
A very, very good Rosebank. One that reminds me of this superb St. Magdalene. I rate it one point lower because this Rosebank has less fruit, but good heavens, this is great stuff. If you want to read more about this Rosebank, be sure to visit Sjoerd’s blog Maltfascination. He has a series of blogs covering this bottling, here (in Dutch), here and here.
Thijs is a spirits writer and accredited liquorist from The Netherlands. He runs the blog Words of Whisky and contributes to a number of Dutch and international publications.
Shame it’s gotten so expensive, and shame that the last scraps of Rosebank from the early nineties are only so-so. Another distillery of which the glory days are over, I think.
And yeah, it’s an awesome dram.