Port Dundas 20 year old 1990
Review by Port Dundas
- Colour
Deep polished chestnut. Fine beading.
- Nose
Mild, drying nose-feel.Vinous, with traces of cherry (kirsch-filled dark chocolates), well-worn leather and pencil shavings. Opens slowly, revealing woody, spicy aromas (black tea, molasses, dates and linseed oil) then delicate sweet notes of ripe banana, chocolate and vanilla cream. Finally turns fresh, resinous, herbal. Beautifully coherent with water, which lifts the wood-notes (fresh-cut sappy pine), until it becomes the inside of an old school desk (and all its contents) fusing with vanilla ice cream.
- Palate
Initially languorous; varnish, linseed oil. A smooth, rich texture and a sweet taste, growing into a compelling, layered, waxy, nuttiness (brazils, walnuts). Poppy-seed? Silky smooth with water and altogether more rounded; the texture smooth, the taste sweet. The wood cuts through; sandalwood (pencil box), white pepper and hints of vanilla.
- Finish
Glorious, lingering and complex. Simultaneously drying yet coating, with notes of liquorice, aniseed and burnt sugar and oak-wood in the aftertaste. With water: beautifully smooth, long and rounded, with velvety tannins.
- Note
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Rich, dense and seemingly impenetrable: an unusual and hugely challenging whisky whose very elegant complexities are only fully revealed by adding water. Like a fine, aged rum dancing with an elegant, oily Riesling.